Plays like a Game, Acts like a TUTOR

Our project is an ILE (Interactive Learning Environment) for Children, we collect data toward adopting to the individual child. We currently have nearly 4 man years in the project, it is not trivial, and we will be happy to complete Level I (Free) in the next 6 to 8 months.

This will be a Commercial Project from Level II. Contributions to KorGE are intended, we can hope that competitive salaries can be paid. For some idea of the potential of this project: consider that there are over 20,000 Montessori Schools in the world.

We are using a 1940’s Visual Constructed Language (Symbolic ConLANG ) called Bliss to teach Symbolic Words to children, thus, we can thus by-pass the need for an alphabet based phonetic system, and can communicate and take input from children at remarkably young ages, as young as 3 years old, and this happens to be when children are able to learn language particularly naturally.

Teaching Symbols is NOT the end-goal, there are multiple objectives, one of the most obvious and commercially important will be to teach a selected Natural Language (NatLANG).

Adults are learning Symbols at typical rates of well over 25 per hour (as many as 50, average about 30), we do not have good data yet on young children, but indications are positive.

Please consider to preview the Game at: https://funuage-game.web.app/ (at this point).

The concept of the game is pretty simple: Currently there are 12 different components introducing symbols inside the VILLAGE. However, there are Four PATHS out of the Village, and GATES will open to allow the player to try his fortune along any Path the player has learned enough to attempt. The ADVENTURE Path is the most Game Like, where reflexes and general knowledge will be tested, and the educational challenge will be less.

Our current development push will be toward the 2nd Path:: STORIES. Along this Path we hope to use Computer Assisted Pronunciation. We do not need to understand the child, we need, rather, to recognize when the child’s speech is most significantly deviant to target, and we need to “nudge” the child gently toward improved pronunciation, asking the child to repeat, and perhaps presenting a diagram of how to position the tongue and so on. Video information targeting the child’s mouth may also be assistive, this needs to be determined. Soywiz has suggested we consider the following Library: https://github.com/mozilla/DeepSpeech

As per the above FUNuage link, the game is online. I suggest that if you are serious to learn more about the size and scope of this project, that you consider signing up, and playing all the way through our game, it is likely to take about 5 hours.

We are a small international team. Our Swedish Colleague is a top expert in Bliss, we have two Ghanian ex-teachers involved, two Ukrainian artists, an English Writer, and oh yes, a retired programmer from Wisconsin, USA with experience from multiple start-ups. We may also have some very interesting clients, such as the Menomini First Nation Tribe here in Wisconsin. Note that FUNuage is also effective to teach and maintain ancestral languages, as well as modern NatLANGS.

I will attempt to share one more thing. The Game Industry seems over-crowded, noisy, and not always the most positive for our world. I believe, and I’m putting my time, and my wallet where my mouth is everyday, that this project has no real direct competition, can be exciting, and rewarding for programmers that love Game Programming, and of all things, we are dedicated to the KorGE game library for Education.

I can be contacted at GMKoller@gmail.com, we also hang out on Discord (The Digital Bliss Group).