The first thing GoodGood Sidekick does when you turn it on is stand up and smile. He’s a new kind of game system, one that can walk, talk, and play alongside the whole family, built by YES! Inc.: a small Michigan team that includes a former Pixar director, a Pixar producer, and a Sesame Workshop veteran. While tech often feels more isolating than intelligent, GoodGood Sidekick is built for the physical world, joining the fun and playing each game with you and your family.
“Most of what we’ve collectively been sold over the last decade is technology that pulls families apart. Sidekick is meant to do the opposite — to make something safe that brings everyone together to get up, dance, and move around. Whether it’s a dance party one day, a yoga session the next, or a whodunnit running through the whole house, Sidekick gets the family up and moving in the same room,” Founder Mick Harrison Brege explains.
The team has been building toward this moment for nearly a decade. Brege began researching the technology behind Sidekick in 2017, the same year he first scrawled GoodGood in his notebook. Through the years, GoodGood evolved, becoming a curious astronaut who found himself marooned on a satellite in Earth’s orbit, fascinated by the planet below him. He first appeared in the With Love app, where kids would exchange stories with animated characters and practice social-emotional communication skills. The app was an early step toward Sidekick: a way to develop the technology, character, and story until GoodGood was ready to step out of the screen entirely.
To bring this vision to life, YES! assembled a world-class advisory team with experience across the entertainment and media industry. This includes Oscar-nominated former Pixar director and Clawson native Dan Scanlon (Monsters University, Onward), who grew up in the same town where Brege and the team work. The advisory board also includes notable Pixar producer Galyn Susman, entertainment executive Geneva Wasserman, former Sesame Workshop VP Miles Ludwig, and Dr. Fashina Aladé, Professor at Michigan State University and a leading researcher on young children’s learning from media. With their guidance, the team has given GoodGood a catalog of hand-crafted games, animations, and stories that make family game time more fun.
At every step, the team made deliberate safety choices. Every story, animation, and game was created by humans, with fun, child safety, and empathy skill-building in mind. While AI is used to connect the countless lines of hand-written dialogue when GoodGood talks, nothing else about him is generated. Unlike most new tech, GoodGood also runs completely offline, meaning he operates without an internet connection, so no data ever leaves the home.
Lead Writer Jenna Perkin explains, “in a world designed for humans, our screens feel distinctly un-human. GoodGood Sidekick is designed to bridge that gap, allowing families to turn away from individual screens and play together through physical games and hand-written stories.”
Animation Engineer Cassidy Balciunas, who has brought GoodGood from the screen and into physical form, sees the moment as years in the making. “Our mission has always been about story and character, and the family experiences we can foster from them. The way GoodGood moves, plays, and talks is all built on character, not technology.”
Before Sidekick ships to homes, the team plans to have GoodGood visit hospitals, schools, libraries, and other spaces to start meeting with families and making memories. Like any good sidekick, GoodGood knows that family togetherness is the real story. His job is to play alongside it, never in place of it.
Visit yes.land for more details.
|
|
|
|
|
|
