I’ve gone by gut instinct a lot in the past when quoting projects (alongside line itemed excel sheets); custom training is notoriously difficult to plan out, as everything is potentially up to artistic interpretation and there’s no way to guess how many rounds of revision or approval a project might take. When looking around into competitor’s pricing guidelines I get the feeling they feel the same way. 

So what am I getting at? I honestly feel that this year we are developing and delivering some of the highest quality work we’ve ever completed as a company, and yet our project prices always seem to stay in check. In talking with my employees during the quoting process there’s a bit of a struggle to find that spot where we make enough to survive and prosper, but not charge any more than we have to. Our skills and the love of what we do compels us to make quality projects, designs and solutions for each of our clients – but that doesn’t mean we need to jack up the price. I feel a lot of developers have it wrong – they seem to be charging an immense amount and delivering sub-quality work. I want to be known as the company that delivers a $40,000 course for $12,000 – while putting in detail and creativity that no one else can offer. As my one client put it: “You’re not cheap… you’re high value!” 

I seem to watch a lot of CNBC Bizography at night, and noticed at the end of the George Foreman special his dream in life was to be thought of as a nice guy. Here’s someone who makes millions, is everywhere in the public eye, and in the end his priorities are family and kindness. Doesn’t that tell you something?  I get an immense amount of joy working with the people I meet, and working on a wide variety of projects. It really is my honor to work with the clients we have here, and I hope it shows through that more than anything I strive to run an honest and open business where creativity and innovation are what counts. Staying on budget and meeting deadlines count too, they just don’t make for very inspirational blog posts. 

In the end it really is all about passion, drive to learn something new and knowing tomorrow is a new challenge. We are amazing; because you give is amazing opportunities to shine. Yes I’m on my 6th cup of coffee, but you should still have a tear rolling down your cheek right about now.

Is it a given that kids can only be entertained with excitement, clever puzzles and captivating characters? Or maybe it’s that adult training happens to land more around the area of “here’s how to refinance your home using our 15 step mortgage calculator”. The following projects are made for kids, but more often these days we’re looking to get creative characters, engaging environments and unified (short & to the point) goals that are memorable and have long lasting educational value into adult training.

This first piece is the NCFL (National Center for Family Literacy) “Literacy House”. I had the pleasure of working with a great idea of theirs, and helped turn it into a living breathing experience with a variety of illustrations, photos and multiple voice overs. I got to bring in my 2 year old daughter Elena into the project (that’s her voice you can hear throughout) while I played the role of daddy (how fitting!).

Users can explore a house and simply roll over and click different areas of interest to learn about various ways you can incorporate literacy into every day of your child’s life. Rarely do I find a project I can bring into my own personal life, but this one honestly works with kids – there are a ton of ideas and suggestions throughout, so take a look!

Our other two project launches (both with NCFL and Smithsonian) are the “How would you feel” Greensboro Sit Ins simulation, which teaches the user about various perspectives of a variety of people throughout a sit in. And finally the Find  a Flag is more along the lines of where’s waldo for U.S. flags – explore the environment to discover fun facts about the U.S. flag, and if you find them all you get a surprise at the end!

 The projects are filed under Educational Games and Basic Simulations in our eLearning portfolio, check them out today!

Monkey Island, the first and the best!

Reading through Ron Gilbert’s blog: the Grumpy Gamer (this guy was one of the original creators of ‘Monkey Island’), he had announced the release of early 1990′s era point and click classics such as Loom, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and many others to Valve’s online Steam system. While originally used to sell virtual copies of Half Life and Half Life 2, Steam has become a great library of online games & game media (over 1,500 so far), allowing companies who can’t afford to pay publishers to sell their wares.

Loom - a short game but heavy on plot and character development

When I first played some of these games, I was floored.. the level of detail in the story, the non-linear gaming, the cause and effect action in the plot and the great characters all came together to form a memorable and life changing experience. I can only think of a few games in the last 8 years that have stuck with me as being fond memories, but nothing tops the nostalgia and thrill of those old classics 19 or so years after first playing them.. now that’s staying power.

Monkey Island 2, where else can you row a coffin through a swamp?

Those games got me interested in interaction, game development, character animation, story and plot, which in turn pointed me to a life in eLearning and educational games. I’m simply happy that a new generation of kids and adults now has instant access to these games, and might possibly get inspired the same way I did back in the day.