Anyone interested in helping developing an app?

millejoh

Hi makegamessa community,

I'm a producer in Cape Town helping out a local NGO with digitizing their educational content and curriculum. Whether this is an app, a game, a combination, or some other form of digital content we are quite open to discussions. We are also quite excited about augmented reality and the possibilities this might lend to our project.

I'm interested in hearing from any established developers who may have experience in the educational sphere and/or similar types of projects. What is your experience? How can you help us position this app properly within the marketplace? What is a rough timeline and budget?

The last thing we want to do is pour money into a project that is irrelevant to our context, already been done before, and/or poorly designed and executed. We already are speaking with developers around South Africa however I want to see if there's any interest from this community.

I am not looking for just a freelance developer or artist to do coding work. What I am looking for is the beginning of a discussion about digital strategies, the app industry, and potential partnerships.

Please contact me if you think this sounds interesting and I can send you more details.

Thanks!
Johnny

n1c

Hi Johnny; any chance you could elaborate on the project?

dislekcia

I've done a bunch of educational/learning/learning adjacent projects over the years. The biggest issue is always continuity and how something is actually going to be used/supported after it's released. We made a maths game that has great user stats, great results and great playtime, but you can't find it anywhere now because the people we built it for had no long-term plan on how it should be used. The best-continued thing so far has been Evoke and even then that's had issues...

So yeah, know why you're making a thing and make sure that it's going to keep being used long term. Too often people focus on trying to build a complex project that addresses X educational needs without making sure that their project actually solves problems that people experience. You want a solution that people are going to keep wanting to use on their own, outside of the structures of a school or institute - those structures WILL change (faster than tech drift will make your work obsolete) and your work will fall away as trainers leave/marking changes/new learners sign up.

Once longevity is sorted out, then you can start working on things like making sure you're promoting exploratory learning (and not rote learning) or fostering intrinsic over extrinsic rewards. If anyone mentions pointsification (or gamification with no experience) near you, stab them.