GAME TITLEWorking Title: MUSIANSReuel Meditz, CreatorTel: 512-300-5671 Email: reuelmeditz@yahoo.com

MUSIANS TEAM

Reuel MeditzFounder & Creative Director, Music Composer

Charisse Castagnoli Legal Consultant, Business Owner

Silona Bonewald Game Business Advisor

Wes Jenkins Senior Game Designer

Will LocontoAudio Director

David Tenorio Lead Concept Artist

Tess Snider Senior Programmer

Jason Maltzen Programmer & Audio Designer

PROBLEMStandard methods of music education do not work well for many young children because of the rigorous and left-brained approach.

Frequently, music will be discussed in relation to the instrument being learned without any focus being placed on what music and sound actually is and how it affects us .

Along with this predicament in curriculum, schools are cutting their budgets and one of the programs being left out is music.

However, the benefits of musical education are numerous including improved, rhythm, harmony, mathematical relations, memory retention, and pattern recognition.

Young people have been introduced to entertaining music games such as Guitar Hero and Wii Music but these games fall short of achieving a lasting educational affect on players or any creative affect in the right-brain hemisphere.

SOLUTION (MUSIANS)

I have always been interested in the possibility that becoming good at a game could make you great at understanding & creating music. Musians is an exploration of this idea.

Musians provides the beginning step towards giving young learners an initial impression of music by immersing them in an intuitive environment of evolving sounds, colors, and action.  This game world has no obvious connection with standard education and instead focuses on discovery and playing to learn as the natural teacher.

This focus on gradual discovery instead of forced instruction stands to provide an informative foundation in young minds that will potentially redefine any student’s potential to learn music.  Even though it can effect all ages, Musians will begin with the receptive learning ages (4-13 yrs old)

Musians main purpose is to be an open doorway into the fascinating potential of organized sound and a leading hand towards future formal education and more importantly increasingly developed music environments.

MARKET INFORMATION & NUMBERSBy 2011, the worldwide gaming market will be worth $48.9 billion at a compound annual growth rate of 9.1% during the five-year period, with gains slowing every year because of the maturation of the current generation of consoles, according to the report.

However, the compound gains handily exceed the 6.4% advance that PwC foresees for the overall entertainment economy during the period.  

Online and wireless games should see the biggest gains through 2011, as PwC predicts online will expand from an estimated $1.1 billion market last year to $2.7 billion in 2011, and wireless will double from $499 million to $1 billion.

COMPETITIONThese online sites provide interactive music training environments for children with the intention to learn music. However, they are vastly different from Musians because thy present music exclusively in an educational manner. http://www.creatingmusic.com/www.leapfrog.com http://resources.kaboose.com/games/music.htmlhttp://www.fisher-price.com/us/fun/games/musicmixer/default.asp

Music games that offer competition for Musions buyers/players include:Wii Music & future Wii titlesGuitar Hero - 2009 revenue 2B; Market share 55%.Garage Band availability.BLOOM iphone Application

BUSINESS MODELS (5 revenue streams)

1) Traditional product sales of physical software boxes

2) Online sales of game - à la STEAM

3) Merchandising sales - à la Webkinz

4) Advertising model via Qcodes in game, on social sites à la Monster Rancher

5) Social Network monthly membership similar to ClubPenguin

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Create advertisements with link to game download site and free first level game-play on the following sites:

www.ClubPenguin.com (28 million users) www.Poptropica.com (76 million users)www.Neopets.com (54 million users) www.Stardoll.com (34 million users) www.FreeRealms.com (4 million users)www.MoshiMonsters.com (2 million users)  www.kidswirl.com - Facebook for kids www.facebook.com - Purchase Ads www.twitter.com - Posts with personality and consistency of voice from Musions character

Trade Shows: Full Trade Show / Game Convention list:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_game_trade_shows

UNDERLYING MAGIC IN MUSIANSThe concept behind Musians is focused on treating sounds as workable objects that are uniquely color coded and very flexible in their application with each other.

The game's character (Musian) sees all natural objects as sound. During the game he is trapped in a kitchen..here all food represents sound to him and the kitchen recipes serve as guides to produce these sounds into song.  

This premise is important since it brings forth a simplified understanding of key building blocks in music and encourages players, through exciting game play, to eventually form sounds into music.

ENTERTAINMENT WITH SIMILAR ELEMENTS IN DESIGN

LEGO: Building with sound blocks “Play to Learn”

FANTASIA: Visualizing sounds for kids

CHECKERS: Similar jump patterns

TOY STORY: Quirky character similarities

DDR: Similar pattern jumping and beat coordination.

REZ: Individual sounds become a song during game-play

PREVIOUS WORK / STATUS Musians is currently being created as a demo concept to run tests with and display to prospective investors.  

The demo model will help the team formalize main concepts and also deal with any initial audio music programming problems that arise during the process.  

During our short time together as a team, creating these game tests has helped bring to life the core concept and further establish its movement towards becoming an actual game.  The team is united around this core concept and has been thinking progressively about ways to better production value.  

MUSIANS EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS

- Competitive ear training at a young age

- Coordination of eyes, hand movement, ears

- Learn to see sound as color

- Discover intervals between sounds

- Understand how intervals create melodic patterns

- Learn to keep rhythm with sounds

- Discover the meaning of dissonance, melody, harmony

- Intuitive introduction to music theory concepts

- Inspire players to participate in future musical education

COMPANY VISION / FUTURE TITLESCreate broad vision with company that builds game brand in future titles.  

Also describe vision of adding on older age demographics for each title and building on previous titles until you reach WORLD OF MUSIA community based game site.

TIMELINES AND PROJECTIONS

AT THIS POINT IN THE PITCH ppt WE CAN DISPLAY EMOTIONAL ASPECTS AND SLIDES THAT ANSWER OTHER QUESTIONS FORSEEN AFTER PITCH

ALSO INCLUDE GRAPHICS THROUGHOUT!!

INDEPTH DISPLAYS OF 5 BUSINESS REVENUE STREAMS

1) Traditional product sales of physical software boxesTraditional model is expensive as retail shelf space is in high demand.  Only name brands tend to do well here.  e.g. Blizzard, Activision.

2) Online sales of game - STEAMNew mega-site for gaming developers and app stores for mobile devices offer game producers distribution channels.  The distributor takes anywhere from 30-70% of the List price.

STEAM: digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer platform developed by the Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute games and related media online, from small independent developers to larger software houses.

STEAM NUMBERS- In January of 2010, Steam reached over 25 million active user accounts.- Over 1,100 games available to purchase, download, and play from any computer.- Gamasutra recently estimated Steam’s digital distribution market share at 70%.

3) Merchandising sales à la WebkinzSupported by sales of plushy toys.  Generated 100M revenue in the first year of release.

The Webkinz  model:Launched in 2005 by privately held 55 year old toy company Ganz, Webkinz were an instant success.  Combining a physical plushy toy with Qcode access to the Webkinz online world, the brand generated 100 million in revenue the first year.  

By 2007, the Webkinz world had 3.5 million registered users and had surpassed the popular Penguins kids club with 3 million users.  The company has continued to combine physical collectibles (beanie baby style) with an interactive online world where Webkinz owners can interact with the virtual representation of their collectible.  

The toy Qcode is used to access the online world which is supported by product sales not monthly dues.  However, by tying the toys to the virtual environment, Webkinz has created a stickiness to their youth consumer market.  Continual release of specialized, limited edition toys and online world expansion has created a healthy resale market on eBay with toys selling for hundreds of dollars.

4) Advertising model via Qcodes type of game on Facebook similar to Monster Rancher

- don’t know this will try to get data from FB??

5) Social Network membership similar to ClubPenguin

This would focus on monthly membership dues.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE MUSIANS TEAM

Reuel Meditz – Founder / Creative Director / Music ComposerReuel Meditz is an award winning classical pianist, composer, and creator of the Musians game concept.  After studying composition and classical piano performance at Berklee School of Music he set his sights on the film and game industry in Austin to provide unique interactive music adventure games to all ages.  

Reuel is a member of ASCAP, the National Recording Academy, and the Game Audio Network Guild, and the texas GRAMMY chapter.

For music samples and more information please visit:

www.reuelmeditz.com www.musionsgame.comwww.reuelpiano.com

Charisse Castagnoli – Legal Consultant / Business OwnerCharisse Castagnoli is a business advisor to Meditz Productions.  She has over 20 years of experience in software licensing and business development.  Graduating with a computer science degree from UC Berkeley and a JD from the University of Texas, she is a frequent guest speaker on issues of computer security and data privacy.  Charisse is also an adjunct professor of law at John Marshall law school."

For more information visit www.charissec.com

Silona Bonewald – Game Business Advisor

I am a geek.  I created my first database in the late 80′s in dBase 3+ 

I love data.  I love patterns.  There is a reason my religion listing on facebook is semiotics. 

One of the most fulfilling things I do in life is look at patterns. I love to look at structures and figure out what is the base structure that created that pattern.  In nature, I worship its beauty and I am soothed by it.  But unfortunately a bit too often in human constructs I look to balance those basic pieces… as I find much in our society to be out of balance.

Wes Jenkins – Senior Game Designer Wes Jenkins is skilled in Game Design, Character Creation, Storyboarding, and Creative Direction.  Wes has worked in the game industry for over 35yrs with companies including LEGO Products, Mindscape, Critical Mass Interactive, Delaplaine Creative, and projects with Stanford University.  He also has extensive freelance experience with clients including NASA, Zappa, Disney, PBS, ABC, MCA, IBM, and the California Academy of Sciences.

Career Achievements/Awards:

Smithsonian Institution - Award for Innovation

Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences - BestKid Title of the Year

Family PC - Award for Excellence/Top Rated Product of the Year

Children's Educational Software/Discovery School Best Educational Software

Computer Game Developers - Spotlight Award

The Review Zone - Title of the YearInternational EMMA - Title of the Year

Will Loconto – Audio Director With more than 20 years in the recording and video game industries, Will Loconto brings a comprehensive body of knowledge, experience, and creativity to his work. He was lead vocalist/songwriter for T42 (Columbia Records) and spent several years with Information Society (Reprise Records).

In the game industry, Will has served as Audio Director at two companies (ION Storm and Third Law Interactive). He has been a featured lecturer at Southern Methodist University’s Guildhall, the premiere program for game development. Will is a member of NARAS, ASCAP, the International Game Developers Association, and the Game Audio Network Guild.

For more info visit www.willloconto.com

David Tenorio – Lead Concept ArtistDavid is the concept artist for Musians Game and other Meditz Production projects.

Graduating with an art degree from the University of Texas, he has been a practicing artist/illustrator for 5 years. Tenorio works in many fields of art including, story boarding, concept art for novels, commissioned portraits/caricatures, book illustration, and band album art.

Tess Snider – Senior Programmer

Pixelsea Entertainment is a small independent game development and visual effects company in Austin, TX.  The owner, Tess Snider, has been a professional computer programmer for 14 years, having most recently worked in the game development industry for several years.www.pixelsea.biz

Jason Maltzen – Programmer & Audio Designer Jason has been programming video games professionally for 10 years, focusing primarily in server-based games.  Prior to entering the video game industry, he worked on Internet music applications, both for broadcasting music over the Internet and for use by musicians in collaborating on musical composition via Internet.

PROGRAMMERS

Musian (Greg) – What all the fuss is about.

A small sound scavenger who journeys from the sonic world of Musia to earth in search of music. Greg has the ability to see the world in sound and uses this tool in many interesting ways to deal with his challenges on earth.

Oddity - Greg likes eating sounds. Fortunately for him, most sounds on earth are food but there are some unsavory exceptions.

Greg looks forward to playing his game!