The founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company and Digital Chocolate, Trip Hawkins, has raised almost $6.5 million to finance a new startup If You Can. The developer wants to create both games and educational applications at once.
The company’s first game was created for iPad and is called “If…”. The first chapter of the project is distributed free of charge. The application is designed to teach children to communicate with peers, manage emotions, make decisions. The developers have conceived to do this with the help of game mechanics. Hawkins stated that if the project becomes successful, he will consider it a more serious achievement than the creation of the Madden NFL Football franchise and the 3DO company.
“If…” is intended for children aged 7 to 11 years. The lessons in this project are presented in an allegorical form – through the conflict of cats and dogs fighting in the town of Greenberry. The player’s task is to reconcile the enemies. A virtual character will make various interesting decisions, causing gamers to sympathize with other participants in the conflict.
The developer received money for the project from Greylock Partners, Almaz Capital and some other investors. If You Can previously “knocked out” $2.8 million from investors of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, and Maveron.
Source: http://venturebeat.com