Reading Horizons: Learning Games on iPad
Bringing existing learning games to elementary-school iPads between April and August 2015 through code reuse, focused improvements, and hands-on delivery.
Between April and August 2015, I created a companion iPad games app for Reading Horizons, ready for the upcoming school year. I had built most of the original web games, so I knew both the code and the learning experiences we wanted to bring to schools.
The problem and the deadline
Reading Horizons builds software to help address illiteracy through reading instruction. The elementary schools we targeted were using iPads, making access on those devices an important part of the product.
The challenge was the delivery window. The instructional side of the iOS software had taken nearly two years to develop natively. We needed a practical way to bring the games to iPad in time for the school year, using the work and expertise we already had.
The decision: reuse the game code
I chose Adobe AIR because it let me reuse much of the ActionScript 3.0 code I had written for the web games. I knew that language better than Swift, and the existing implementation gave me a substantial foundation for the iPad app.
The decision connected the delivery plan to the actual product and the team’s experience. It let me focus on bringing the games to iPad and making improvements where they were needed.
Reworking Cannon Blast
Cannon Blast was one of the games I had not originally created. I saw opportunities to improve it and substantially reworked it for the app. Familiarity with ActionScript made that work easier, even though it required a much larger change than the other games.
My contribution and the team’s work
My direct implementation work included most of the original web games, contributions to the phonics software, and creation of the companion iPad games app.
My leadership responsibilities also included the web application team and two developers building the instructional side of the iOS software. The instructional software and the games were distinct parts of the broader effort; the April–August 2015 delivery window here refers to my games app.
I also contributed hands-on to the native instructional software, helping the two iOS developers build a couple of interactions in Swift so we could complete the project on time.
Delivery and school adoption
The games app was completed in August 2015, ready for the upcoming school year. The iPad offering helped Reading Horizons secure a major deal in Illinois.
I traveled to Illinois with the lead iOS developer to help with adoption. We visited schools, answered questions, and troubleshot issues. My involvement extended from building the software to helping people use it in their school environment.
How this fits my work
This project brought together learning-game development, practical technology choices, team leadership, and customer support. The existing game code mattered because it gave us a way to deliver an experience schools could use within the time available.
Explore earlier web games in the archive: Card Match, Dino Drop, and Letter Leap. These are preserved web examples, rather than recordings of the iPad app.
See the 2015 timeline chapter, my full career history, or the related FranklinCovey web and mobile case study.