3. The mobile application industry is experiencing explosive growth, with over 10
billion apps downloaded to over 500 million devices powered by Apple’s iOS and
Google’s Android mobile operating systems alone. The mobile entertainment
industry is expected to be worth over $54 billion by 2015. Economics researcher
Dr. Michael Mandel stated that the app economy is responsible for creating
466,000 jobs in the United States, up from zero in 2007. The Internet is full of
overnight success stories of independent app producers, in addition to the
astonishing revenue generated by the larger firms.
Where will individuals turn to learn the skills necessary to become part of this
rapidly growing sector? Today the app work force is a cobbled patchwork of people
from various backgrounds in computer science, design, and marketing, transferring
their existing knowledge into this exciting sector. Traditional institutions such as
Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT teach courses in mobile development;
however, these courses are few in number and are part of computer science degrees
that require vast mathematical and engineering skills, and these institutions are
very selective in their enrollment. Some art schools, particularly in the for-profit
sector, have begun to offer mobile design courses as part of their game art and
design offerings. These programs focus primarily on design, and although
admission requirements are low, costs are high.
KEY POINTS
• 10 billion apps have been downloaded to
over 500 million Apple & Google
powered devices.
• The mobile entertainment industry is
expected to be worth over $54 billion by
2015.
• The app economy is responsible for
having created 466,000 jobs since 2007.
• Existing HiED programs are not well
rounded and teach only specific aspects
of app creation.
• 1 million users have signed up for
startup tech education sites.
• 500,000 individuals have downloaded
mobile game authoring software.
• App Academy expects to enroll
5000-15000 users in its first year with
revenue projected at $6-$36 million.
Executive Summary
2
4. App Academy is uniquely positioned to meet the growing demands
of the app economy, by providing an entirely new way to learn to
design, develop and market a mobile application. Using an
innovative game-based learning platform, students move at their
own pace through a subscription model that makes learning
flexible and affordable. With robust networking opportunities, a
social community and supportive staff students get the real-world
skills needed to get their work in the mobile app marketplace.
The public has shown great interest in alternative education
delivery systems recently. Over 1 million users have registered to
learn development skills on startup sites such as Codeacademy.
Mayor Bloomberg was in the press this past new years stating that
one of his resolutions for 2012 was to learn to code at
Codeacademy. This rise of the startup developer education sites
shows a desire by the general public to learn new tech skills in
exciting new ways. However, none of the new edu startups have
staked their territory on mobile, instead focusing on web
programming skills such as Ruby on Rails and Java-scripting.
One sector that has focused its attention on mobile app
development is the mobile game authoring ecosystems.
Gamesalad, for example, provides those with no programming
ability the option of creating a mobile game by skinning existing
game themes with new creative. These types of tools have been
downloaded over 500,000 times by people of varied backgrounds.
However, these sites provide little in the way of educating the
users on what makes great games, let alone how to market them,
and developers often find the themes rigid without much
opportunity to expand beyond the basic game types.
App Academy appeals to everyone who has ever dreamed of
making a mobile application and it’s well rounded curriculum
ensures all students knowledge in all facets of design,
development, product management, and marketing. App
Academy has the ability to establish a leadership position in this
growing market seizing 1-3% of the estimated 500,000 people who
have actively pursued creating a mobile application in it’s first
year, resulting in 5000-15000 student subscribers and generating
revenue of between $6-$36 million based on a monthly
subscription price range of $100-$200.
3
5. What is App Academy?
App Academy is an entirely new way to learn to design, develop and market a
mobile application. By using an innovative game-based learning platform, students
move at their own pace through a subscription model that makes learning flexible
and affordable. With robust networking opportunities, a social community and
supportive staff, students can learn the real-world skills needed to succeed in the
mobile app marketplace.
Making app creation dreams a reality is what App Academy is all about. Unlike
other educational programs that might only teach one aspect of app creation, App
Academy focuses on the entire life cycle, from planning, to design, to development,
to marketing and deployment in the various app markets. They provide this
education through their well rounded, industry focused curriculum.
KEY POINTS
• Subscription Model
• Self Paced
• Game-based Learning
• Socially Enabled
• Faculty & Advisor Supported
• Flexible
• Affordable
App Academy Overview
4
6. Curriculum
Typically when we think of curriculum we think of a series of
courses, but not at App Academy. Here students complete self-
paced, self-directed competency levels. Each level provides a
combination of interactive learning materials and challenges; the
student must complete each level before moving on to the next.
There are two types of competency levels, core competencies and
elective competencies. All students must complete the core
competency levels in order to ensure well-rounded exposure to all
aspects of app creation, while the elective competencies allow
students to specialize and expand their skills.
Many of the competency levels are divided into 3 tracks,
representing the various roles in app creation: the designer, the
producer, and the developer. The designer track covers everything
from the fundamentals of design to advanced usability techniques.
The producer track focuses on the business side of app creation,
exploring marketing, finance, and project management. Finally,
the developer track features many courses in specific coding
languages and game engines, as well quality testing and
deployment.
App Academy’s inaugural program offering will focus on mobile
game creation, as it has the broadest appeal. Additional levels will
be added constantly to expand beyond games into other app
genres such as productivity, business, travel, and education. By
paying close attention to market needs and student feedback. App
Academy will grow its curriculum levels to ensure its relevancy
and keep students coming back for more.
5
Curriculum Grid - all students complete the core levels along the top
across all three tracks before moving to the specialized levels within
each track below.
Curriculum Gallery
7. Learning Delivery
The way in which App Academy delivers its curriculum is what
truly changes the game. Gone are the days when online learning
was simply text under glass; students are presented learning
materials through highly interactive media pieces and are
challenged with quizzes, simulations, and game play. The entire
learning platform is wrapped in a game layer; students compete
against one another for high scores while achieving badges and
unlocking items when completing each level. The badges
represent the skills the students have acquired. App Academy’s
public website maintains a listing of all badges and the learning
objectives for each. This, combined with the student’s profile,
provides both the student and the public a record of what skills the
student has acquired. At App Academy, grades become scores,
classes become levels, and the honor roll is a leader-board.
Expert Faculty & Supportive Staff
Although the learning is self-paced and self-directed the students
are never alone. On the first day, the student is assigned an App
Advisor who helps determine what the student’s specific goals are
in order to guide them on a path to success. Since the curriculum
structure is flexible, students can dive into the core courses that
interest them the most first and move onto the additional offerings
later. Each competency level has a social group assigned to it,
allowing students to interact with other students currently
working through the same level, as well as seek help, guidance,
and critiques from App Academy’s expert faculty.
6
Overall Score
Level Completion
Achievement Item
Interactive Media
Explore the Classroom
1 2 3 4
Examples of badges students earn upon completing
competency levels.
8. Community
In addition to the game layer that powers the learning platform,
the entire school is built upon a social network. Students each
have a profile that acts as their personal hub, where they can
interact and connect with fellow classmates and faculty. Students
also have a customizable avatar that allows them to add items that
they have unlocked in the competency levels and achieved through
community events. School events and promotions help
supplement learning and can help facilitate students’ ability to
network with one another to collaborate on their app creations.
This community of app creation enthusiasts, combined with the
additional social offerings, is a primary component of what makes
the App Academy experience so appealing.
Publishing
App Academy also serves as a publishing company. It maintains
its own stable of apps in the various app stores, which act as both
marketing tools for the school and as working examples used in
the curriculum to teach students. App Academy partners with well
known brands to bring their marketing message to life through
mobile applications. The school uses these partnerships to
provide students valuable learning opportunities through
collaborative work sessions and design challenges. Finally,
students can choose to opt into a publishing agreement with App
Academy to help complete and promote their own apps. App
Academy’s well known stature in the industry combined with its
own design and development assets make it a logical choice for
students to partner with if they so choose. Of course, no student is
required to enter a publishing agreement with App Academy and
can always self publish their work.
7
9. Marketplace
Though App Academy’s core curriculum ensures that each student
is exposed to all facets of app creation it is expected that students
will gravitate towards their strengths and passions. As a service to
the students, App Academy also provides a marketplace for
students to buy and sell their design work and development
themes. The marketplace also offers a skill and job posting board
so that students can quickly find additional talent to help bring
their dreams to reality.
8
10. In order to explore the potential market for App Academy we examined four key
areas: the overall growth of the mobile market at large, job creation as a result of
the mobile market’s expansion, the rise of startup developer education sites, and
the use of mobile game authoring tools. This analysis all points to the growing
interest in mobile platforms and the software that runs on them.
KEY POINTS
• 10 billion apps have been downloaded to
over 500 million Apple & Google
powered devices.
• The mobile entertainment industry is
expected to be worth over $54 billion by
2015.
• The app economy is responsible for
having created 466,000 jobs since 2007.
• 1 million users have signed up for
startup developer education sites.
• 500,000 individuals have downloaded
mobile game authoring software.
Market Analysis
9
11. Mobile Industry Growth
The growth of the mobile industry since Apple’s introduction of
the iPhone in 2007 is astonishing. Apple has shipped over 315
million iOS devices, with Android fast closing in at 250 million
units. These sales figures have catapulted Apple to record
breaking revenue quarter after quarter. App creators are also
cashing in from the enormous growth of mobile, in 2010
developers $87 million in ad revenue alone and that is expected to
grow 10 fold by 2015. The mobile entertainment industry is
predicted to reach $54 billion by 2015. There is no end in sight
for the growing mobile market. Mobile Internet usage is expected
to surpass desktop Internet usage by 2014.
The App Economy
The rapid growth of the mobile sector has also spurred job growth
in the United States. Although conventional employment
numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are not yet able to
adequately track this growth, economic analyst Dr. Michael
Mandel has created a report that estimates that roughly 466,000
jobs were created in the United States since 2007. These jobs
range from programmers, to designers, to marketers, managers,
and even support staff. Mandel came to this conclusion by
analyzing job-posting databases. The complete report can be
found here.
Rise of Developer Training Startups
In the last few months a handful of companies are generating
headlines and gaining students for their self-paced “learn to code”
programs. A recent New York Times article featured three of the
biggest players in this new field; Codeacademy, Code School by
Envy Labs, and Treehouse.
10
12. Although these startups do not teach mobile game design
(Treehouse does offer lessons on iOS development), the large
number of sign-ups and paid subscribers that these startups have
acquired in their short existence demonstrates a growing demand
for alternative models to learn technical skills.
Code Academy and Code School both employ basic gamification
principals in their learning, rewarding students badges for
completed work and progress. Code School also uses a score to
help motivate the student.
Code Academy has garnered the most attention recently with their
“Codeyear” initiative. Over 350,000 people have signed up at the
time of this writing, Mayor Bloomberg famously tweeted that he
was going to learn to code this way.
Working inside the start-up
incubator Y Combinator, a pair
of former Columbia students
noticed a lack of user-friendly
online tools for beginning
programmers. Codecademy
began offering JavaScript
training in August, quickly attracted major investments from
Union Square Ventures, SV Angel and other heavy-hitters, and
plans to roll out more programming languages soon. The
company’s new initiatives — Code Year, a yearlong tutorial that
started this month and attracted more than 350,000 users,
and Code Summer+, a youth partnership with the White House
announced last week — have won big attention.
Company Information
Co-founders: Zach Sims, 21, and Ryan Bubinski, 22.
Location: New York City.
Employees: six.
Financing: $2.5 million venture round closed in October.
Revenue: None.
Users: more than 850,000.
Business model: “There is no revenue model at the moment,” Mr.
Sims said. “Our first thing is the product.”
Special sauce: Broad appeal. “We got an e-mail from an 85-year-
old stroke victim using it,” said Mr. Sims said. “We’ve seen people
in almost every country in the world sign up.”
Vital Stats
850,000 Registered Users
Cost: Free
11
13. In 2010, Web applications consultancy Envy Labs unveiled Rails
for Zombies, an interactive Ruby on Rails teaching suite. Some
60,000 coders let the game eat their brains. Hoping to build on
that success, the young company introduced Code School in
March, targeting users who already know some programming but
want to keep current with Ruby, HTML5, CSS3, CoffeeScript and
jQuery. It plans to expand to an audience of new and younger
users.
Company Information
Founder: Gregg Pollack, 34
Location: Orlando, Fla.
Employees: Of Envy Labs’ 23 employees, a rotating cast of about
five work full-time on Code School at any one time.
Financing: No outside money. Bootstrapped with $280,000 so far.
Revenue: $250,000 since debut.
Users: 90,000 registered for content, including free offerings like
Rails for Zombies; 2,000 paying subscribers monthly.
Business model: $25 monthly subscription fee.
Special sauce: “We’re a different kind of start-up. We’ve used our
consulting work to fund the development of projects like this,” Mr.
Pollack said. “And the content isn’t introductory. Most of our
customers are existing developers.”
Vital Stats
90,000 Registered Users
2,000 Paying Customers
Cost: $25/month
12
14. Video tutorials welcome students to Treehouse Island, where they
arrive in a zeppelin, meet a mysterious, eye-patch-wearing
ambassador (see photo above) – think Mister Rodgers transposed
to “Lost” — and unravel mysteries while learning to code in
HTML, Ruby, Python, PHP and JavaScript. The service went live
in November and offers three beginner-oriented learning tracks:
Web design, Web development, and iPhone/iPad application
creation.
Company Information
Founder: Ryan Carson, 34.
Location: Orlando, Fla.
Employees: 23.
Financing: $600,000 angel round closed in October.
Revenue: Monthly sales hit $175,000 in December.
Users: 6,500 paying subscribers. Corporate clients include Disney
and Estée Lauder.
Business model: Users choose between two tiers of access and pay
$25 or $49 monthly.
Special sauce: “We’ve done partnerships with Facebook,
WordPress and LivingSocial,” Mr. Carson said. “They’re going to
start recruiting people who’ve unlocked our badges for internships
and jobs.”
Vital Stats
6,500 Paying Customers
Cost: $25-$49/month
13
15. Mobile Game Authoring Ecosystems
Several companies have created mobile game authoring tools that
allow a wide range of users the ability to create games. Many of
these tools are positioned to non-programmers and feature drag
and drop interfaces. Users can skin existing templates with
graphics and adjust behaviors to create new games based on
existing genres.
Over 500,000 users have downloaded these companies software
offerings which demonstrates the public’s desire to take part in the
mobile application market. According to the founder of
GameSalad, there are currently over 6 million creative
professionals and game designers who seek to author games and
interactive media within the mobile industry. The mobile game
authoring ecosystems show how community can be built around
game design and offer a basis for the methodology of how apps can
be created by anyone.
Three players in the mobile game authoring field include:
GameSalad, Corona by Ansca Mobile, and Stencyl.
GameSalad is an online community that empowers everyone to
express and share their ideas through games. Our company was
founded on the belief that all people should have the tools to make
popular games, limited only by the boundaries of their
imaginations. GameSalad provides a platform used by creators to
rapidly design, publish and distribute original games that have
been played by millions of people worldwide.
14
16. Company Information
Co-founders: Michael Agustin, Dan Treiman, Tan Tran, and
Joshua Seaver.
Location: Austin, LA, and San Fran
Employees: Aprox. 50
Financing: $7.1 million
Revenue: N/A
Users: 107K +Downloads | 18,000 + Published Games
Business model: GameSalad targets the over 99% of people who
don't code and enables them to make games for iOS and in
HTML5. Their development platform GameSalad Creator provides
a visual, drag-and-drop way to create games, which eliminates
programming as a barrier to entry. With over 18,000 Apps and
HTML5 games shipped, more games have been built with
GameSalad Creator than with any other third-party toolset
Special sauce: Tiered pricing and support model. Marketplace
adds additional monetization options
Vital Stats
107,000 Downloads of GameSalad Creator as of 1/2011
18,000 + Published Games
Cost: $499/year
Ansca Mobile is a mobile software company that develops the
Corona SDK for mobile app creation. The company is based out of
Palo Alto, California.
Co-founders Carlos Icaza and Walter Luh started Ansca Mobile
after departing from Adobe in 2007. At Adobe, they were both
mobile engineers who worked on Flash Lite; Icaza was the senior
mobile engineering manager who led the Flash Lite team while
Luh was the lead architect.
In late 2009, Ansca Mobile secured $1 million in Series A funding
from Merus Capital, a venture capital firm founded by former
Google and Microsoft executives.
15
17. Company Information
Co-founders: Carlos Icaza and Walter Luh
Location: Palo Alto
Employees: Aprox. 12
Financing: $1 million
Revenue: N/A
Users: 15,000 Users as of 12/2010
Business model: Geared towards users with a intermediate
understanding of programming compared to Gamesalad.
Special sauce: Creates games, apps, and eBooks. Has a focus on
iPad, Kindle, and Nook.
Vital Stats
15,000+ Users as of 12/2010
Cost: $350/yr
Stencyl is the creator of StencylWorks, a tool that has enabled
creators of all all skills levels create iOS and Flash games in no
time. In 2012, Stencyl will expand into Android and HTML5 game
publishing.
Stencyl operates Stencyl.com, a hub for publishing Stencyl-created
web games and host to a vibrant community devoted to the art of
game creation. Stencyl also operates StencylForge, an open
marketplace for sharing the assets and building blocks for creating
new games.
Company Information
Founder: Jonathan Chung
Location: Pablo Alto
Employees: 1 (+ 3-5 Volunteers)
Financing: None
Revenue: N/A
Users: 40,000
Special sauce: Cool “snap” coding interface. Ability for non-
programmers to jump right in while allowing more advanced users
to also tweak and work with code.
Vital Stats
350,000+ downloads of StencylWorks
40,000+ registered users
10,000+ published games
Cost: $149/year
16
18. Media Appendix
xvii
This document was created in Apple’s iBook Author and was intended to be
viewed on an iPad in the iBooks application. This appendix presents the
images included in the multimedia pieces for those reviewing static PDF.
Curriculum Grid - all students complete the core levels along the top
across all three tracks before moving to the specialized levels within
each track below.
Curriculum Gallery Slide 1
Curriculum Grid - all students complete the core levels along the top
across all three tracks before moving to the specialized levels within
each track below.
Curriculum Gallery Slide 2
20. Media Appendix II
xix
This document was created in Apple’s iBook Author and was intended to be
viewed on an iPad in the iBooks application. This appendix presents the
images included in the multimedia pieces for those reviewing static PDF.
Curriculum Grid - all students complete the core levels along the top
across all three tracks before moving to the specialized levels within
each track below.
Curriculum Gallery Slide 3
Curriculum Grid - all students complete the core levels along the top
across all three tracks before moving to the specialized levels within
each track below.
Curriculum Gallery Slide 4
22. Media Appendix III
xxi
This document was created in Apple’s iBook Author and was intended to be
viewed on an iPad in the iBooks application. This appendix presents the
images included in the multimedia pieces for those reviewing static PDF.
23. Media Appendix IV
xxii
This document was created in Apple’s iBook Author and was intended to be
viewed on an iPad in the iBooks application. This appendix presents the
images included in the multimedia pieces for those reviewing static PDF.
24. End Notes
xxiii
Credits
Created by Ryan Gialames
Design by Justin Deichler
Contact
For more information about App Academy contact:
Ryan Gialames
ryan@gialames.com
Twitter: @gialames
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gialames
412.223.6655
Sources
Coding Start-Ups Compete for Booming Market
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/coding-start-ups-compete-for-booming-market/
Quora – What is Game Salad’s Market Opportunity
http://www.quora.com/What-is-GameSalads-market-opportunity
GameSalad Graduates From the Austin Technology Incubator
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/7/prweb8583862.htm
Democratizing Development: GameSalad Helps Amateurs Create 1,500 iOS Games
http://www.newellandbudge.com/news/democratizing-development-gamesalad-helps-amateurs-create-1500-ios-games/
Corona™ SDK’s Cross-platform Developer Ecosystem Reaches a New High
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/12/prweb8028516.htm
Crunchbase - Stencyl
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/stencyl
Google: Quarter-billion Android devices worldwide, 11 billion downloads
http://www.androidcentral.com/google-quarter-billion-android-devices-worldwide-11-billion-downloads
Where the Jobs Are: App Economy
http://www.technet.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/TechNet-App-Economy-Jobs-Study.pdf
