Northwestern Startup Secures $250K Investment for Music Education Game

Alums Steven Jiang '24 and Aspen Buckingham '23, co-founders of Overture Games, have practiced their pitch in just about any location you can think of. They’ve pitched to cars in a parking garage, pitched on the lifeguard tower at North Beach, and pitched to commuters on the train, all in the hopes of perfecting the story of their audio-responsive video game Intervallic that makes music education fun.

Now, all that pitching has paid off. Buckingham and Jiang secured a $250,000 investment from an investor who heard their pitch at the Rice Business Plan Competition in early April.

“It was pretty crazy. Right after the pitch, she [the investor] said let’s meet up,” said Jiang, who delivered the pitch. “You just gotta act fast, because they’re only in-person for a certain period of time.”

The path to this investment wasn’t without obstacles, though.

After getting accepted into six different university pitching competitions, Jiang and Buckingham traveled to colleges across the country to share their game that revolutionizes an often-dreaded activity for kids and adults alike: practicing your instrument. Prior to the competition at Rice University, they had just finished a competition at Tulane, where they gave “one of the best pitches we ever gave,” according to Buckingham – yet left empty-handed.

“We were like man, is this ever going to work out?” Buckingham said.

For a moment, Jiang and Buckingham had doubts about attending the next competition.

“We almost passed up on Rice,” Jiang said.

Still, they persevered and attended the competition, compelled to share the story of Intervallic with others after struggling with burnout themselves as musicians.

With this additional investment, Buckingham and Jiang plan to bring on new teammates full-time and expand Overture Games at an even faster pace. Intervallic, currently available on PC and Mac, allows users to play notes via a microphone, MIDI instrument, or computer keyboard to control a flying robot space cat around the planet of Audius.

One new feature already in the works is making Intervallic available on mobile devices, starting with iOS. Buckingham and Jiang are also working on a pitch detection feature that will allow users to play Intervallic with any instrument, from singing with their own voice to marimba.

“That’s going to open the gates in terms of accessibility, especially for kids, because most kids don’t have their own computers,” Buckingham said.

Children at the Chicago Youth Center have the opportunity to test Intervallic twice a week, when Buckingham and Jiang travel there to teach music.

They notice firsthand how kids pay more attention when they play Intervallic rather than when they’re taught standard music education. Jiang recalled one child who used to never practice his trumpet, but after being introduced to Intervallic, played the game for an hour straight at home.

“Teaching at the Chicago Youth Center is the highlight of my week,” Buckingham said. “Seeing the kids smile when they’re playing the game, and they’re engaged and laughing and having fun – for me, that’s the most rewarding part.”