电子艺界创始人转战教育游戏领域

    特里普•霍金斯总是傲然挺立于游戏行业的潮头。忆往昔，当游戏还不是一项主流生意的时候，正在哈佛大学(Harvard University)读书的霍金斯设计了自己的主修专业：战略与应用博弈论。他后来出任苹果电脑公司(Apple Computer )战略和市场营销总监，与史蒂夫•乔布斯并肩工作。1982年，霍金斯辞去这份安稳的工作，创办了自己的企业电子艺界公司(Electronic Arts)。2003年，他创立数字巧克力公司(Digital Chocolate)，开始为蓬勃发展的移动产业开发游戏。

    自2012年卸任数字巧克力公司CEO以来，霍金斯一直在全身心地打理如果你能公司(If You Can Company) ——一家旨在为6到12岁孩童创造教育视频游戏的初创企业。肩负CEO之责的霍金斯将好几位游戏业老兵招致麾下，比如电子艺界公司前制作人斯图尔特•波恩、心灵糖果公司(Mind Candy)旗下网游产品《莫希怪兽》(Moshi Monsters)前负责人本•盖利赫，以及Gamedesk公司和Character Counts公司前执行董事杰西卡•柏林斯基。苹果公司教育业务副总裁约翰•柯西是这家公司的投资者之一，而且已经加入它的董事会。

    到目前为止，霍金斯已经从多家天使和种子风险基金募集了300万美元投资，投资人包括格雷洛克(Greylock)、安德森•霍洛维茨(Andreessen Horowitz)、马贝龙(Maveron)和创始人基金(Founder's Fund)。这家雄心勃勃的公司希望为孩子们开发出寓教于乐的“AAA”级游戏体验。它的处女作是一款名为《如果》(IF…)的iOS游戏，研发团队包括几位曾经在心灵糖果公司工作过的开发人员。相关人员正在加州圣马特奥市处理这款游戏的所有企业和课程工作，游戏的免费版本将于1月下旬率先面向iOS设备推出。

    这款3D动作冒险游戏诱导孩子进行社交和情绪学习( Social and Emotional Learning，简称SEL)，贯彻的是一种强调沟通能力，解决冲突和个性发展等方面的教育理念。为灌输这些概念，《如果》创建了一个以猫和狗为主人公的虚构宇宙。经过多年的交战，猫建立了一个叫做Catonia的家园，狗也建立了自己的家园Dogma。玩家创建一个狗或猫化身，并拥有一位类似于吉米尼蟋蟀(Jiminy Cricket)或小叮当(Tinker Bell)、但形态为猫或狗的精灵向导。所有这些角色都配有话外音，以方便年龄更小的孩子们也能体验到游戏的乐趣。

    霍金斯说：“当玩家们探索Greenberry和它周边地区的时候，我们通过依次展开的游戏体验，直观地向他们呈现课程内容。”他指出，这款游戏将融合任天堂公司(Nintendo)旗下游戏《动物之森》(Animal Crossing )的某些元素，还有一些与《口袋妖怪》(Pokemon)系列游戏相类似的可收集的生物。“垃圾在城里积聚成堆时，玩家可以视而不见，也可以把垃圾捡起来，甚至还可以创建一个回收中心。你在城里累积的善意将让这些角色产生一种类似于《生活多美好》(It's a Wonderful Life)主演吉米•斯图尔特那样的感受。”

    为了让这款游戏具有教育意义，研究人员做了大量工作，而孩子们丝毫不会注意到这些凝聚在游戏场景背后的心血，因为这款游戏设计得非常生动有趣。游戏开发人员借鉴了多份教学标准文件和细则，伊利诺伊州在全美率先推出政府SEL标准，以及SEL领域的先驱努埃瓦学校(Nueva School)自然是他们率先学习的对象。此外，这支团队还与斯坦福研究院(Stanford Research Institute )和加州大学伯克利分校(UC Berkeley)至善科学中心(Greater Good Science Center)结成了合作关系。

    Trip Hawkins has always been ahead of the game. Back when gaming wasn't a mainstream business, he designed his own major in Strategy and Applied Game Theory at Harvard. Hawkins left the safe confines of Apple Computer (AAPL) in 1982, where he worked with Steve Jobs as director of strategy and marketing, to start up his own videogame company, Electronic Arts (EA). In 2003 he founded Digital Chocolate to develop games for the burgeoning mobile industry.

    Since stepping down as CEO of Digital Chocolate in 2012, Hawkins has been focusing his attention on If You Can Company, a startup that creates educational videogames for 6- to 12-year-olds. In his role as CEO, Hawkins has brought game industry vets like Stewart Bonn (former producer from Electronic Arts), Ben Geliher (former product owner of Moshi Monsters at Mind Candy) and Jessica Berlinski (former executive director of Gamedesk and Character Counts) on board. John Couch, vice president of education at Apple, is a company investor and has joined its Board of Directors.

    To date, Hawkins has raised $3 million in capital from angels and seed venture funds, including Greylock, Andreessen Horowitz, Maveron, and Founder's Fund. The idea behind this company is to develop "AAA" quality gameplay experiences that also happen to teach kids while they're playing. The first game from the studio is IF …, an iOS game created by a team that includes former Mind Candy developers. All corporate and curriculum work for the game is being handled in San Mateo, Calif. A free version of the game will launch in late January first on iOS devices.

    The 3-D action-adventure game introduces kids to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), an educational philosophy that emphasizes communication skills, conflict resolution, and character development, among others. IF ... introduces these concepts through a fictional universe featuring cats and dogs. After years of warring, cats have established a home planet of Catonia, and dogs have created Dogma. Players create a dog or cat avatar and receive a spirit guide akin to a Jiminy Cricket or Tinker Bell, but in feline or canine form. All of the characters have been voiced over so that younger children can experience the game as well.

    "We present the curriculum to players intuitively through gameplay experiences that unfold as they explore Greenberry and its surroundings," said Hawkins, who noted the gameplay will have elements of Nintendo's Animal Crossing franchise and also feature collectible creatures a la the Pokemon games. "When litter builds up in town, players can ignore it or they can pick it up and even create a recycling center. The goodwill you build up in the town will have characters feel about similar to Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life."

    While kids won't notice any of it -- the game was designed to be fun and engaging -- a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to make it educational. The game developers draw from several documents and specs regarding teaching standards, beginning with the State of Illinois, which introduced the first-ever government SEL standards, and the Nueva School, pioneers in the SEL field. The team also works with the Stanford Research Institute and with UC Berkeley (Greater Good Science Center).