How can I get into the educational market? [closed]

Question

I believe that my current game project is very well-suited for educational gaming; so well-suited, in fact, that I know of several different schools (one community college and at least one or two high schools) that have used versions of it at some time or another. And that's without any such marketing on my part.

I'd like to expand on this part of the potential user base. But I have absolutely no experience in dealing with school administrations. How can I break into this market enough to be noticed?

And on a side note, could marketing the game as educational kill the gamers market?

Answer 1

Although dated (2006), this looks to be a good read: http://genyes.com/programs/supplemental/edgames

Schools are cheap: They're on a budget. Why would they want your game X when they could find something similar for free on the internet?

And if you are looking into getting your game into non-school markets, take note how few console games have educational games. You are more likely to see them in handheld or mobile devices. You might want to consider the iPhone or Android markets.

Answer 2

It would be an advantage if you could get with the schools that you know who use your product and get them to write a recommendation about it. Use that when you are out pitching to other schools. If you can find hard numbers / results that would be extremely helpful.

You need to turn yourself into a door-to-door salesman. It'll be a lot of foot work and a lot of convincing revolving around why they should use your product. Call schools and ask if you can get a moment of the deans, assistant dean, principle, etc time to talk about a very useful product you feel would be a very important learning tool. If you can't get them, then someone else that represents the school.

A plus on the university front is that you can approach the separate colleges within the university and pitch to their staff, which is probably what you want to do for a game project. You figure you can approach one University and have 6 or so meetings/potential clients. Not bad.

I've been on this road before but my buddy was selling an application vs. a game product. Games will be a tough sell unless you can really show what it can do. I might market it under a different buzzword instead of purely 'Game.' Simulation? Serious Game Project?

Answer 3

How about attending a conference like this one from the American Association of School Administrators in February? As David mentioned, get references if possible and then set up a booth and sell it.

Answer 4

Some great answers here. All I can add is that if you specifically market your game as "educational" then yes, I think you're pretty much killing the non-edu market. This is not your fault and has to do with the fact that "edutainment" is usually done so horribly wrong that gamers are accustomed to games either being fun OR educational but never both at the same time.

The opposite is not true. I know some educators that routinely use entertainment games (they call them "COTS games" - Commercial Off-The-Shelf) in their classes when they see the educational content buried in there. So if you want to reach both markets, consider selling it on its entertainment value first, and then reach out to educators and schools at conferences.

Another thing to consider, if your game is aimed at K-12, is that there are state standards for the exact subjects that must be covered in each grade, so you should work with some local educators to make sure your game conforms to the standards. Yes, this means making a K-12 game is hard, because the standards vary from state to state, and that's something you'll have to deal with.

Answer 5

Were they your previous versions? If so, can you build a marketing agenda based on them? (Use cases, testimonials, and what not)

If not, then the first step I recommend doing is:

Find a decent sized school, and offer it to them for free. Like Bryan said before me, schools are cheap. The administration already has enough trouble without wondering why they should purchase your product. By removing that, they will be a little bit warmer to a pitch.

You do of course, still have to pitch ^:1. But in it, you would want to maybe work out an arrangement where you can collect relevant data for future pitches and what not. Impact on Student Education overall ^:2, student/teacher testimonials.

Why?

Schools seem very receptive to what other schools are doing, students are very social and there always seems to be talk about what other people have. I've noticed that among colleges a good deal of the intranet is shared (same email solution, same billing, same online courses). Or even to use a bigger and far more broken example, look at how quickly Facebook took off among college students.

After your foot is in the door, you can refer back to how it helped this school (because if something is beneficial and THEY have it, WE want it too.

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As for your sidenote. IMO:

It may drive off some 'core' gamers (The group that commonly considers themselves the majority of gamers.) but looking at the success of casual games. The numbers seem to say that either the larger part of the market is of a younger / older age. Or they are the only people spending the money :p

Answer 6

Consider contacting a publisher.

Full Disclosure: I work for a place called Attainment Company. We specialize in Special Education products. We sell both software and physical products (books, games, etc.), we distribute catalogs semi-frequently (worldwide) and also do some web sales. A lot of our software is done in house, but we do sell some applications from other companies as well. I don't know 100% how that works because I'm not at all involved with the catalog and all that (Software Engingeer), but I imagine that there are similar companies for the general education market. Though if you feel your product would be applicable to special education I can see if I can find someone to get in touch with.