Learning academy games
Adventure Academy on the App Store
Description
Works best with: iPhone X, XR, XS, XS Max, 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max; iPad Mini 4 (2015), iPad Mini (2019), Pro 9.7 (2016), 10.5 (2017), 12.9 (2018), 11
Adventure Academy MAY NOT FULLY support: iOS devices not listed above
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ADVENTURE ACADEMY
Your quest for knowledge begins now!
Adventure Academy is the new interactive learning program for kids from the creators of ABCmouse! The Founders of this prestigious school have created one of the world’s largest collections of educational games, books, learning challenges, and more, all designed to help strengthen children’s skills across thousands of key elementary and middle school learning objectives.
Key Features:
Discover and play thousands of learning activities to help boost key skills and abilities across many subjects, including math, language arts, reading, science, social studies, and more
Share amazing experiences with your best friends in a safe and secure environment
Play simultaneously with up to three other scholars within the same account on your individual smartphone, tablet, or computer
Crafted by teachers and early learning education experts with a curriculum-first approach for 2nd-5th grade
Complete quests and learning challenges with your friends to level up and advance your character’s abilities
Great for homeschoolers and learning on the go
As you continue your journey through Adventure Academy, you can also earn amazing rewards for your accomplishments. Hundreds of clothing items, hair styles, and looks give a seemingly unlimited number of choices to customize your character. Also, you can earn your own 3D virtual home within the game that you can decorate with items you earn from completing learning activities.
Trusted by teachers and designed by early learning education experts, Adventure Academy provides a safe learning environment for students. Parents can monitor progress, control the level of interaction through filtered chat, or block in-game communication entirely.
Welcome to Adventure Academy. Your endless adventure awaits!
See our full Terms and Conditions at:
https://www.adventureacademy.com/terms-and-conditions
View our Privacy Policy at:
https://www.adventureacademy.com/privacy-policy
Version 1.53.1
Winter has returned! Collect the latest skating emotes from the Challenge Shop and show off your new moves at the rink in the Marketplace!
Holiday sweaters, parkas, and earmuffs, oh my! If you are ready to bundle up, check out The Clothespin and Amelie’s Armoire for all your cold weather needs.
Want to own a Snowy Owl, Arctic Fox, or Light-Up Reindeer? Those wintery pets and more can be hatched from the Holiday Pet Crystal, sold at Maya’s Marvelous Menagerie.
Looking for some holiday reading material? Check out the new reading options in the Library at the holiday bookshelf banner!
Ratings and Reviews
100.4K Ratings
Love app - Please consider adding….
I love playing Adventure Academy! It’s fun to learn with the quests, games, fast facts, and so many different ways to play. I am so excited about the possibilities for Adventure Academy, and think everyone should play.
I am really hoping that the app development continues, and that you might add trains - steam, diesel, electric, and maglev - it would be cool if the character could ride these via tracks that go around the Adventure Academy community.
And, you should be able to choose if your character is a grown up or a kid to give more role play options. It would be awesome if there were a zoo in Adventure Academy so that we could see many different types of animals and learn about them - giraffes, prairie dogs with kids’ tunnels that go all over the zoo, penguins, polar bears, lemurs, an aviary, all kinds of animals! And, more animals in the Aquarium! It shouldn’t cost so much to upgrade your inventory, and you should be able to do it as many times as you like. Your character should also be able to fly and ride in airplanes. The furnishings for the house shouldn’t cost so much - and you should get to design more space, more floors, bigger homes, basement, and other cool aspects of building/designing. The game of tag should be allowed everywhere in The Academy. Your character should get to drive cars, and ride in them, and get to ride in a taxi, too.
We're so happy to hear how much you're enjoying Adventure Academy.
We're always looking for new ways to improve our game, and to continue developing it. We appreciate all of the wonderful ideas you shared with us. The Zoo, and trains sound like a lot of fun to add!
Boring at times
I have had this game for quite a while now and when I first started I got all of these tasks and quest to do and it seemed like everything was going to be ok until about a couple months later when I hear about level 20 or 21 I started to notice that the tasks were very slow and most of the time I had nothing to do on the app and it was very boring show maybe adding a lot more tasks would be better then only a couple for each level. Also maybe making more updates to each of the rooms in the Academy. For example, in the library there are things that you can click on and it will take you to like a video or a game or a certain book but It’s a little bit boring to see the sameVideo or a game or book every single time you click on that specific area.
Also my last thing is that some of the quest in the game are super Duper easy for me and my mom has tried to up the level and she cannot do that because there are only three different levels to pick from would you go for different age groups. But you should have it based on what they know instead of just her age. But besides all of the things I just listed this is a great app for kids to learn and have fun while doing it. Also maybe in the future you could add something where you can trade some of your clothes or items that you don’t need to get new ones instead of having to pay for everything with coins.
Thank you so much for your awesome feedback! We are always working hard on updates to Adventure Academy. Items can always be sold for additional coins. Your suggestions are appreciated and has been forwarded to our site design team for review.
Please feel free and send us any questions or comments at support.adventureacademy.com.
This app is the best app
When I got this app I showed it to my daughter so after I did that she started playing it all the time I was like what so happy about this app I went on there and I started playing it I thought it was super fun so then I learned that you could level of each level shows on the second level I was super Duper surprise I was like oh she’s super excited about this so I bought her computer or her birthday after I got her computer and downloaded it the adventure academy she started going onComputer every time she got off of school when she got off of school she would do her homework pack her lunch and do everything that I said you have to do before she I do anything on her computer should do it super quickly so she can hurry up and go on her computer so she can do an adventure academy I was like this out of the best app in the whole wide world so adorable she always did that after that she was just like always on her computer I was like why are you on your computer she will always say I am doing a venture Academy so I was like oh and then as she will get finish out and that’s like wow that app is super cool so I didn’t she started going on and going on it when I was on the charger should go on it if it ever computer died or got her iPad and do it so I just wanted to say everybody should get this app😍👍🏾🤗
The developer, Age of Learning, Inc.
, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
- Contact Info
- User Content
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age.
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Information
- Seller
- Age of Learning, Inc.
- Size
- 243.4 MB
- Category
- Education
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © Age of Learning, Inc.
- Price
- Free
- Developer Website
- App Support
- Privacy Policy
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Game with puzzles for toddlers
This edutainment app consists of 10 interactive boards with a different kind of shop on …
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Baby games: puzzles for kids
The app teaches logical thinking and more to toddlers aged 2.
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Game with puzzles for toddlers
It’s the Polar Bear’s birthday and his friends Penguins are throwing a party for him. …
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Kids puzzle games 4 toddlers
With the help of these 10 fascinating matching boards kids as young as 1.5 will …
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Connect the dots for toddlers+
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Tracing Number 10
In this educational game, children need to trace numbers, and when they complete the task …
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Tracing Number 1
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Tracing Number 2
In Tracing Number 2, children need to trace the number two to receive rewards.
The …
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Tracing Number 3
While many still argue about the usefulness or necessity of technology in education, many more …
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Tracing Number 4
With enough practice, writing the numbers should not give your child too much trouble. This …
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Tracing Number 5
With determination and the right incentives, you can get your young child to learn anything. …
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Tracing Number 6
Your child’s early development is important, as what they do not properly learn at this …
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Tracing Number 7
A gentle instructional voice over, jaunty sounds, and bright colors makes this game appealing to …
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Tracing Number 8
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Tracing Number 9
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Tracing Numbers from 1 to 10
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Chess
Any kid can benefit from learning to play the amazing game of chess! Jumpstart your …
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Types of Clouds
In this lesson, students will analyze and create a project that illustrates different types of …
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Litter Bug!
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Water Cycle
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Complete Multiple Tasks in Order
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Such a great app!
This was a really fun way to get my kids to practice their math. I usually struggle to get them into it and Kids Academy makes it easy.
Fernanndas Stoun
Great app!
This app is wonderful for my 7 years old son! :) It focuses on basic reading, writing, and math skills. The reward system is great and consistent!
Lilbittygarza
Daughter's favorite
Still a top favorite for our 7 year old. She loves earning her stars as she learns to trace letters and numbers.
Coloring and the sounds are engaging and are on target for her age group and being Pre K.
Surviving5Kids
Great app
Wow! This app is really great. For the first time my kids actually enjoy learning math and reading. The games on Kids Academy are educational and really fun.
Kimberlyxo
Great for kids
Our 7 years old daughter loves reading activities and every off-line game Kids Academy offers. This is a very good app, I highly recommend it!
TonyThan
So engaging
We love how we can focus on math with this app. It is engaging and we love how we are able to adjust and tailor the levels according to our son’s knowledge and skill levels!
Momma Anna
what is it and how do they change education
One of the largest exhibitions in the world in the field of education, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), took place in the USA.
Every year, more than 24 thousand people come to the event to understand how technology will develop in education. One of the main trends of recent years, which was also discussed at the last ISTE, is the increasing penetration of games into education. But is it realistic to put really useful and effective educational content into smartphones and at the same time make everything look as cool as WOW or Fortnite?
Can games really be useful?
In recent years, the number of adherents to the use of games in education has been growing. In open sources, you can find quite a few studies, the authors of which are trying to analyze the impact of games on the learning process, and a number of them are trying to prove the benefits of introducing certain game mechanics or finished products. However, in order to evaluate the obtained results most adequately, it is necessary to take into account a number of factors.
Like any other learning format, games are good in some ways and not so good in others, says Eric Kloepfer , professor, director of MIT's Scheller Teacher Training and Educational Games Program.
The result is influenced by game design, how exactly the game is introduced into the educational process, the general context, as well as what indicators are used to measure progress. In addition, a large role in this process is assigned to the teacher, whose responsibility is to choose from the available games the most suitable for students, as well as for specific educational purposes.
At the same time, he adds that it is necessary to clearly separate the gamification of learning and learning games. Gamification is often understood as a way to take game mechanics and apply them to any educational activity. That is why in one case it can be useful, but in another it is not. Educational games are full-fledged games, the mechanics of which are deeply integrated with the learning objectives. Eric Kloepfer and his colleagues at MIT's Education Arcade learn more about how to create engaging educational games in Resonant Games.
International Society for Technology in Education.
Source: isasa.org Serious games market: everything is really serious
Often in the English-language press, the concept of serious games is applied to educational games. In a general sense, "serious games" are games whose main purpose is not entertainment, but learning or skill development. Outside of education, the term "serious games" is used in sectors such as defense, science and healthcare.
For example, Metaari, an analytics firm that tracks cutting-edge education technologies, titled its 2018 Global Game-Based Learning Market Report this way. In the study, analysts offer a forecast for the development of the industry for the next five years, considering educational games from developers in 122 countries. According to Metaari, the game-based learning market will reach $17 billion by 2023. According to the company, the rapid growth is due, among other things, to constant innovations in the field of AR and VR technologies, as well as artificial intelligence.
The mobile games market will also continue to grow, where Apple ARKit and Google ARCore technologies will play a big role.
Another factor that analysts support their forecast is the growth of private investment in the field of educational games. Over the past two years, according to the company, private investment in this area amounted to more than 1.7 billion US dollars in the world, which is a record figure.
Who and how develops "serious games": five examples
Minecraft
Minecraft Education Edition. Source: engadget.com
The development of educational games and the integration of their capabilities with educational tasks have long been of interest to global technology giants and recognized industry players. So, one of the veterans in the field of educational games is Minecraft - a popular game where you can construct unusual buildings and mechanisms from different types of cubes, build ancient cities, plant cacti, and even program Minecraft inside Minecraft.
A few years ago, New York City computer science teacher Joel Levin and Finnish software educator Santeri Koivisto came up with the MinecraftEdu platform. Now it is a special version of Minecraft for teachers, as well as an online community for teachers. The educational version differs from the usual Minecraft by having a special account for teachers, which allows you to control what is happening in the game: for example, to receive unlimited resources or to protect the constructed buildings from destruction. Community-based educators (mainly from the US, Sweden, and Finland) use the game to teach across a range of disciplines. For example, in the history and geography version, you can create models of cities of the past, in physics - to study the theory of probability, in chemistry - to conduct experiments with chemical elements, and in biology - to model the structure of the human body.
At Viktor Rydberg's school in Stockholm, after an experiment that the school authorities considered successful, Minecraft even became a compulsory academic discipline.
In these lessons, 13-year-olds can build their own cities, learn about ecology through the example of deforestation and soil change in the game, and also learn the basics of network security.
There are examples of the use of the game in Russian schools. For example, Svetlana Sadakova, a biology teacher at the Bauman Lyceum (Yoshkar-Ola), suggested using Minecraft to do homework. First, students independently build models and schemes from cubes on the topics covered, after which the work is checked and finalized together with the teacher. The result is visual cheat sheets for lessons. On the net, you can even find a video recorded at that time by a fifth-grader Nikita Isaev, who, under the guidance of a teacher, developed a model of the movement of an erythrocyte along one of the branches of the systemic circulation.
NASA and Microsoft collaboration
Educational games have recently been supported by major players that until recently had nothing to do with the education market.
Microsoft develops its own educational platform. According to the company, Microsoft Education offers a range of tools for organizing an effective educational process, including in the field of personalized learning and STEM disciplines. In addition, the company recently partnered with NASA to develop eight lesson plans that address a variety of situations relevant to the lives of astronauts on the International Space Station.
A collection of lessons and materials designed for middle and high school students, combining core academic concepts with practical experience. Students are challenged to design in 3D, analyze data, create sensors, use virtual reality and work with machine learning while participating in discussions about the challenges of living in space.
Lessons developed include:
Two design tasks. As part of the Astro Socks project, students are exploring solutions to reduce the load on astronauts' legs in zero gravity. In addition, as part of another task, they need to create a 3D model of their own module for the International Space Station.
Lesson that introduces the influence of microgravity. It includes hands-on experiments and experiences in virtual reality.
Four data collection and analysis lessons in which students conduct hands-on experiments to prove a series of laws. These lessons involve using sensors to collect data, as well as comparing your observations of life in space with life on Earth.
A lesson that introduces the Earth's ecosystems through photographs taken from space. Here, students also learn the methods that scientists use to predict climate change using algorithms.
VR Apollo 11
Another commercially successful educational project about space is the VR Apollo 11 game. Its authors describe the project as a "new type of documentary". Here you can not only look at the events of 1969, but also take control of the command module, explore the surface of the moon and deploy lunar experiments before returning to Earth. Since its launch in 2016, it has sold over 120,000 copies and earned its creators over $1.2 million.
To tackle the toughest challenges of the future, students need an adaptive skill set, according to Google.
« More than 65% of young people will work in occupations that do not currently exist. Learning computer science skills helps students thrive in a rapidly changing world. However, our research with Gallup shows that many students are not getting the computer science education they need, and educators don't have the resources to provide it ,” the company notes.
To expand access to knowledge, the company is implementing a number of educational initiatives in the field of Computer Science. In particular, these programs are designed to provide digital literacy for both students and teachers, as well as expand opportunities for teaching programming.
Science Journal. Source: sciencejournal.withgoogle.comAnother educational initiative launched by Google in 2016 is the Science Journal. This is a free app from Google that allows science enthusiasts, including teachers, to run and save experiments. The application allows you to conduct research using sensors built into the device or connected via Bluetooth.
For example, with the "Scientific Journal" you can:
- measure the level of illumination, sound intensity, acceleration, air pressure and much more;
- take pictures during experiments and leave comments;
- connect external sensors of Arduino and Vernier devices via Bluetooth;
- export data recorded by sensors as CSV files;
- create triggers for writing data and comments;
- enable sound presentation of data on graphs.
The Science Journal can be installed on Android devices, compatible Chromebooks, iPhones, and iPads. Also one of the latest updates was the ability to view information about your experiments in Google Drive from different devices using a Google account.
Desbravadores
DesbravadoresAnd the Brazilian developers from the Catholic University of Pernambuco decided to use the popular genre of survival games to arouse the interest in history among schoolchildren. The goal of the game is to survive in a hostile prehistoric environment. Here you need to get food and learn how to make a fire, escape from predators, and also study caves with rock paintings in order to understand what they represent for humanity. All player decisions affect the course of the game's story. In addition, the game provides real-time feedback, promotes problem-solving skills, and rewards the student.
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problems of children's educational projects — Gamedev on DTF
What developers face when they try to reform the educational process.
1465 views
On June 3, the 186th episode of the How Games Are Made podcast was released. This time Sergey Galyonkin and Mikhail Kuzmin talked to the leading game designer of the Ukrainian company Bristar Anastasia Titarenko on the introduction of gaming learning technologies in schools.
DTF publishes highlights of the conversation.
Anastasia Titarenko: I've been in game development for 10 years, and in the company for three years. I met its director Evgeny Dubovik while working on the Apocalypse 2056 project. I was told about Bristar liked the idea and was invited to work there. Now it’s hard to call my position a game designer: in a small studio, everyone is a Swiss, a reaper, and a player on the pipe. I perform the functions of a designer, project and PR - in general, I try to do everything I can. The company itself has been around for about five years.
Mikhail Kuzmin: How many people are in the company?
Anastasia Titarenko: Quite a lot of functions are outsourced, there are about 15 permanent employees.
"About" - because we have a rather informal atmosphere. We are located in the center of Kyiv.
Our founding father, ideological inspirer — Vladislav Raevsky. When his children began to grow up, he looked at how they learn, and was not satisfied with this. And in the best traditions of humanism, he decided to improve education in a single country.
It's no secret that our educational system is like a time machine: you can turn around and see what happened 10-20 years ago. New technologies are difficult to implement.
Since Raevsky knew a lot of people from game development, he decided to create a project and unite teaching initiatives - but in an adult way, not the way teachers do. They know how to communicate with children, but not how to make games. He attracted professional game developers to this occupation, and we have been working for about five years.
We're disappointed that last year browsers started dropping support for the Unity Player. The games were mostly posted on the site Universinet - just press the button and play.
Now you can’t do that anymore, and they have to be adapted to the maximum number of platforms.
Sergey Galyonkin: I have deja vu. I got into professional game development just because of educational games in Ukraine with conditional cooperation with the Ministry of Education of the country (not even under patronage, they just didn’t interfere with us). The team was also founded by a visionary, teacher and programmer who decided that computers should be used in teaching. But our story ended with the fact that the team simply emigrated to Israel and continued to do the same.
Anastasia Titarenko: I don't know what happened in 1994, but I hear that the form of cooperation with the Ministry of Education has not changed. It is not easy to get special support, sometimes it comes to absurd situations. There is an all-Ukrainian educational conference - "Innovation in modern education." It annually holds a competition for an innovative project. To submit a game to it, you need to make a 20-page color presentation, bind according to certain rules, and send not a build, not installation files, but a presentation.
It evaluates whether the game will receive an award.
Sergei Galyonkin: I have school age children who have attended schools in several countries. Now I am in the USA, here my friends also have schoolchildren.
In Cypriot and Berlin schools, tablets and laptops are very actively used, and in the US, a child is given a laptop when enrolling. As in the library, of course, for the duration of the study. Mostly Chromebooks - they are cheap, and education can afford them, and everyone has their own tablets.
It's not even a question of whether the school is progressive or not - even very religious Catholic and Protestant schools use computer technology.
Anastasia Titarenko: Our education system has been, and remains, very poor. Computer labs sometimes consist of three computers per thousand people. We are trying to get around the difficulties - we make cross-platform applications that can be installed on personal devices if you want to connect the school to the project, but they do not have money for equipment.
About products and school
Anastasia Titarenko: In Europe, for a long time, and in Ukraine only now, education reform is being carried out, the approach is changing. The system is moving away from the effectiveness of academic knowledge - they are no longer valued when there is Wikipedia and Google. Children need to be taught to learn - this is called "competency-based education". The child is taught to think critically, draw conclusions, operate with the information that he finds.
This approach needs new, modern tools. One of them is edutainment, learning through entertainment. Every listener has come across this - for example, when you want to learn English better and watch a series without translation. A child in a petting zoo petting a goat is an edutainment, because he enjoys and learns that she has four legs and warm horns.
Play is the most common form of entertainment. We develop projects that, in the form of entertainment, provide a certain range of academic knowledge (some kind of base is needed) and provide competency-based tools: decision making, critical and interdisciplinary thinking.
It changes attitudes towards education on a psychological level. You have fun, but at the same time you learn the structure of plants or arithmetic, while fighting in a fantasy world with a skeleton. It's fair play and fair learning.
Mikhail Kuzmin: What age are they designed for?
Anastasia Titarenko: We tried to reach everyone we could - we have games for preschoolers (coloring, traffic rules), for high school (in mathematics, called "Heroes of Mathematics") and for high school (chemistry, physics, biology). And for applicants - no longer games, but software.
Mikhail Kuzmin: Do they replace regular lessons?
Anastasia Titarenko: No, it's not even an elective. Gameplay "Heroes of Mathemagic" is based on solving arithmetic equations in a limited time. A math teacher can give a child homework - solve 30 examples in a notebook. Or maybe ask to pass one level.
In principle, the child receives the same actions and knowledge, but I am sure that he will pass the level in the game, and I doubt that he will solve examples in a notebook.
This is additional motivation.
Sergei Galyonkin: When we worked - just one math lesson a week was held in a computer class. Now my daughter uses tablets at every lesson, but for 10-15 minutes to consolidate the topic.
Anastasia Titarenko: Children have a certain amount of attention. You can't say the same thing for 25 minutes in a row. Lessons are divided into small blocks of 5-7 minutes to switch the child's attention from one to another.
As such an encouragement, an additional source of information, we offer our games. They, of course, will not replace a real lesson - they lack consistency. You can make a game on only one topic - this is a technical limitation. But games help a lot as an additional tool that will not only remind you of the topic, but also help you learn planning and strategic thinking.
We're currently making an educational RPG that may replace 45 minute lessons to some extent, but not completely. It is impossible to do this without a smooth transition.
About differences from traditional games
Anastasia Titarenko: The user will most likely not notice them. But they are important at the time of development. There are features in the physiology and psychology of the child (conditionally, up to 15 years, while the brain grows, develops, opens up new functions). In fact, if you let a five-year-old or three-year-old child play Angry Birds, he will play it, but unconsciously.
Now we are working closely with psychologists. A few years ago, we made a game to learn shapes and colors - almost an analogue of a toy with square and round slots, and the same figures.
We came up with a project - the player walked around the map, collected figures and shot them from a magic gun into the appropriate shape. When we showed the prototype to a child psychologist, he said that the game provides educational information that is learned in three or four years - color and shape. And the implementation mechanism is already for a child of seven or eight years old - you need to walk, press something and do it.
This applies to any game. You need to understand not only what you want to teach, but also how - so that it coincides with the child's age capabilities. In the same RPG, a ten-year-old child will play instinctively - he will not understand what is happening, and what action leads to what result.
The same applies to the duration of the gaming session. For children of ten years, it should be three to five minutes with an interval for switching. Because the child loses concentration and cannot do the same thing for a long time. And there are many small pitfalls that directly affect the development.
Mikhail Kuzmin: " Sessions" for children - they rule.
Sergei Galyonkin: It is logical - the length of the session is limited by the length of the lesson, you can't get anywhere.
Anastasia Titarenko: Even the duration of the lesson is no longer the same, uninteresting.
A great example is the TV show Sesame Street. A very, very old edutainment project.
It was within its framework that children's psychology was studied - right down to where the child looks on the screen, how long attention is held, what characters attract him, and so on. For those who are interested in the development of children's educational projects (whether gaming or not), I highly recommend reading about these studies. Session in 3-5 minutes, bright colors, simple shapes, one plot.
About stereotypes
Anastasia Titarenko: In our country, in the main, workers in the education system were brought up in a rather totalitarian system, where learning is suffering. This approach is common. Sometimes in a funny way - you present your product at a mathematical conference, and some kind of “matriarch” from education comes up to you and starts telling you that tablets should be burned, and children should play football.
I absolutely agree with the latter. Mobile devices, unfortunately, provoke an unhealthy lifestyle, this is understandable.
But it is very difficult to get out of the stereotypical vicious circle that teaching is suffering, because suffering breeds suffering. Those who were offended 20-30 years ago during their studies cannot come to terms with the fact that their descendants will rejoice. This is very common. We work very closely with innovative schools that are open to new trends - where there are very interesting teachers and cool projects.
Distribution of
We have several main routes. The easiest is to download applications on Google Play and the App Store on a general competitive basis. Everything is so clear here.
Now we are paying more attention to schools. If the stores are for parents and children, then the service for schools is now at the final stage of development. In fact, we supply the school with a server that does not require an Internet connection, on which all our gaming applications and software necessary for education are located.
I share them because we have games in different subjects and Unimaster is an interactive whiteboard, almost like a regular one in school, but works on any device.
You can write with your finger, take photos, videos, whatever you want. In general, like Skype, but also with a board.
Sergei Galyonkin: But children can have a "zoo" of devices - almost anything.
Anastasia Titarenko: The application works on almost everything. This was the main task. On the weakest devices, it may not start, but we are trying to optimize it. The main problem so far is with Windows backgrounds.
About good examples
Anastasia Titarenko: It turned out embarrassingly that we scolded teachers a lot, but practically did not praise them. And there is a reason - we have a lot of initiative teachers. The only problem is that if you want to do something new, you have to do it yourself. Imagine what a load of work falls on initiative teachers - they themselves develop programs, find ways to implement them.
We are looking for and trying to support such teachers, because we need them like air.
Some of them work with us. A very small percentage of psychologists and teachers generally understand what a computer game is. Not only do they not play them, the principle itself is difficult to explain.
Similarly, we do not always understand how some pedagogical rules work, we do not know the names, theories, how they work. When you want to make a working game, you have to play a broken phone.
We are in the process of mutual learning with teachers and psychologists. In universities, they are taught applied things - for example, how to read the emotions of children and adults. To use this, you need to organize focus groups.
The biggest difficulty is that it is not clear at what point to involve narrow specialists. If you involve him in the development too early, he will not understand how to apply knowledge to it. And if it's too late, the game will have to be redone from the very beginning. But we must pay tribute to the guys with whom we cooperate - they are passionate about their work.
Questions
How do you see the use of AI as a development technology or gameplay element of educational children's games?
Anastasia Titarenko: So far, we can’t see it in any way, educational games themselves are a young sphere, we are still “in the nursery”. We have not yet reached AI from an applied point of view.
In the future - to teach AI to independently evaluate statistics and adjust the child's learning based on what he does and what he does not.
How are games scored?
Anastasia Titarenko: There are none, but there are achievements - "achievements", as in all games. I solved 30 examples without errors - I got an "achievement". Passed the level for three stars - also a magic hat. Standard game reward systems - achievements, in-game currency, items, external statistics, championships. The same system removes the statistics used by the supervising teacher.
How are the games for museums and not schools?
Anastasia Titarenko: We are a small studio, we have a three year plan that we try to stick to.
Unfortunately, since these games are big, not just activities - it takes a lot of time to develop. We did the math project for 3.5 years. Probably, if it were possible, we would make games for museums and libraries, but so far there are not enough resources for this.
Sergei Galyonkin: Since museums are all unique, the game is usually developed for a specific museum.
Anastasia Titarenko: Even for a specific theme in a specific museum. The format itself imposes very strict restrictions. On the other hand, our gigantic RPG project that we are doing (unfortunately, I can’t even give a deadline) is open. On its basis, a teacher, librarian or museum worker can make a game. He will get a tool - it will be both a game and a platform.
Is it necessary to separate players by gender?
Anastasia Titarenko: I don't see the need - whether it's geometry or biology - there's no difference to study whether you're a boy or a girl. In some third-person games, we offer the choice of playing as a girl or boy figure.
But the development of the character you play as is not the first, not the second, and not even the tenth place.
Sergei Galyonkin: I disagree, in our experience, the simple possibility of choosing the gender of a character involved girls a lot. True, this was 20 years ago, when computers were considered entertainment for boys, and girls were not yet used to the fact that they were also allowed to play with technological toys.
Anastasia Titarenko: This is a slightly different story. We have a game built on the principle of "Tamagotchi", it does not need it. And if you run as a hero, you need to.
How to comply with the age rating?
Anastasia Titarenko: We cannot say about different countries - we are honing the technology in Ukraine. Everything is simple here - the stores have a certain list of requirements for obtaining a game rating. No violence, alcohol, drugs, nudity.
The educational system also has regulations and requirements - psychologists, teachers, special institutes are involved, which check whether the game is suitable for children, write reviews - what needs to be redone, what to finish, what works fine.
There are no particular difficulties with this.
Do you use VR and AR?
Anastasia Titarenko: Narrowing the CIS to Ukraine, these technologies are developing in our country, but very slowly. Not only are they expensive, but they are too innovative for some people.
We are trying to introduce elements of augmented reality into the project, but so far this does not even carry an applied function - we may have 3D models read from them on the cards. I have an idea to make an educational game on traffic rules based on the Pokemon GO principle - you walk around the city, remove signs and some character tells you what they mean - and you need to collect everything.
Can you tell us about the financial component?
Anastasia Titarenko: We did not stop there, because there is nothing special to boast about. We have Vladislav Raevsky, an investor, for whom we are a hobby project. He invests money and gets practically nothing back, except for moral satisfaction.
