We make learning apps to inspire curiosity.
Our goal is to fund the final development and release of our latest project - Software Safari - an interactive “choose your own adventure” story about you. In the story, you are a safari explorer who “programs” their way through a safari of discovery.
Mobile devices can open windows of communication for learning, so we want to make exceptional content for parents and their kids to share together.
Understandably, parents are worried that too much screen time is making their kids disconnected - from nature, from their peers, maybe even from their parents. We’re NOT into developing those kinds of apps. Our apps are centered around creative invention and have built-in labs to give parents ideas for activities they can do with their kids.
We have the skills to make apps.
Jen is the CEO of an energy hardware startup called Tenrehte. Yvette is Jen's mom, and she has over 30 years of programming experience.
With our powers combined - cool apps happen.
We have built two apps already, Nikko & the Spark and Code Jungle. What we’ve heard is that kids love playing games and solving puzzles inside stories. They appreciate context when it comes to solving problems.
One of my favorite responses we have received about Code Jungle, was from one of Yvette's friends who told her “Yvette - I didn’t even realize how bad I was at binary numbers until my daughter showed me with your app that I was wrong. Ha!”
Jen's cousin, Audrey-Anne Bazard, also works with Yvette and Jen as the artist behind the illustrations of the gorgeous app, Nikko & the Spark. You can check out more of Audrey-Anne's incredible work at her online portfolio.
This is one talented family, folks. As a close knit family, we want all parents to feel comfortable interacting with apps with their kids.
Description of the App
Software Safari is a learning app - it’s part interactive eBook, part game - centered on motivating childhood curiosity through creative problem solving. The themes of this book are curiosity, nature, and the power of discovery.
While the content is created with young readers of 5 years or older in mind, the built-in animations and themes will be enjoyable for software fans of all ages.
Kids of all ages will find the exercises woven into the story engaging.
At this point, all of the fundamental code structure is complete. We have also begun the work on basic art and writing. We still have to begin the layout and final art.
The interactive eBook app, Software Safari, will be made available for purchase through iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon on May 31, 2017.
Budget
The $5,000 budget for the release of the app including marketing, partnerships, and licensing for all the software needed to publish the app. It will cost us $199 per month to upgrade our current membership with the amazing Corona Labs so we can grow our apps to the size audiences we want to see using them. We also pay yearly developer fees to Apple, Google, and other content distributors so we can continue to sell our apps on their platforms. We aren't looking to get rich off of this app, we want to cover our expenses, and make some great rewards for you. Most importantly, we need to cover costs so we can devote more time and effort to making great content.
Stretch Goals
We all need to work on our flexibility - especially software programmers - so here are our stetches:
$7000
- We will write a Parents Guide to complement the workbook and make it available as a (PDF) download.
$10,000
- If we hit $10K, we will make an upgraded “Explorer’s Journal”, a soft copy (PDF) workbook of exercises with even more labs that will give kids and parents activities to do together, an advanced version of what they will see in Software Safari.
$25,000
- Upgrades! We’ll make the app available on MacOS for AppleTV
$50,000
- Round two! If we raise over $50,000, we’ll make a sequel app to Software Safari to be released on all platforms that we support by January 2018.
