While we were in North Carolina testing Lyriko with kids at Ranson Middle School for the Apps for Class Challenge, we took a detour to SEEC (Social Entrepreneurship and Education Consortium), and entered their pitch competition. We won second prize pitching Lyriko at that conference! It’s even more impressive because Masako, who pitched, was the only non-native English speaker competing, and she did great! We also heard lots of interesting talks on the skills a social entrepreneur needs like how to become sustainable and how to teach our experiences to students. Meeting so many entrepreneurs and students passionate about making an impact on social issues energized us so much! Thank you for provide such a great opportunity!

At Mass DiGI’s Game Challenge this weekend, we won a prize for best serious game near release! We’ve been hard at work fixing bugs every day leading up to the conference, so it was a lot of fun to get back out there and show it to a great group of people. We’re grateful for all the feedback and mentoring. People had a great time trying Lyriko at our booth, and we were happy to meet everyone even on such a snowy day! Thank you for supporting Lyriko! Also, a hearty congratulations to the other winners and participants at the Challenge – we saw a bunch of great games and pitches.

Thanks, Renzo Heredia, for the support on your blog and epic fanfare music at the show!

We had an amazing turnout at the Boston FIG (Festival of Indie Games) yesterday. We had a constant stream of players poking and prodding our tablets from 10am to 6pm. When we explained we were working on a learning game, many people seemed to lower their expectations (an unfortunate legacy of the many underwhelming educational games that have come out over the years). But, as soon as they started playing, their eyes lit up. And, they kept playing for an average of about 7 minutes, even with people standing behind them waiting their turns. Either Lyriko only attracts rude people or the combination of a music game with headphones and compelling gameplay sucked them in. About half the people who played signed up to be testers, which we take as a great sign.

Aaaaaaaand…people apparently liked the game enough to vote us both Best Learning Game and Best Audio Design at the Figgies awards!! What more could a musical language app want? As with any game, the development process has been a bit more…involved than we originally hoped. But, we made it! And, we appreciate the support and encouragement of the whole community that much more.

Here’s the full list of winners from this year’s Figgies Awards. Congratulations to our fellow winners!

We’ve been hard at work getting Lyriko ready for release on iOS and Android, and this weekend, we’ll be showing it off at our first conference ever! For all of you in the Boston area, come check us out at the Boston FIG (Festival of Indie Games) this Saturday at MIT’s Johnson Athletic Center. We’ll be exhibiting Lyriko at booth D31 in the digital games showcase. We’ll have 2-3 tablets running Lyriko, so come try it out. Oh, and we’ll also be recruiting for our closed beta, so this is your chance to get involved!