Safety app at a crossroads over funding

Friday 11 July 2014

A games designer is calling for more support to build educational apps in Jersey. 33 year-old Paul Arnold came up with the idea for a new road safety app for kids, after working for the Police.

After testing out his demo version on pupils at St Martin’s School and Plat Douet, who suggested he put in some extra challenges and offer the game in different languages, he’s now ready to get started, but needs an extra £160,000 to fund it.

Mr Arnold says he's had support from Digital Jersey, the Police and the local schools and is currently looking into applying for a loan from the States Innovation Fund -but says he may only be able to get big investment from outside the Island.

He believes there should be more support for local businesses coming up with educational resources and is believes too much focus is being put on developments like enabling crypto-currencies, such as Bitcoin, in Jersey. Yesterday it was announced that the Jersey Financial Services Commission has given the go ahead for the Island’s first regulated Bitcoin investment fund.

Once Mr Arnold and his team of designers and musicians have secured the funding they need for the game, which is aimed at seven to 11 year-olds, they hope to have it finished within 15 months.

Mr Arnold said: “Educational games at the moment are quite poor compared to big mainstream games, so we are trying to bridge that gap and make our game as good as the mainstream games.”

The team also plan to create spin-off games to test children’s cycling proficiency and fire safety.