MarcoPolo Ocean is the first product from the company and has managed to garner the attention of the App Store and, via their selection, thousands of users. We began to get whole new types of games… You began to see people playing with new game mechanics, new content, new ways of interacting with the player. He recently credited the new economics for making it so that “independent game people could really make a living. The learning games industry has been fundamentally changed, said scholar James Paul Gee, by the economics of downloadable games and apps. The company is the latest in a growing number of independent game developers born out of a generation of gamers and entertainment folks who are now seeking educational content for their children and finding a new business in the effort. The company, launched in 2012, landed $1 million in seed funding from angel investors in May of last year, according to TechCrunch. Those apps are almost always very much about the characters from the movies and shows… We wanted the learning goals to be what came first. Hsu said many of the learning apps were either platforms for existing brands to push their characters and products or were the equivalent of digital flashcards.Īs parents we didn’t want to just put Disney or Nickelodeon on the iPad like it is on the TV. “We had kids,” Hsu said recently, “and we’re entrepreneurial and we looked at what was out there and we were disappointed by the kids content.” Hsu spent years in the entertainment and music business and Yasin in the venture capital world, but then something happened. Hsu and Nazar Yasin may seem like an unlikely learning game operation. Whether they are the words of Ben Franklin or an ancient Chinese philosopher, Justin Hsu knew they were going to be a motto of sorts for his independent educational game shop. “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” We do not collect or share personal information about you or your child, nor do we allow any third-party advertising.MarcoPolo Ocean has sold for about $2.99 in the App Store. *Topic-specific vocabulary exposure and acquisition *Characteristics of fish and marine mammals *Construction and characteristics of a boat (shipping vessel) and submersible *The wide variety of animal species that live in the shallow and deep parts of the ocean Through self-directed discovery, we expose kids to early skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), focusing on the following concepts: *Investigate by tapping, dragging and swiping where the animals live in the ocean to see their natural behaviors and how they interact with other animals *Add marine animals and fish to the ocean and interact with more than 32 different species *Steer your submersible and boat through ocean waters *Explore from the shoreline all the way down to the sea floor The open ocean is a personal aquarium your child can explore however he or she chooses!

Ocean is playfully narrated and animated to reinforce vocabulary, physical attributes and ocean concepts. Six build-and-play activities bring the language and the images of the ocean to life. These are just some of the fun things you can do with MarcoPolo Ocean, a “digital sandbox” for kids to play in that sparks their interest in the most unexplored part of our planet – the ocean. Parents' Choice Gold Award! App Store Best of 2014 and Editors' Choice in 16 Countries!

Marcopolo ocean app