An iOS and Android Gaming Application for Live Life Virtually
The Client
LLV is a company dedicated to creating educational gaming simulations to teach practical life skills as an educational tool. Our app was designed with the goal of changing the way young people think about life, by integrating role playing simulations with formal education.
The Project
LLV approached us in 2017 with a challenging proposition, to create an educational gaming app to teach students about life skills. The app needed to be fun and entertaining, but also contain enough sound educational content to make it appealing to LLV’s target audience: middle and high school students, schools, government agencies, and corporate sponsors.
For the graphics, LLV sought to begin building a virtual world, with dimensional rooms and maps, an animated guide, and a realistic and diverse set of avatars. We partnered with Luminous Boy Studio to deliver a look and feel that is simultaneously familiar and original, setting a foundation for future enhancements.
The Tools
Since the application would target both iPhone and Android devices, we settled on developing with React Native, a cutting-edge, platform-agnostic solution. This would allow us to quickly iterate across both environments and minimize duplicate and unnecessary work.
Like any game, content creation was a main concern during development. LLV is primarily a text-driven game, so providing the ability to add content within the game was a must. We constructed a Ruby on Rails-based CMS to manage lessons, scheduled payments, create food and store items, and monitor player progress. The CMS also operates a RESTful API for communicating to the application. With both the app and API this closely integrated, we enabled the writing team to add and modify the in-game content instantly, and without requiring players to update.
Reporting Build
With the front end build feature-complete, we saw the opportunity to create reporting functionality that would be helpful and appealing to educators. We compiled and organized the data to show individual player choices, as well as aggregate classroom data. Teachers see a variety of statistics, including what percentage of their players choose each answer, and which answers correspond with higher scores.
Now in use in multiple school districts and youth organizations, LLV is a fun and practical game to help young people learn about the decisions they will face in life, and understand its challenges and responsibilities. It’s also a great tool for educators to better understand students’ needs and expectations as they help guide them toward success.
