Learning a second language can be hard, and becoming proficient can be even harder. A startup that wants to help students reach that language learning goal just hit a couple big milestones.
Faena Co. is an Albuquerque-based startup developing an immersive Spanish language learning video game of the same name. Its founder, Isabel Last, announced Tuesday that a one-hour-long pre-alpha demo of the game was ready.
Then, the next day, Last announced that Faena signed a contract with Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Charter School in Albuquerque — its first agreement with a school. She didn't disclose how much the initial contract with RFK is worth.
Releasing the demo and signing the contract is Faena's "first real traction," said Last, a recent Inno Under 25 honoree.
"It's the first time that we were able to confirm all the things in my head about the success of a Spanish language learning video game that's speaking focused and that's voice recognition-based gameplay," Last said.
"I thought the demo was going to be like 15 minutes," she continued. "Then we ended up making something that's like an hour. So I realized in early January that it was enough for students to play and for it to be meaningful for them."
Last said that she reached out to RFK about two weeks ago. The school responded "very quickly," she added.
RFK plans to "field test" the game with a class of 23 heritage language students at the school, Linda Ortega, RFK's bilingual coordinator, told Albuquerque Business First. Those are students who have some Spanish in their families but don't know how to speak the language, she said.
"The game is supposed to help them develop their verbal skills in Spanish," Ortega said. "We've done some Spanish proficiency assessment and speaking was the lowest area of their score areas, which is typical of people learning a foreign language. This work with Faena is supposed to address that."
Ortega, who's worked at RFK for more than 10 years, said that the school will evaluate if they want to keep using the game based on students' engagement and speaking improvements.
"If they're willing to engage with the game and willing to practice their verbal skills in Spanish, I think that we certainly would make all efforts to continue and purchase a license for that," she said about Faena's video game.
While Last said that she's eyeing more schools to use the game, one potential barrier to that expansion is making the game work on Chromebooks, she said. Most schools use Chromebooks for their students, she added.
"We don't have a Chrome build yet, but we're trying," Last said. "It's been very, very difficult to do it. If any problem comes up and you look online, which is very common for developers to do, no one has solved any of these bugs [or] any of these problems. They just kind of say, 'Okay, you have to deal with this bug now.'"
Chrome issues aside, Last said that Faena's full video game — which would include over 10 hours of gameplay — could be ready in the next 18 months. The startup has raised $42,000 and plans to open a pre-seed round of funding in the next couple of months to support the full game's development.
For now, though, Last said that she's thrilled to have reached this first major milestone.
"It's very exciting for me to have it happen," she said. "I was ecstatic driving home. I was like, 'Oh, my first business sale!'"
