AgedPlus caught up with Eran Thomson, inventor and chief rocker of the music memory game Song Saga.
"In either sense of the word, I'm not a gamer, terrible at video games and the only controls I know is up and down and fire. So coming up with a new game was a step out for me," said Eran Thomson, Chief Rocker at Song Saga.
"If you ask my wife, I have a habit of making everything into a game, even something as mundane as preparing a cup of tea: How far away can you stand and still toss the teabag into the cup?
"Or emptying the dishwasher: How many forks can you grab in one hand in one go?
"Or listening to music."
The idea for Song Saga started at the Thomson house like a game of ‘Who can out-DJ?’ and involved long evenings with Eran and his wife dancing around the house, seeing who could come up with the perfect next song to keep the good times rolling.
Over time Eran added more and more rules, and the game got far too complicated until the only ones who could ever possibly understand how to play it were Eran and his wife. Even though this first attempt was a fail, the idea to gamify music streaming apps stuck.
"We knew that ‘Who can out-DJ’was never going to be a number one hit. However, with the easy accessibility of all this great music, I wondered, was there a simple version of our complicated game that other people might want to play," said Eran.
"While this idea was percolating, we went away for a weekend with friends. So while we were all sitting around sipping wine, my wife asked if she could play a song in memory of her Dad, who had recently passed away. Naturally, we all agreed, and soon we were all singing along to the Beatle's "Here Comes the Sun."
"She told the story of how she and her Dad used to listen to records together in his woodshop. And how they used to crank it up and dance in the sawdust. And how his love of music fostered her own."
Eran followed up that song with Cat Steven's "Father and Son" and shared the memory of listening to this album with his Dad.
"A friend then played a hilarious children's song. He spoke about bath time being some of the best quality time he could recall spending with his Dad," said Eran.
"It was so much fun that we chose a new topic and played again. And again. And again. The whole time discovering new music and new things about each other."
Song Saga is not about winning. It is about connecting. Sharing stories that would otherwise not have been told and listening to music that evokes those memories.
And so the Song Saga game was born. So now, one year later, Song Saga has a global distributor with thousands of games in the market.
Thanks for coming up with a way to keep our memories alive Eran, a great game and also an excellent way for everyone but especially those in retirement or with memory issues to share the stories and the soundtracks to their lives. - Editor.
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