The New Wave Digital team has completed a class-leading project for Nickelodeon and their new show, “Game Shakers,” sponsored by General Mills’ popular Honey Nut Cheerios. “Game Shakers” focuses on two girls who are newly famed game developers. In this new online experience and website, young viewers are encouraged to learn how to code a video game themselves.
To view the new project, go here: http://www.beeacoder.com
“Bee A Coder” allows children to learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript and put all of that knowledge to use by coding their own game with BuzzBee. There are two courses, beginner – to learn the basics, and an advanced course – to create a game using elements, style sheets and scripts. The project also involves the stars of Nick’s new TV show “Game Shakers,” which debuted earlier this fall. The new comedy series is about a pair of 12-year-old girls who become unlikely gaming moguls when their school project becomes the biggest mobile game of the year. The series was created by Dan Schneider (“iCarly,” “Victorious,” and “Henry Danger”).
According to New Wave Digital’s Executive Creative Director Matt Sample, his team was excited to take on this project. “We’ve had a long and successful relationship with Nickelodeon and Viacom including launching hundreds of games and experiences for them over the years,” he explains. “They rely on us to partner with them on bleeding-edge ideas, and that’s exactly what we did with this exciting new project. This was right up their alley. It is another bold step for Nickelodeon and for General Mills’ Honey Nut Cheerios as a brand.”
Creative Director Jason Chang notes that one of the greatest challenges was to make sure all aspects of the experience were understood by young viewers/users. “Because of the subject, the content was very dense and full of text,” he details. “We worked with an educational copywriter to make sure every step was broken down into easily digestible pieces, so that young kids could understand,” he explains. “We wanted it to be as rewarding a process as possible, so we had positive reinforcement at each stage as well, to keep them motivated and keep them learning. Kids can go anywhere to play a game, but with this experience, they learn something significant.”
New Wave Digital’s Technology Director Paul Sucharski agrees that “Bee A Coder” is the perfect balance of being easy to understand while achieving technical accuracy. “There are several sites/games out there that claim to teach kids how to code, when in reality they only teach logic,” he notes. “Our core concept was to teach kids the true basics of coding and actually have the kids code a game from start to finish.”
The New Wave Digital team worked closely with Nickelodeon’s Creative Advertising Digital Executive Director Justin Kovics to develop scripts for talent and the criteria of each lesson. Sucharski lead the dev team and oversaw the development of the website, www.beacoder.com, which included detailing the specs for the site, guiding site behavior, and driving QA. “The most challenging aspect of this project was taking years of knowledge and experience and distilling/simplifying it into something that can be gone through in an afternoon or two. If we’ve done our job correctly, we’ve inspired tens of thousands of kids to make their own games and possibly make it their profession,” he concludes.
Screenwork Credits
Nickelodeon:
Executive Director, Digital: Justin Kovics
Project Management Director, Digital: Rachael Sklaw
Project Manager: Annie Grandwilliams
New Wave:
Executive Creative Director: Matt Sample
Creative Director: Jason Chang
Technology Director: Paul Sucharski
Digital Producer: Lindsay Galbraith
About New Wave Digital
Part strategist. Part storyteller. Part technologist. New Wave Digital is a Social Engagement Agency.
Whether it’s creating new fans, or making your existing ones buzz, we know how to make an audience interact with your story.
From content to community management, we create shareable games, sites, and stories for entertainment brands — designed specifically for each social platform and device. And, we deliver everything with dazzling results — literally, our metrics reports could have their own premiere. #JustSayin.
