Posts Tagged ‘360KID’
May 4th, 2009 | Tags: 360KID, Beta, CentsCity, Echoing Green, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Newsletter, Product Development, Social Impact
It’s been a long time coming. In fact, it was just about two years ago when we wrapped up the Echoing Green interview process — a process that would lead to our first significant investment in CentsCity. Since that time, we’ve developed countless storyboards of the CentsCity experience, three game design documents, and, of course, our proof-of-concept last October, which until recently we would use for live demos.
In July, Skill-Life, Inc. will officially launch our CentsCity Beta! For the first time, kids and adults will be able to experience the virtual world for themselves and interact with our CentsCity Passport.
We’ve spent much of the last month scoping our latest design of the CentsCity experience and will again be teaming up with 360Kid. It’s amazing how far along this thing has come — how much more dynamic, distinct, and significant our Beta will be versus what we initially conceived. Here’s our chance to make the impact that we have long set out to achieve — building young people’s financial savvy and life skills to afford them greater opportunities as they grow older.
Over the next two weeks, we will be sending out our first newsletter keeping folks up-to-date on the latest news and counting down to our Beta launch. A CentsCity.com splash page will be live this week for new subscribers.
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March 22nd, 2009 | Tags: 360KID, Add new tag, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Game Development
The third time is the charm.
We just completed our third (actually our third.5) design document. Two years ago, we worked with Sidehatch Studios to complete our first design doc. One year ago, Semiotic Technologies completed our second. And, as you may remember from an earlier blog posting, we collaborated with 360KID back in December on a preliminary design doc.
Continuing to work with 360KID over the last three months, we have just wrapped up work on a more extensive design, easily the most extensive thus far. It’s a place we could not have reached without having gone through our earlier efforts at planning the user experience and art direction. The product has evolved tremendously in just a short time. It’s a very different experience than what we developed in our prototype and what we have yet to reveal on this site. Yet, we could not have possibly reached this point without having gone through earlier iterations.
As I wrote in an email to a potential funder, we have been thinking deeply about the issue of financial education, and considering how best to provide youth and adults an exciting financial education product, for some time. In recent months, since our economy has gone wild, we’ve noticed an increasing number of competitors and rising interest in this area. We’re more ready than ever to confront the challenge and seize the opportunity.
Over the next two weeks, we expect to settle on a developer with which to collaborate toward launching our Beta this summer. We have engaged in extensive dialogue with three development houses, and more recently a fourth, to turn this new design document into a real product that youth and adults acoss the country can enjoy and benefit from. Again, we’ve learned so much from the work put in over the last two years. The road ahead will be deeply informed by the journey thus far.
Stay tuned.
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March 13th, 2009 | Tags: 360KID, Game Development
Over the past few weeks, we have been working closely with 360KID to develop a new art style and game mechanics for our release this summer. The goal is to strip away frivolous features that would get in the way of the experience. While we have not yet finalized our designs, the progress has been fantastic.
Stella Mae Fly is one of six mentors the player may choose as a guide in the game.
This is the new world of CentsCity, where players can explore financial secrets.
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December 2nd, 2008 | Tags: 360KID, Game Development
On yesterday, we began working with 360KID to develop a more comprehensive game design document for Skill-Life. This will be the third game design document we have created over the last two years, the previous two having been developed in collaboration with Sidehatch Studios and Semiotic Technologies. In each instance, the Skill-Life product has evolved considerably. We are deeply committed to developing the absolute most fun and dynamic financial education product out there. Working with 360 takes us one step closer and establishes a relationship with a developer with which we expect to continue working as we build our Beta.
We were originally connected with 360KID during our search for an executive producer. Emily Treat, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment & Technology Center, presently works at 360 and will be involved with our project. Our product development guy, Todd Waits, will lead the process from Skill-Life’s end and ensure that all the pieces are in place to continue our movement forward.
For over 16 years, 360KID has been partnering with businesses and not-for-profit organizations to create award-winning products that educate as well as entertain. The company understands how kids learn and how they play, and brings experience in both the education and entertainment industries to each product developed. It has an established track record of success in both the education and entertainment arenas, including multiple awards—and three Emmy nominations! 360KIDhas previously worked with such organizations as LeapFrog, Hasbro, Simon & Schuster, the Princeton Review, National Public Radio, and the Girl Scouts of America.
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November 20th, 2008 | Tags: 360KID, Game Development, Metaversal Studos
Yesterday, Todd Waits and I took a one-day trip to Boston to meet with two game developers — 360KID and Metaversal Studios. It was a very productive trip during which we were able to set the foundation for work ahead.
360KID has significant experience creating products that educate and entertain youth. We were initially introduced to this company during our search for an executive producer to join the Skill-Life management team. The folks there have great insight into the youth market and can potentially support our efforts at enhancing Skill-Life’s game design and additional efforts to build our Beta.
Todd helped set up the meeting with Metaversal on short notice. The team there has created a number of great games and has already done some work on financial education for a Boston-based nonprofit with which Skill-Life has some connections.
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