YAB Interview: Smart Bomb Interactive on National Geographic Animal Jam

Today’s Ypulse Youth Advisory Board interview is with Art Roche, Joi Podgorny and Jennifer Puckett, the brains behind Smart Bomb Interactive—and the team behind the latest virtual world for kids to hit the market, National Geographic’s Animal Jam.

An educational game that benefits from access to National Geographic’s content, Animal Jam allows players to turn into their favorite animals and explore the land of Jamaa—stopping to click on items that contain multi-player games and quick, interactive science and natural history lessons. YAB member Chase Straight sat down with the team to hear the story behind Animal Jam and where it might be headed. (Ed. note: Joi Podgorny is on the advisory board of an online community management company for which Chase works.)

As always, you can communicate directly with any member of the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board by emailing them at youthadvisoryboard at   ypulse.com…or just leave a comment below.

YAB Interview: Smart Bomb Interactive on National Geographic Animal Jam

The first thing I notice from this group is how excited they are—almost kid-like in their discussions of the product. It’s easy to see how their personalities and passions have infiltrated the core of Animal Jam, a world ultimately designed for fun and play.

“Everyone is very passionate about the mission of the game,” says Podgorny, the director of community engagement, when I comment on their near-giddyness. “It’s a love fest.”

“Our first goal was fun and having an immersive world and engaging environment,” says Roche, Smart Bomb’s creative director. “We had access to so much [from National Geographic] so we started with the fun.”

So far, that approach seems to be working: Roche reports that over half of their daily visits are from returning players. It’s true that a large part of what makes the game stand out from other virtual worlds for kids is the richness of information and content provided by National Geographic—the first online property to ever acquire it—which in turn allowed the development team to focus on just creating a fun, open-ended story for players. The result is the world itself is fantastical – filled with beautiful landscapes and colorful animal avatars. “We gave just enough of the story for [players] to use their imagination and build on it,” Roche said.

The community has almost immediately began to see the “guild effect,” with kids forming their own groups within the world. Kids who play as wolves—arguably the most popular avatar thus far—are forming “wolf packs” and holding official meetings. Puckett, the community facilitation manager, says once while playing the game, she was approached by another wolf who asked her to join the pack and come to a meeting. During the meeting, the other wolf declared their first mission was to go out and seek more to join, and the members of the pack left to recruit new friends.

As is necessary for any virtual kids’  game, Animal Jam has a number of features designed to keep players safe.  Along with a team of behind-the-scenes moderators who monitor chat and a healthy offering of parental controls, the virtual community includes “guides”—visible staff in the game’s world who Podgorny likens to camp counselors—to safeguard the action and provide a friendly engaging, presence. “Guides are there to maintain and promote the culture we want them to have,” she said.

The team at Animal Jam says they’re as focused on keeping kids safe and parents comfortable as they are about having fun. Both Podgorny and Puckett have backgrounds working with kids, and said see their involvement with children on the site as part of the “village” of raising a kid. Podgorny says that Animal Jam will be working very closely with parents through social media, e-mail marketing and customer support—creating a level of communication that is just as critical to the brand as anything found in-world.

Podgorny describes the launch of Animal Jam as a “perfect storm,” launched in a market filled with brand new IPs that have no brand recognition,  alongside highly recognizable products that are too tied to a specific brand umbrella. Although the team admits that advertising the world is easy with the backing of National Geographic, and the game has benefited from an excellent PR campaign, they say their hands are not tied creatively—and that is where retention comes from.  “Because this is a new world with an entirely unknown brand, we can do anything we want,”  says Puckett. “We have no big name behind us that says ‘You have to do this.’ It’s all brand new, and everyone wants to do it for the kids.”

It will be exciting to see what the team at Smart Bomb Interactive has in store for the future. Podgorny promises much more content including new avatars,  landscapes and games. Animal Jam is free to play, though the game will be releasing optional paid memberships in September that will grant players lots of extra goodies. And Roche says the possibilities for Animal Jam are almost endless—he sees a creative place that could eventually feature art studios, fan fiction and more.

“We want the players to build out the mythology themselves,” he said. “It’s about laying a foundation the players can run with, it’s their world. If we build them a world they can have fun with and give them playgrounds and sandboxes they can run with, they will keep coming back.”

Keep an eye on Animal Jam as it grows to see what kind of niche it carves out in the virtual worlds market. You can follow the latest on their Twitter account @NGAnimalJam.

About Chase

Chase works for a online community management and moderation company. He recently moved to Dallas, TX and serves as Head of Community for an online virtual world for kids. A former journalism major at the University of Utah, he wrote feature articles and album reviews for a music and art magazine. He is fascinated and constantly amazed with how children create and interact online. Aside from his work, Chase is an avid gamer, blogger, live music lover and audiophile who is obsessed with discovering new music and building his already extensive collection. Oh, and he really likes pandas.  (You can also find him blogging about virtual worlds on his company’s blog at metaversemodsquad.com/blog)