WORKING TITLE: The Jump App

Hariharan Ramakrishnan

EDUCrate

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Table of Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3

The Jump App ..................................................................................................................... 4

Research .............................................................................................................................. 4

Exisiting Games .............................................................................................................. 5

Market Analysis .......................................................................................................... 7

Design ................................................................................................................................. 7

Gameplay Mechanism ........................................................................................................ 9

Coding ............................................................................................................................... 10

Marketing……………………………………………………………………………….. 24

Project Iteration……………………………………………………………………………7

Release Details…………………………………………………………………………….7

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Abstract

This game app is created with the intention of helping middle school students gain more interest

in STEM related courses and expand on various opportunities. The reason to use the gaming

environment is because of one core fact, students do not want to be reminded about classrooms

outside school. How do we get students involved and get them to learn outside classroom and

apply what they have learnt or possibly understood during their lectures? Hence, gaming

environment. Each game will have practical implementation of the what the student has learnt in

class by creating an environment which, the student can identify or relate to, thereby generating

interest, and allowing the student to play in that environment while making sure that they are

implementing the topics of classroom. This is the key feature of this app.

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WORKING TITLE: The Jump App

This app is basically what the name says. You play as the Jumper, Hero. Your mission is to

reach the destination and stop the disaster that is being planned. To reach the destination, Hero

decides to take the easy route by jumping from on rooftop to the next. On his path he is faced with

obstacles and must also collect coins. Some villains will come and try to stop Hero, but he can use

them as jump support and boost his jump while kicking them. This adds extra boost to Hero and

doubles the score. If the jump is not accurate Hero will fall down. There are three lives in total

with additional life kits on the way along with certain power ups. This forms the basic story outline

of the game, this game might be an infinity loop game, that is, there no end destination to the game.

When the character dies, based on the score, the character will be given a power up. This app is

going to be only iOS and based on the run, will decide its future.

Research

Jumping style games already exist in the current market and most of them are performing

exceptional with good ratings. Few apps for naming are: Temple Run, Spider Man, Crazy Agent

Parker. Although the last one has a bad review, the other apps I know are well established and have

become a series now with new characters being updated and new challenges introduced. The

following section has deep analysis of each game in aspect of the game mechanism, visualization,

concept, game environment and gameplay logic. The next section will analyze the market trends

that game created based on user rating and reviews. These sections are contributed to show how

the game I am creating is quite different to the games that exists.

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Temple Run

It might not be an exact jump game but, they sure got the physics right!

Fig 1: Temple Run Screenshot

This game is an infinity loop game. The game never ends until you die. The high score is generated

based on the distance you ran. The obstacles that they placed on the way were tree trunks that

covered the path. If it was on the base you had to jump and if it was in between, you had to slide.

There was basic left and right turn on the paths and a few power collectibles. The later upgrades

came with narrow paths, jump in between gaps, different collection of coins, different playable

characters and new power collectibles. The game story seems its been based on Indiana Jones,

where the player has taken an artifact and has to flee from the chasing Monkey-like creatures that

is protecting the artifact.

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Analysis

IGN rated the game a 75 out of a possible 100. Thunderbolt rated the game 90 out of 100.

Gamezebo rated the game a 100 out of 100. The game is about running and the team behind the

app has worked on the physics and logic really well. The critics thought the thrill and intensity of

this game was great and also points out to the fact that we all have wanted to be Indiana Jones at

some point. Multiplayer It says, “Temple Run is a very good running game with accurate touch

controls, frenetic action and lots of achievements and power-ups to unlock. Its simple, fun and

free!”. IGN says, “A fast and frenzied iPhone experience. The combination of swiping and tilt

controls gives each session a frantic feeling. Right now the package feels a little basic and

derivative, but still quite fun.” All these reviews are for Temple Run 1 when it first released in

2011.

Gameplay Mechanics

The basic gameplay had the user swipe the screen to control the character. If the character

has to turn right, the gamer had to swipe the screen right and if the character had to jump, they had

to simply swipe the screen up. As the game progresses the speed of the character increases and

thus the gamer has to respond to the challenges more quickly, which makes the gameplay more

interesting. Adding coins along the way is another bonus for the game designers as it increases the

challenge of getting more coins to buy power-ups later on in the game. Thus, in conclusion the

gameplay mechanics was just swipe on the screen. There was only one button that was used to

implement the power up.

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Design: The Jump App

Preliminary design for this app was to make it look like a mathematics app where

the user had to calculate the distance between two buildings to jump. As cited by Richard Van Eck1,

it would “suck the fun out as Prensky would say”. Hence, I decided to change the design by making

it an action jump game, where the user would control the character’s speed and also at the same

time kick enemies and use them as a jump board.

In this section I am going to provide details of Xcode and Swift. Xcode is the programming

software that Apple provides for developers and Swift is the new programming language that has

been released by Apple. To understand the new interface of the software, I had to study the basics

of Swift coding and I am giving a few samples of my work with trying to achieve basic apps using

swift coding. Throughout this process, I gave more importance to the User-Interface Design of

each app. UI of any app is directly focused on the UX. User Experience is an integral part of any

application developer.

Some samples of my app design include basic apps such as: Calculating Cat Years, Timer

App, Is it Prime App, How Many Fingers App. The logic behind each of these apps are pretty basic

and the programming part is not that difficult but, as said before I focused more on the UI design

part of the app development. “Games depend on logic, memory, visualization, and mathematics,

reflexes and problem solving”, Alan Amory, Kevin Naicker, Jacky Vincent and Claudia Adams2.

Hence in my game I have decided to incorporate all these elements but also add the basic formula

of physics for acceleration a= vf – vo / t which is, Change in Velocity / Time Taken.

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App 1: Calculating Cat Years

The app is exactly as the name suggests. Basic conversion from human years to cat years.

This app uses basic mathematics operations.

Fig 2: Cat Years

The app was done completely using Xcode, Apple’s programming software. As shown in fig

3, the base coding is in the new programming language introduced by Apple called Swift. This is

close to Objective-C coding and is similar in syntax and declaration of parameters. The code is

given as follows:

@IBOutlet var Age: UITextField! @IBOutlet var resultAge: UILabel! @IBAction func findAge(sender: AnyObject) {

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var enteredAge = Age.text.toInt() if enteredAge != nil { var catYears = enteredAge! * 7 resultAge.text = "Your Cat is: \(catYears) in cat years" } else { resultAge.text = "Enter a whole number" } }

Fig 3: Code for Cat Years

The code has spaces for the Label where the user will receive their answers, TextField to

give an input and communicate with the app and finally an action button where we give the

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function that the app must perform when the user interacts with that button. In this app, when the

user hits findAge button, the app takes the value entered in the textField and calculates the age of

the cat with the entered formula. In the above app I have entered the mathematical operation as,

use the textField value, multiply it with seven and display the result in the Label.

App 2: Is it Prime?

This app goes up the ladder with the mathematical quotient of coding. In this app we use

the looping statements.

Fig 4: Is It Prime?

The basic UI design has TextField for user to enter the data. In both apps, the keyboard for the

User Interface has been made as Numerial Pad as, in both cases, user has to enter values in number

only. Enter a word and the app will crash. From Fig 4, the UI is simple design, single page view,

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as in interacting with the app does not lead you to another completely different page. We have

three labels in the app, the title label, the sub-heading label and the result label that displays

whether the entered number in the textField is prime or not. The interactive aspect of this app is

the Button, IsItPrime? When the user clicks on the button after entering the value on the textField,

the mathematics operation of the code is executed. The UIButton is a function that invokes the set

of code when the user interacts with the app.

The code is as follows:

@IBOutlet var userEntry: UITextField! @IBOutlet var result: UILabel! @IBAction func resultCheck(sender: AnyObject) { var entryInt = userEntry.text.toInt() if entryInt != nil{ if entryInt != 0 { var isPrime = true var unwrappedNumber = entryInt! if unwrappedNumber == 1 { isPrime = false } if unwrappedNumber != 2 && unwrappedNumber > 2 { for var i = 2; i < unwrappedNumber; i++ { if unwrappedNumber % i == 0 { isPrime = false } } }

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if isPrime == true { result.text = "\(unwrappedNumber) is prime" } else { result.text = "\(unwrappedNumber) is not prime" } } else { result.text = "Enter valid number" } } else { result.text = "Please enter a number" } }

Fig 5: Code for Is It Prime?

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App 3: How Many Fingers

In this app, I make the system generate a random number between 0 to 10. This is sort of the game

app where the system generates a number and when the user enters a number in the textField, the

app verifies whether the number it generated and the number entered by the user are the same. If

they are the app will say it was correct and if the user guessed wrong, the app will generate the

error saying the user guess wrong and will reveal the number it generated.

Fig 6: How many Fingers?

The UI design is similar to the ones that have been previously shown. The keypad is again set to

numerical pad as word in the textField will throw errors that will cause the app to crash. From the

Fig 6, the app is again a single view page. The design has Label with the title and message to help

the user understand the function of the app. The button is the function that invokes the code. The

interactive elements in the app are the textField and the Button. When the user interacts with the

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textField, the numerical pad is called. This part of the code is done in the AppDelegate.swift part

of the code. The logic portion of the code is executed in the ViewController.swift. The

AppDelegate code is called when the app is selected from the main home screen on the device and

governs the key aspects of the informing the ViewController, when the app is called and when

interaction happens. The AppDelegate becomes active when the application is opened and is also

responsible for termination of the application. The code for How Many Fingers is as follows:

import UIKit class ViewController: UIViewController { @IBOutlet var userGuess: UITextField! @IBOutlet var result: UILabel! @IBAction func guessButton(sender: AnyObject) { var randomNumber = arc4random_uniform(11) var guessInt = userGuess.text.toInt() if guessInt != nil { if Int(randomNumber) == guessInt && guessInt <= 10 { result.text = "Correct!" } else if guessInt > 10 { result.text = "Enter numbers between 0 - 10" } else { result.text = "Wrong! the answer was \(randomNumber)" } } else {

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result.text = "Please Enter a Number" } println(userGuess.text) } override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib. } override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() { super.didReceiveMemoryWarning() // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated. } }

Fig 7: Code screen of How Many Fingers

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Other Practice Programming

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The Jump App

In this section, I will be discussing the design aspects of the Jump Game. The key aspect

of the Jump App is the physics and some “fun game” elements that will be used. The game design

is simple. The next section will explain the different screens that will be available and the basic

game mechanism and functions. The following section will give the logic of how the game will

interact with the user. The final section will refer to how the design aspect will expand on the user

experience of the app and how I have implemented the informal learning aspect in the game.

User Interface and User Experience Design

This game has been set in Mumbai, India. Mumbai is chosen for two reasons: it is the most

populated city in India and more important fact, wealthiest city in India. Hence, with the game

storyline, if there is any city that will be attacked today, it will Mumbai, followed closely by

Chennai. That maybe a possibility for a future update.

The current UI design for the app has the Mumbai skyline at the background with the slums area

in the front. That is not how the view is exactly in real time, but the idea is to involve the slums

and have the skyline at the background is to show the diversity in lifestyle in the city. The objective

of the game is simple. Hence the first design decision is to make the User Interface as easy for the

gamer to understand as possible.

The Home screen does not have tons of information. The options are Play, Settings and

Share. Play takes the gamer to the game. Settings takes the gamer to adjust audio, SFX, Brightness

and Blood in the game. The share option is kept for marketing the game through social media

space by users. The two designs displayed in fig 8 and 9, have different texts for the information

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displayed. I am still drawing in different ideas in designing the perfect UI as the brain responds to

form, depth, movement and color. This is from the saying, “seeing comes before words.”

Fig 8: Home Screen Design

In this game, I have three buttons. The User Interface design is simple, aesthetic, and really easy

to understand. Most of us have our right hand more flexible than our left. Considering this, the

right side of the screen has two buttons, namely, Hit and Run. The left side of the screen has one

button Jump. The game will also make use of the mobile sensors by allowing the users to tilt their

device to control the movement direction of the character.

In general, User Experience of the game must be easy to understand without any

complicated moves in the game. Hence, my decision to make to have as few buttons as possible

and also using the mobile’s sensors to do the movement. This makes the game easy for the user to

understand and have fun while playing the game. Taking Temple Run for example, the only

operations that the user had to make was swipe the screen based on the challenges that were placed

in the game.

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Similarly, in this game, there are going to be challenges such as high jumps, leaps, and the

best part enemies. These are the challenges that are going to be placed for the users to face. Based

on other successful games the obstructions are the part that make the game aspect most fun! The

attack on the enemies will be simple. The character has a suitcase which has the bomb. When the

user touches the Hit button, the character will chuck the suitcase on the enemy’s face and then

have a choice to either use their body as an instrument to get a better leap on their jump.

For moving the character, the users have to tilt screen to control the movement. This is the

option that I have in mind and one that allows a challenging gameplay. The objective is to ensure

that the user is completely involved in the game and at no point feels that the game is getting boring.

Fig 9: Gameplay Screen Design

Flowchart

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Load Screen

Application

Selected

App

Homescreen

Play / Settings /

Share

Select Level

Gameplay

screen

Settings Page Share Page

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Gameplay Screen

Jump Button

Hit and Run

Button

If

Speed < Required Speed

&&

Speed > Required Speed

Jump Success

If

Distance > Acceleration

&&

Speed = Required Speed + Extra

Acceleration

Extra Acceleration

If

Enemy Present?

&&

Enemy Hit != Success

Jump Fail

Yes

No

Yes No

AND

AND

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Settings Page

Marketing

I. Executive Summary

The company name that I want to start is going to be called E.D.U.Crate. Here we

will be focusing only on creating educational games, either in the form of an app or PC version.

With this company I do not want to expand to commercial games, but focus on simulation game

industry and perhaps further expand to the Indian Army training simulation projects.

II. Company Description

E.D.U.Crate, we want to create educational game apps that are fun and engaging. The apps

will connect science concepts to everyday life situations which will help students grasp the

concepts easier and faster. We hope to increase students’ examination scores by building their

knowledge of foundational concepts in the STEM subjects. If students do not grasp the concepts

strongly in beginning course work, then they will struggle in later courses. We want to prevent that

from happening by offering apps that will assist their learning process. Most importantly, providing

games that show how science is used daily makes the subjects relevant which increases students’

interest and engagement.

Mission:

E.D.U.Crate’s mission is to offer educational game apps that use fundamental science concepts to

play the game.

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Or

E.D.U.Crate’s mission is to offer games that teach fundamental science concepts using real life

examples.

Our goal is to increase student’s understanding of science so they not only perform higher on their

exams, but understand the concepts so they can understand more advanced science concepts later

on in their career.

What we do:

• We are aiming for middle school and high school users.

• Games will use real world interactive examples for increasing students’ understanding and

genuine interest.

• Our Apps are focused on getting students interested in STEM subjects and giving them a

strong foundation of the concepts.

Keys to Success:

• Each app will make learning done through gameplay so students view learning as fun and

not as work.

• Each game will use real world based learning to help students connect science with their

life.

• There will be game apps for each of the STEM subjects so students can develop their

knowledge of each of the subjects.

• Teachers can use the apps to get their students interested in the subjects and assist in the

learning process.

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III. Products

E.D.U.Crate’s goal is to provide separate apps for each of the STEM subjects. Each app will

contain different games to teach the various concepts within each subject.

Our start-up app will be focused on physics. This app will show students that the basic elements

of physics, like force, gravity, and motion, are part of our day-to-day activities. This will help them

realize that we experience physics every day and that science is relevant to our lives and not

something just in their textbooks.

There are many educational apps available, but these apps deal with the topic directly although in

an interactive manner. However, E.D.U.Crate’s apps will teach the topic indirectly by using

gameplay. This will teach the students the concepts without causing them to turn away from the

app because it’s similar to a lesson.

For example, there are two ways students can learn about inertia. Inertia is a property of matter by

which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state

is changed by an external force.

Current education apps would teach inertia by

While E.D.U.Crate’s physics app explains the law of inertia with a game that is based on the law.

The game deals with a person travelling in a bus and is standing. The user will be the bus driver.

The objective of the game is to drive everyone on the bus without causing trouble. If the student

breaks too hard, a passenger might slip and fall on the passenger ahead of him, causing a problem.

If accelerated too fast, the passenger might slip and fall off the bus!

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This game teaches the law in a fun interactive manner and without explicitly telling them about

inertia. Instead it allows students to learn about the law by manipulating the effects of it in a daily

situation.

For teachers, the app will have a tracking feature so students’ progress can be tracked. Allowing

teachers to monitor students’ grasp of different concepts.

What makes E.D.U.Crate’s apps stand out?:

• Other educational apps only focus on the topic directly making it more like an interactive

lesson. However, our apps will teach the concept through gameplay.

• Our gameplay apps use real day-to-day examples to teach students. This makes this app

seem more relevant and concepts less abstract unlike other educational apps.

• Generally, people don’t download educational apps unless they absolutely have to, but

since this app is gameplay-based students will be more open to the apps.

• Tracking system for teachers to monitor each student’s progress.

IV. Market Analysis

E.D.U.Crate will be part of India’s movement to digitalize the classroom and develop the Edtech

industry in the country. With the increasing need for more schools and improving education

standards to ensure students are prepared to enter the job market, educational technology can be

the key. Technology has shown to be beneficial in the classroom and transform how teachers teach

and students learn. Additionally, the emerging field of gameplay is developing rapidly and it has

great potential for education. By targeting the students and teachers, our app will appeal to the

direct users.

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Segmentation:

Students—They will use it to review the concepts they are introduced to in their lessons.

Most likely they will have a smartphone or have access to a device in order to use the app.

Teachers—They can use it to ensure their students grasp the concepts in the lessons. Also

they can sue the app to assign homework and track their students’ progress.

Market Size, Growth, and Needs

In the upcoming years the number of schools in India will increase to accommodate the huge

population segment entering secondary and higher education. Technopak estimates ________ will

need to be built. Also IBEF states that India’s goal is to develop 500 million skilled workers in

2022. Ensuring that India accommodates this need and provide quality education has its challenges.

However, educational technology can be part of the solution to transforming the education sector

in India. Currently, India’s three different education systems cover STEM subjects with different

depths and varying teaching style. Based on statistics for the different systems, the knowledge

level of students decrease as they progress through school, except for state board education there

is a slight increase overall. Unfortunately, if students’ knowledge level decreases from middle

school to high school years, these students will struggle when they enter college and not perform

at an optimal level.

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The graph shows the knowledge level of students of what they actually learn.

Facts from: Measuring Student Knowledge and Skills.

Market Trends

Education technology making impact

According to research, gameplay

Smartphone market

It has been estimated that _____smartphones

70% 66% 62% 61% 60%55% 53% 52% 51% 50%43% 42% 40% 42% 45%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%

Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10

Knowledge of Students

ICSE CBSE State Board

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V. Marketing Strategy

In keeping with these current trends, E.D.U.Crate will provide innovative education gameplay

apps for students and teachers. Our apps will be a useful tool for students as they learn core

concepts. Also, our apps will support teachers as they prepare students to be a _____workforce.

Marking Materials

• Website

• Business Cards

• Brochures

Promotion Strategy

• Press Releases

• Educational Venues

• Online Marketing

Ø Keywords: Gameplay, Educational Technology, Educational Apps,

Ø SEO

Ø Social Media

Targeting Students: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Targeting Teachers: Linked In, Facebook

Price Strategy

Placement of Product

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• App Store

• Google Play Store (may expand)

VI. Management Summary

The management summary section of your business plan describes how your business is structured,

introduces who is involved, outlines external resources and explains how the business is managed.

E.D.U.Crate is a start-up company involving four team members who will do all the work in house.

Team Members

• Hariharan Ramakrishnan – UI/UX Designer, Programmer and Project Lead

• Sameul Paul David – Consultant, Advisor

VII. Financial Analysis

The financial analysis section of your business plan should contain the details for financing your

business now, what will be needed for future growth as well as estimating your operating expenses.

VIIl. Appendix and Supporting Information

The appendix of your business plan includes information that supports your statements,

assumptions and reasoning used in the other sections of your business plan. This may include

graphs, charts, statistics, photos, marketing materials, research and other relevant data.