AR CASE STUDY
SQUIXY AR
CHILDREN’S BOOK THAT BRINGS COLOUR AND ADVENTURE INTO MATHEMATICS AND WIDER STEAM SUBJECTS
[2021]
[AR]
Squixy is a children’s book that brings colour and adventure into mathematics and wider STEAM subjects. The eponymous US start-up enlisted Draw & Code to create an immersive children’s workbook that is brought to life with augmented reality.
The book needed to work in its own right but had to be especially engaging when teamed with the accompanying Squixy mobile app. The Squixy squad value the concept of gamification enhances the learning experience.
It is standard for Draw & Code to be enlisted as the augmented reality app developers on a project such as this, after all this is what we are known for, but our creative team were also tasked with creating an children’s workbook in the style of an eye-popping comic.
Fortunately, Draw & Code’s illustration skills are top-drawer with a creative team that boast experience of character development and comic art. So it was time to bust out Illustrator and InDesign, along with pens and paper of course.
The comic had to be created with AR in mind – images had to be able to be recognised by a phone or tablet and the designs had to have the potential to transfer into a 3D game environment in a cohesive way.
All this was done while taking inspiration from Squixy’s original design concepts of a vibrant, sci-fi world.
Our development team created the augmented reality app for Squixy using Unity and their AR Foundation framework. This suite of tools gives augmented reality app developers a host of features to use within Unity itself.
The 64 page comic book titled Squixy and The Battle For All Time was released in the US and has already received a positive response from schools and families across the country.
Scanning the book reveals AR games, tutorial videos and exploration opportunities giving children an incentive to work through every page. Augmented reality in education is certainly becoming a trend and it is fantastic that Draw & Code are playing a part in the creation of a new product in this emerging market.
Squixy is inspired by STEAM subjects and its target age range is 5-11 years old with the first book being revealed at SXSW 2021. There are plans to release the book in different regions and to expand the series of books and subjects covered.