Prankster Planet
Brief
Challenge
Result
The makers of The Electric Company tasked Primal Screen with extending the experience and curriculum of the show. The result, Prankster Planet, spans online, broadcast and print, each enriching the others.
Introduction
Sesame Workshop, the creators and producers of The Electric Company, wanted to give their audience a deeper experience of the show and its curriculum. Prankster Planet is a world that spans online, broadcast and print, each enriching the others. Here, the show's live-action characters embark on learning adventures in a series of 12, two-minute, cartoon mini-episodes. The adventures don't end onscreen — 12 multi-game online "missions" continue episode storylines. Kids can create cartoon avatars of themselves and work with the characters to solve problems just hinted at during the show. Finally, a workbook reinforces the curriculum of the online and broadcast experience, helping to make the learning last.
The Best of All Worlds
Strategy
The Electric Company's curriculum goals and and strong brand legacy are the bedrock of Prankster Planet. We collaborated with Sesame Workshop to discover ways to make the learning integral to the games and mini-episodes — never tacked on. The release schedule was to be aggressive: four new animated episodes air every every week for three weeks. Twelve multi-game "missions" (each unique to an episode) go live the morning the episode airs. Face-to-face meetings in our studio and at Sesame Workshop's facility in New York yielded a plan of attack. With some months of lead time, we would design characters and backgrounds, animate them, and meanwhile, design, devise and code the games.
In the past two seasons, The Electric Company's characters had only taken live-action form. Before we could begin work on the games and animated mini-episodes themselves, we had to design the characters. Our animation staff designed 10 characters (all based on real people) and over a hundred background scenes to bring the episodes and stories to life. Character design and animation took place in Flash to yield 25 minutes of content.
Illustration and Animation
Every year, The Electric Company creates a companion workbook to support the series' curriculum. Sesame Workshop distributes them for free through teachers to include classrooms in the show's educational mission. This year we developed a look that integrated the new cartoon aesthetic with the collage style of years past. We had the advantage of having game, animation and print designers all under one roof. Often we had new illustrations almost as soon as they were requested. This gave us a more custom look and the all important ability to "just try stuff.
Workbook
We worked with Sesame Workshop to build games that are fun, multi-layered and educational. Games and cartoon episodes form a continuous narrative that cycles between linear, broadcast storytelling and immersive, interactive gameplay. For every cartoon episode there is an online "mission" that comprises a sidescroller game along with some mini games. Players create avatars of themselves to help the show's characters. As players successfully complete challenges, they earn handy tools and cool accessories for their avatar.