Who is “The Numberlys” audience?

The simple answer is Numberlys is for children.  We intended it as a fable about the formation of the alphabet, but as with our favorite fabulists, we had a little more on our mind.  Our instincts were that even the youngest children would follow our narrative if we made the world, the characters, and the story simple and compelling. 

We're all parents and in our experience we've found that children enjoy (even need) a narrative that challenges them.  We tested Numberlys with children three and up and have heard from parents with children as young as two that they follow and enjoy the App.  In fact they demand to play the App repeatedly when finished.  We were prepared to simplify the App but research confirmed that our hopes were correct and our instincts not lunatic. 

As with Morris we designed the App so that children, parents, siblings, grandparents – whole families –could enjoy it together.  On the surface Numberlys is about making the Alphabet.  We assume that most of our audience has already mastered or nearly mastered the ABCs.  But we crafted the alphabet section to make the audience feel that they are almost complicit in its creation.  That they are helping the Numberlys succeed.  The alliterative text that introduces the letters gives them just enough of a hint that they tend to excitedly shout out, "I bet I know what the next letter is gonna be!"  We chose a mix of vocabulary that they would already know with words we thought they would like to know or should know or words that are just fun to say; to introduce them to the richness and possibilities of language.

To us, interactivity isn't just what's on the screen, but should also lead to the most ancient form of interactivity: talking to others.  “What is jujitsu mom? What is a knickerbocker grandpa?”

We made the gameplay of the letters purposely easy.  Silly.  Whimsical.  Daft.  To us, this section was less about gaming prowess and more about emotionally involving the audience as they help the Numberlys succeed.

Children feel empowered by knowing more than the Numberlys and guiding them.  They relish Numberly Number 1's attempts to repeatedly name the wrong letter "Z".  When he correctly names “Z” they feel relieved and happy for the little guy.  After all, most of them are very nearly at his intellectual level.

So we made a story App about the invention of the ABCs.  We weren't really trying to teach the ABCs.  We wanted children to experience the power of language.  We wanted to teach them about courage and determination without them knowing it.  We wanted them to experience these ideas on an emotional level, in their bones.

We think the future of Apps as a story telling medium is just beginning.  The future holds amazing possibilities and we are trying to be thoughtfully adventurous in discovering what those possibilities can be.

And we think kids can handle more than we realized.

Thanks for asking and listening.
Bill Joyce
Brandon Oldenburg
Lampton Enochs