The last 6 months have seen the Bloc team swatting up on the features and functions of vending machines, the inner workings of the school system and the nutritional values of endless foods, with nutritionalists, teachers and and a whole host of other experts. It can only mean one thing… the long awaited, highly-anticipated, and thoroughly awesome sequel to the British Heart Foundation’s Food4Thought online game Yoobot is almost upon us!
Back in 2009, The British Heart Foundation, together with Grey London, approached Bloc with a brief to create a social game for children, that would simultaneously teach them about healthy eating whilst keeping them entertained for months on end. The resulting online game, Yoobot, went on to attract over 2 million registered players, including over 50% of the UK’s 11-13 year olds (our target audience). Yoobot was recommissioned in 2010 and Yoobot 2, ‘Yoobot vs Yoonot’, went on to both receive critical and audience acclaim, picking up a slew of awards and hundreds of thousands of new players in the process.
Earlier this year, the BHF, in preparation for this year’s Food4Thought campaign, pitched out the digital component to multiple agencies, with an open brief to either further develop Yoobot, or take an entirely different, if not complimentary, approach. Bloc took up the challenge and responded with a brand new, online social game concept that we couldn’t be more excited about.
Fortunately BHF shared in our vision and commissioned us to bring the idea to life – and we’re now in the final throws of development before the first Beta players will be able to get their hands on our latest gaming creation.
In late January, a lucky selection of some 30 schools will kick start the Beta trial, introducing their students to the game and competing against one another for a smorgasbord of prizes. All going well, we will then be able to open up registration to the rest of the world in Q2 2012 and the rest of you will finally get the chance to jump in to a whole new world of snack-based learning!
We can’t say too much about the game just yet, but we can say that it will strive to continue the great work of Yoobot, teaching children about healthy-eating in a super-fun, gaming environment. And this year one major component of the game-world will physically manifest itself in the school buildings! But more on that later…
We wish we could share more right now, but rest assured, as soon as we can, we will!
For now, stay tuned, and get ready for some tasty announcements, early next year!
Nom nom…