Wonders
Role: Game Designer
Genre: Educational App
Engine: Unity
Platform: iOS/Android
Duration: 4 months
Wonders is an educational app that has been designed for kids and it allows them to explore and learn about the wonders built by man and also the natural ones.
13 minigames will transport the player around the world, discovering a lot of information about the culture and history of the place.
In this project I have learned how to design apps for mobile devices, improving my skills in C# programming.
I took care of the app's mini-games, animations and tutorials, while ilustrations were made by Cinzia Franceschini.
The app features a large selection of pictures and visual materials from Europeana Collections.
Educational App
The first major challenge of this project was to match the educational information with the game mechanics.
I researched which elements of the various monuments and places lend themselves more to be "gamified", without losing the focus on the user.
We made several iterations on how to give the information to the player, trying to avoid overloading him with data.
In the end we decided to have a content panel available for each level right away.
Other content is unlockable once the corresponding level is completed.
Games for kids
Another key point of the project concerns the target audience of this app, i.e. children between 7 and 9 years of age.
At a time when we are moving very quickly from simple games to very complex ones, it is difficult to find a compromise between fun and content transmission.
Aware of this situation, the design of the flow that characterizes the app must stimulate creativity and educate, while keeping kids engaged and entertained.
That's why we structured the game flow on several mini-games, each with a different gameplay.
Mobile App
Developing for mobile devices was a novelty for me and this project was an excellent opportunity to develop new knowledge.
As a gamer I have often used my smartphone to play games but I didn't realize how much this platform could be full of pitfalls.
Having had the opportunity to write code myself for this app and having to optimize some parts of the game to improve performance, I was able to put myself in the game to try to make the gaming experience as smooth as possible.
Monetization
The last piece of the project was the publication of the app on the various stores.
I closely followed this process, which the firm already knew how to proceed thanks to the know-how accumulated over the years.
I also had the opportunity to do research on the subject, specifically in the area of apps for children, analyzing freemium, subscription or initial payment apps.
After the distribution I had the opportunity to observe and analyze the game data, which helped me to understand and become more familiar with the tools made available to developers for this kind of data.