Education games... Have you done them?

goliath

Hey guys, I'm kind of at a crossroads in my game development... I want to do an educational game, among others, so I was wondering who has experience with them and how have they sold ??

Just would like some feedback....

I want to do a game that I can showcase what I can do as an artist and have kids play.

StusApps

Have seen a few by others do well. But so far all my educational games have sold badly. Our tiki bear phonics game took quite a lot of work, we ended up making the vowel sounds version free to try to push the bigger one, it gets pretty low sales still (20 a week or so).

goliath

Crap... Thanks man... I'll keep you updated...

Mixel

I'm working on one I hope to submit tonight or tomorrow at the latest.. I'll tell you how it goes. It's only vaguely educational but i think that's probably part of the fun.

JamesZeppelin

Education apps are as or more competitive because people think they can dump crap in there really quickly.

There are tons of apps.

As a parent I find educational apps made by people who are not education professionals or at least have some basic training on child development offensive and shady.

Im not talking about games but actual apps that claim to teach your kid to read etc.

butterbean

I've done many educational apps and have basic child development knowledge from nursing experience.

Kids are tough critics, and have very limited attention spans.

If the graphics aren't catchy, the games not randomized, and variety not offered, then it's a no go, and they'll shut it off in under a minute.

I'm still learning, but it helps to look at other apps within the genre that are particularly in the top 10, and see how they do their games and such.

You more than likely won't make a lot of money off them, as you can see, not too many educational apps are in the top 200.

I would suggest trying to add variety to your apps and not stick to one genre

Mixel

I have a two year old daughter and experience working with people and various learning difficulties. I agree though edu apps making claims about their potential are a bit weird if they're coming from people without the training to back it up.

My apps are going to be entertainment with a sprinkling of education.. Some hopefully with a bit of appeal outside the obvious audiences too. I don't think a toddler shutting a game off in less than a minute is a bad thing necessarily - we're not trying to make a gamer out of them with it. Certainly mine switches between her apps at a pretty rapid pace and plays with them all occasionally for bursts of a few mins. The best are things like flash cards which she makes her own games out of. (pretending to be all of the things usually)

The best "educational" apps Ive bought my daughter have just been fun silly things. I think artists, musicians and parents can be as qualified as anyone to supply those. She did learn her numbers and alphabet almost entirely from ipod apps of her own accord (very early).

gregr209

I guess you can say my 'Pick A Party - Senate Edition' and 'Pick A Party - President Edition' are somewhat educational. I have done fairly well. Slow and steady sales. I am not rich put am please with what I have done with them.

I have a new quiz game coming out soon...well...I guess I do...I am afraid I won't be able to ever update it with the way things are going around here. My fingers are crossed that they will allow Express memberships to continue because I will not be using GameSalad Direct at all. Only I will be publishing my apps :-)

expired_012

Unless its AMAZING, I say you make it for iPad. I made the same educational app for both iPhone and iPad, and my iPad version made $700 in it's first week while the iPhone one only made me around $30 in it's first week.

I guess it because iPhone has too many educational apps and on iPad its less competition.