Aussie children’s book app developer Wasabi Productions taps ad talent pool for ‘Gorilla Band’
Wasabi Productions, the Australian children’s book app developer founded by former Foster Nunn Loveder creative director Graham Nunn, has once again tapped into the ad industry’s talent pool for its latest app production.
The developer’s 5th title, Gorilla Band, which goes on sale today (Thursday 15th) on the iTunes App Store, features music, including two original songs, scored by award-winning advertising composer Hylton Mowday.
Animation was produced by one of Nunn’s former advertising suppliers, Red Cartel and ex M&C Saatchi digital account director Amy Friedlander, now based in the US, is Wasabi’s marketing director.
Gorilla Band is powered by Unity, which is more commonly a gaming development engine, and it delivers an interactive storytelling experience in a completely three-dimensional world that continues to push the needle on the future of digital publishing.
Page turns are reimagined into camera pans, complete with sweeping changes in perspective as the reader is moved through the story set. A variety of randomized dialogue tracks in distinct voices help build empathy for the characters and keep repeat reading encounters fresh.
Says Nunn: “Unity not only helps us create stunning 3d visuals and highly immersive content, but it’s easy to publish cross-platform, so we’ll also be launching Gorilla Band on the Google Play and Kindle stores very soon.”
The new storybook introduces its 2 – 7 year old audience to the Jungle Music School and comes complete with original animations, a myriad of originally scored instrumental tracks, a full-length dance and an educational studio where readers can learn to identify instruments by sound and name.
Early reviews have been extremely positive, with the respected US children’s app reviewers ‘TeachersWithApps’ saying ‘Gorilla Band by Wasabi is just stunning! Teachers With Apps hasn’t seen kids this excited about a new app in quite some time! And they have every right to be, this app is spectacular – an absolutely adorable storybook with endearing characters.’
Because of the app’s musical content, Wasabi is partnering with American not-for-profit VH1 Save the Music Foundation for the launch period, with ten percent of proceeds from app sales going to benefit the charity’s work in restoring instrumental music education programs in America’s public schools, and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child’s complete education.
4 Comments
LAUNCH DAY SPECIAL!! If you download Gorilla Band today it’s only 99 cents (normally $3.99).
And you thought it was hard making a buck in advertising!
Good work mate, congrats
Nice work Graham
well done, nunnie. keep ’em coming.