HTML5, Webiva and GamesForLanguage

As we are moving from the demo phase into the full production phase for our four initial languages German, Italian, French and Spanish, we continue to be amazed and impressed by the software platform Webiva, which is the "engine" that powers our web-based self-teaching language program.

When we started out with our idea of creating a self-teaching language program that uses games as a principal teaching tool, we really had no concept yet how we could implement it.

We certainly knew that Cykod had developed a "Rails based" content management system, Webiva, but really had no idea what the Inbound Marketing Platform of the Webiva Performance Inbound Marketing Platform really meant.

Over the last few months, as we developed our language scripts, the Cykod team added various games to Webiva's "backend", as they call it. Without consulting any manual or much instructions, both my wife and I figured out how to add our language components to the games, and as importantly, how we could edit and modify them. We could easily add game screens, re-arrange the sequence of the games, and make other changes on our own.

As we went "live", initially with German and then with French games, Webiva let us see the number of hits, the number of users who tried our demos, how long a player stayed on each game, etc. We are also very grateful to all the players who filled out the surveys. Their feedback caused us to make changes, re-arrange, shorten some and modify other games.

We are also learning about Google adwords, Facebook links, twitter, how to blog on the GamesForLanguage.com site and all the other "bells and whistles" of Webiva.

The ease with which we were able to get familiar with Webiva, input our foreign language scripts and demo recordings, made us think about whether "Webiva gamesforlanguage" should not be marketed as a wonderful teaching tool to educational institutions. But this idea may be for another blog...

In the name of full disclosure we should note that Cykod, LLC was started by our son and his wife and that Webiva.com is their brainchild!

Postscript: Our son's experience with HTML5 and our site development also motivated him to write a book: Professional HTML5 Mobile Game Development.