Home

'bEat Salad' is a game for multiple platforms that engages kids with music creation, with its roots based in the aesthetics and creative processes of Hip Hop culture. The game incorporates a healthy message of eating fruit and vegetables every day, and learning through physical activity.

The game seeks to engage with its target audience (8-11 year olds) in a hip and fun way, through the use of a number of elements drawn from hip-hop culture:

• Poetry, lyric and rhyme as storytelling.
• Sampling aesthetics, where source sounds for music creation are recorded, manipulated and recycled into a new collage of sounds.
• Machine-based 'beatmaking', the use of technology to create music
• Rhythmic movement (Body Percussion) and dance as a means for learning music and musical form

The broader edutainment goal behind the design of the game is the teaching of rhythm and rhythmic movement. Many of the gameplay mechanics revolve around rhythmic exercises that the player must do in order to progress deeper into the game.

The game is integrated with an online community which serves a number of functions:

• kids share their creations with the bEatSalad network and collaborate on each others' work
• submit to a reward based competition where their work becomes part of a regular 'winners' feature
• featured professional acts who create work in the ethos of the game, using the tools and mechanics of the game
• a range of tutorial/how-to videos on how to extend the game as a creative tool

Game

bEat Salad, while it sells itself as a game, is actually a hybrid application that progresses along a continuum from toy to music game to music creation tool. It begins as a toy which progresses to a game which is about learning a language, and that language is then used to interact with the game as a creation tool as the game progresses.

Earlier stages in the game therefore focus on mini-games that teach the bEatSalad 'language'. Examples of these include:

'Banana-Mango Beat Machine' minigames

The core 'sequencing' language that players learn, a range of minigames that assign rhythmic values to pieces of fruit, and a corresponding movement is learnt. This rhythmic values are then assigned to a step sequencer, and players are able to drag-and-drop the fruit with their corresponding rhythms and sounds onto the sequencer.

'SoundCatcher' Sampling minigames

Made for mobile devices and PCs with built-microphones, this part of the game focusses on a simple system of sampling audio from the players' environment, and then tweaking it using a set of controls. This sample then becomes a sound 'object' that can be used in other parts of the game, including the BeatClock sequencer.

'BeatClock' minigames

Another way that the game uses to sequence audio, this time sounds (including 'SoundCatcher' objects) are placed on a clock which counts through a number of beats (e.g. 8) to create a rhythm.

'Rap Story' creation tool

Once players start to create their own compositions/beats, the next step is to create their own spoken-word 'rhymes' that go with the beats, lyrical poetry that is rapped over the beat. This part of the game focusses on a range of tools that help the user to find rhymes for their lyrics, and the means with which to record them over the top of their own beats created in the game.

'Don't tap this-one back' minigames

Players copy rhythms that the game generates with gradually increasing difficulty level, but there is a particular rhythm that cannot be played back! ('don't, tap, this-one, back).

'Fruit Hero' minigames

In a similar vein to guitar hero, each of the rhythms associated with the fruit sounds are placed on a timed grid which must be played back in sequence.

Each game combines several key elements that constantly re-iterate the language of the game:

• using fruit, vegetables and other common objects as a way of counting beats and rhythms.
• using 'sound objects', objects that reference sounds/musical material that is used to create bigger 'collages' of sound objects.
• placing these sound objects into a timed sequence, be it a clock, a drum machine-style step sequencer, or an arrangement of fruit.

Market

bEatSalad as a cross-media brand

The first phase of Beat Salad is a musical game for children, initially targeting kids in the 8-11 year old age range. The game is integrated with an online community for this particular audience, which extends the media content associated with the game.

First Phase

Social Media, bEatSalad Website and 'App Store' marketing, Parents and Teachers online network.

Along with traditional social media marketing, an initial phase of the game's rollout specifically targets music education professionals as well as parents, which the project identifies as crucial 'gatekeepers' for the content that these children are exposed to. We aim to engage these teachers and other interested stakeholders through online social networking, specifically the creation of an online forum and blog for musicians, developers, educators and producers interested in music in the classroom, encouraging an online discourse over the development of the first phase of the project.

Second Phase

Audience building through Children's Television (Web-based and Traditional)

A major second-phase development for the promotion and marketing of the game would be the production of a children's tv show, aimed at an ABC-3 equivalent audience, and to be available on both the web and traditional tv formats. The TV show would be an extension of the bEatSalad philosophy, incorporating several key aspects from the game and its online community:

• Featured creations by the games users: Kids submit their creations to the website, and each week a piece is featured, with its own music video/animation/dance sequence created by the show.
• Featured artists creating music/performances for the show incorporating the creative tools/flow of the game.
• Segments based on elements in the game including sampling everyday sounds, movements and dances that are based on the rhythms of the game

This show would serve multiple purposes in terms of marketing and promoting the bEatSalad brand, as well as seek to create a culture around a deeper appreciation of music (especially Hip Hop and electronic music). Featured, established artists would be drawn to the opportunity to build an audience for their own music.

About

Josh Hogan

Josh Hogan is a Composer, Percussionist and Educator based in Perth, Western Australia, whose music has come to be recognised for its deep sense of style, energy, musicianship and commitment. His creative projects seek to engage a broad cross section of audiences ranging from contemporary, popular and folk music audiences right through to classical and experimental musics. He works as a music educator in both the private and public sectors, with a focus on teaching rhythm and movement as a fun way for kids to get into musicality. As a composer he has created music for the screen, computer gaming and for live performances. As a music producer he has directed, recorded and mixed pop album productions, written and directed for dance, theatre and live music productions.

www.joshhogan.com.au

Simon Boxer

Simon has a Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Design) and 5 years experience as a digital artist and graphic designer in interactive media, TV, and games. A combination of artistic skill, design sensibility and technical competence make Simon a versatile addition to any project. He's done a wide range of concept art and branding for digital media, as well as providing art direction and creative vision. He also exhibits digital paintings and participates in the local art and games scene.

www.simonboxer.com

Nick Lowe

Nick is a skilled Programmer, Artist, and Game Developer. In a previous life, he led a 50+ person team in development of a massively multi-player online soccer game. He now heads Let's Make Games, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the game development community of Perth, Western Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (1st class honours) and has a number of published papers in computer graphics. He is keenly interested in new media and web technology. He has been a fairly consistent blogger for over 6 years, and he has two cats: Bruce and Pete.

nick.onetwenty.orgletsmakegames.org