Antura and the Letters (Arabic)
The pilot project Antura and the Letters was developed (2016-2018) as a winner of the international competition EduApp4Syria. It was developed by a consortium led by the Cologne Game Lab (Germany), Video Games Without Borders (Spain) and Wixel Studios (Lebanon). The team consisted of over 60 people from 7 different countries spanning Europe to the Middle East and North Africa.
The approach used in the game was a blend of phonics instruction and iterative pattern recognition. This method created a meaningful learning experience and explained the logic behind the Arabic language. Children started with an easy introduction to patterns and letter sounds and reiterated the learning process throughout the entire alphabet.
The game’s release was split into two phases:
- An open-beta release (March 2017) where the game was field test by the development team and partners to verify the design methodology and teaching framework. An independent third-party analysis was also conducted in this duration.
- A final release (2018) where the game was updated based on the findings of the development team and the independent analysis.
In a year’s time after the release of its full version, Antura and the Letters has been downloaded over 300,000 times on iOS and Android phones. It has an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 on the Google Play Store. Apart from winning the EduApp4Syria competition, the game also won 6 other international award on the field of game, humanitarian and education, as for instance the Red Cross ICT Award for Humanitarian Purposes by the Spanish Red Cross at the Mobile World Congress 2019, Barcelona, Spain.