Diamond Age Games Deck

Our vision is to delight children and
adults across the world with world-class
video games that help them learn.
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about.1
team.2
advisors.5
opportunity.9
technology.11
market landscape.15
sales.16
competition.17
milestones.19
conclusion.20
support.21

ABOUT

We’re building fun, world-class games, with a purpose -- to help people learn.

Like Bungie for Education (makers of Marathon & Halo); the 21st Century
version of The Learning Company (makers of Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego). We’re build-
ing the next big game studio; world-class games, with a purpose.

From Mario to Halo, Final Fantasy VII to Mass Eﬀect 3, Zelda to Modern Warfare, the gam-
ing industry -- specifically console and handheld gaming -- have produced games with
stories that increasingly have jaw-dropping graphics, advanced physics engines, realis-
tic scenery, Hollywood dialogues, and hours of cut scenes. These games weave together
some of the most incredible stories that humanity has ever witnessed.

And yet, as in other areas, education is trailing far behind; the most advanced games in
the app store deal with simple fractions,rudimentary language skills, arithmetics, spelling,
and introductory lessons generally for kids under 10-years-old. There isn’t a place to play
serious, world-class games and also learn college and secondary-level education.

We’re going to change that.

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TEAM
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jennifer arguello

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Jennifer was part of the team that shipped the first Xbox Kinect. She’s worked at Product @
Mozilla and has more than 15 years experience in STEM non-profits. She’s a SOCCER addict,
maker of a better world, and destroyer of the status quo.

2

nicholas dyszel jon tornetta

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Loves all things programming, piano, and Penn State honors graduate in biology. Jujitsu
plants. And math. A winner of CodePSU compe- fighter and wrestler. Cigar-lover. Co-founded
tition. Dean’s List. First keyboard in Dirty Rotten Penn State Entrepreneurship Group.
Scoundrels.

3

xavier sythe david adewumi


Game designer, blogger, entrepreneur, and David speaks French, Spanish, and Mandarin. He
open-source fanboy. Game designer since 2004. has traveled in almost every state in the United
Founder, Zelcon Games. Currently at Adobe. States and was an All-American in track and field.
He was born and raised in Happy Valley, Pennsyl-
vania -- home of the Penn State Nittany Lions.


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ADVISORS
technology
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karl kapp


Karl M. Kapp, Ed.D., CFPIM, CIRM, is a professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg
University in Bloomsburg, PA. Karl teaches graduate level courses including “Learning in 3D”
and “Instructional Game Design” where he teaches students to leverage technology and inter-
active design to promote learning. He is a Co-Principle Investigator on a National Science Foun-
dation (NSF) grant titled “Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE).”

Karl has written five books including Learning in 3D and Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for
Learning. His latest book called The Gamification of Learning and Instruction. In the book, Karl
explores the research and theoretical foundations behind eﬀective game-based learning. He
examines everything from variable reward schedules to the use of avatars to the use
of games to teach pro-social behaviors. 5

storyteller
sean hood


Sean Hood is an American screenwriter best known for horror (Halloween: Resurrection,
Fear Itself, Masters of Horror), and more recently, action/thrillers (Conan the Barbarian 3D).
Hood teaches screenwriting at USC School of Cinematic Arts, the school from where he
graduated in 1997 with an MFA in production. His student short film, “The Shy and the
Naked” won a grant from the Sloan Foundation for the positive portrayal of science.

Sean was one of the founding members of Filmmakers Alliance and often collaborates
creatively with FA’s president, Jacques Thelemaque. His most recent short film is Melancholy
Baby. And his most recent completed script is Rambo: Last Stand.
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designer
per micael nyberg


Designer at GREE. Develops software/hardware. Worked at Kayac, Thq, Aikona Games,
Auran, Opus Games.

7

educator business
alice keeler vince mikolay


Alice Keeler is a leader in instructional Co-Founder of Pannl : The Conversation
technology. A classroom teacher for 14 years Network. Started an IT consulting firm at 11.
she has everyday experience applying innovative Developed and sold first peer-to-peer. network
instructional techniques to a core subject. She (BBS) at 13. Global Strategy & Business
obtained her bachelors in mathematicsand Development; North America Marketing at
masters degree in educational media design Disney. MBA from USoCal.
and is a Google Certified Teacher.


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OPPORTUNITY
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“Imagine a world in the next few decades, where technology companies spend as much time,
design and engineering talent, money and resources on designing chemistry and algebra
courses as they do on games like Halo and Modern Warfare.” Reed Hastings, CEO Of Netflix said at
Davos In The Desert”, The Education Innovation Summit held at Arizona State.

An issue that comes up repeatedly when considering games and learning is the fact that video
games appear to be deeply motivating to young people in ways in which much of school is not.

So many students in school cannot apply the knowledge they are learning in practice,
even when they can pass verbal paper-and-pencil tests. One reason for this is that stu-
dents very often do not know what the words (and other symbols) in an area like physics
mean at the level of application to real problem solving, rather than just as words they can
define in terms of other words (as in a dictionary).

Don Menn (1993) writes that students can only remember 10 percent of what they read;
20 percent of what they hear; 30 percent, if they see visuals related to what they are hear-
ing; 50 percent, if they watch someone model something while explaining it; but almost 90
percent, if they engage in the job themselves, even if only as a simulation.

Gee, James Paul. “Learning and Games.” The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Edited by Katie Salen. The John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 21–40. doi: 10.1162/dmal.9780262693646.021 9

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40 135 100
hours typical course for college students
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hours required time of interactive gameplay
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hours typical course for high school students
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Many of the best games in history required more than 100 hours of interactive gameplay;
often with gamers beating the game after a long weekend no-sleep session, or day-after-day
of after-school marathons. Imagine a gamer putting that much time and eﬀort into their
studies. Diamond Age Games will excite students to that same degree with our gaming
courses relevant to their school curriculum and will follow Common Core standards. It would
be a great additive course to reinforce what they’re learning in the classroom and provide
an opportunity for the “flipped model,” where by students are learning at home and working
with teachers in school.

Good game design is also design for good learning, since good games are, at their heart,
learning and problem-solving experiences.

People learn from experiences stored in long-term memory. Since video games are virtual experi-
ences centered on problem solving, they recruit learning and mastery as a form of pleasure.

Video games oﬀer people experiences in a virtual world, and they use learning, problem
solving, and mastery for engagement and pleasure.

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TECHNOLOGY
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Facade| fä-kad | (noun)
First-person, futuristic, 3D, puzzle-platform, adventure game. Built using Unity3D, one of
the most advanced game-engines. Players will use nanotechnology to unlock areas and
progress through the game world. The game will feature principles of philosophy and eco-
nomics. We plan on releasing mobile first (iOS and Android) with Desktop (Mac/Windows/
Linux) soon to follow.


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MARKET LANDSCAPE
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$
500 315 70 20 + + +
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=
68
million students in US
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million gamers worldwide million iOS devices
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million iPads
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SALES

Steam for Mac, Linux and Windows distribution; iOS and Android for mobile distribution.
Tablet games for $9.99 and Mac/Windows/Linux games at $19.99.

76.8M
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downloads per year
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6.4M
100K 200K 800K
year one year two year three year four year five

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COMPETITION
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What we’re building does not exist yet.

There have been attempts at creating games that are educational; or education that is fun
and “gamified.” The most successful company was “The Learning Company” creators of
games like The Oregon Trail and Reader Rabbit.

The original Oregon Trail game was built in 1972.

Motion Math, MindSnacks, TapToLearn, Manga High and other companies are focused on
language or early childhood education.

There are very few companies who are making world-class games on the level of Nintendo,
Sega, EA, Activision, Bungie, and others.

“Sadly, they may go by the name “games” they usually end up bearing little resemblance
to the games mentioned above (Halo, Zelda, Mario, Final Fantasy) that promote learning of
21st century skills, instead being little more than interactive quizzes. The resemblance to
a game is meaningless when the activity is nothing more than answering multiple-choice
questions and when success is measured solely as the percentage of correct answers

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given expressed as a “score” and presented with a fun animation.”

Diamond Age games is the first of it’s kind aiming to make world-class games that help
students learn advanced, college preparatory and secondary education material.

MIT recently funded a project for $3m to make a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing
Game (MMORPG) in mathematics; MMORPGs are the most diﬃcult and expensive games
to make in history. We’re starting smaller.


Klopfer, Eric; Osterweil, Scot; Salen, Katie. “Moving Learning Games Forward.” With contributions by Jason Haas, Jennifer Groﬀ and Dan Roy. The Education
Arcade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 18

MILESTONES
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We aim to build a team of individuals on par with the leading game, movie and animation
studios. Many of the top venture capitalists often ask: “How will you hire your 20th employee?”
Our answer: people yearn for meaning; for catharsis and reconciliation. As AAA game studio
firms go out of business, there exists an incredibly talented pool of game designers,
programmers, and creators who want to create something meaningful, make a dent in the
universe -- and create insanely great games.

fall 2012
Hire Key Roles: Technical Director, Art Director, Screenwriter, and Humanities Teacher.
Begin story writing for second and third games in math and science.

fall 2013
Release Facade and begin development on second game. The first four games
from Diamond Age Games are intended to focus on High School and College Prep level
introductory courses in basic subjects: Maths (Algebra), Sciences (Biology and Chemistry),
and Humanities (History, English and Economics). Diamond Age games aims to put
together a team of individuals on par with the leading games and animated movies.

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CONCLUSION

Good game design is also design for good learning, since good games are, at their heart,
learning and problem-solving experiences.

Video games are good at putting language into the context of dialogue, experience, imag-
es, and actions. They are not textbooks full of words and definitions. They allow language
to be situated.

So many students in school cannot apply the knowledge they are learning in practice,
even when they can pass verbal paper-and-pencil tests.

It’s time to look at the world through a diﬀerent lens.


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let learning start here


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SUPPORT

“The new Diamond Age Game concept is really exciting. David Adewumi is a remarkable
young man who is committed to the successful launch of this start up.”
doug houser INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR OF NIKE SINCE 1970. LAW PARTNER AT PORTLAND, OREGON
FIRM SINCE 1965. TRUSTEE WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY. DIRECTOR, RAND CORPORATION.

“Have simply never met anyone with a more passionate entrepreneurial spirit. Blown
away by David’s ability to rally a large group of colleagues to a specific concept and then
execute. Everyone should have his work ethic, vision and passion…”
gary quinn DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, NBC SPORTS.

“David’s one of the best hustler types I know, he’s incredibly passionate about the educa-
tion space, and he has a knack for getting just the right people on board. I’m excited to see
what these guys make!”
aston motes EMPLOYEE #1 AT DROPBOX.

“David Adewumi is the rare type of individual which TRULY believes anything is possible! And
they have no limits. Entertainment in every form plays a major role in how we spend our time.
Video games rule the entertainment world of today and constitute a massive amount of focus
and time for our youth. Imagine this including education.... a true paradigm shift.”
phil mcnichol FORMER MANAGER AND COACH U.S. MEN’S WORLD CUP AND OLYMPIC SKI TEAM, 42 WORLD
CUP VICTORIES. HAS DEVELOPED A GLOBAL, TELEVISED SKI EVENT: ALPINE ROCKFEST. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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“A single idea from the human mind
can build cities. An idea can transform
the world and rewrite all the rules...You
remember, it’s the chance to build
cathedrals, entire cities, things that
never existed. Things that couldn’t exist
in the real world.”
Dom Cobb, Inception


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“There’s always more to the story than the story...”

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