ABOUT HEARTUCATE

Heartucate was founded in 2020 by media educator and media psychologist Franziska Weser following the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow Challenge “5G For Society” to create a playful learning and experience format with new technologies. The focus is on the meaningful and experience-oriented development of interactive content with gamification and storytelling elements. The digital experiences are designed for multiplayer use but it is also possible for single player to enter.

At Heartucate, we stand for education that is:

• Experience-oriented: Learning should be inspiring and memorable by making it interactive and immersive.
• Picks up on current topics: Our applications are geared towards relevant and contemporary content such as climate research, sustainability and future skills.
• Playfully prepared for the target group: We use gamified elements to make complex topics accessible and exciting.
• Promotes team skills: Our applications emphasize collaboration, communication and joint problem-solving.
• Sustainable accessibility: Education should be accessible to everyone and at the same time have a positive impact on society.

With the setup developed by Heartucate, it is possible to send users in small groups into digital worlds, which they can explore using a mobile device (smartphone/tablet) and unravel together. The format not only enables learning content to be conveyed in an experience-oriented and playful manner, but also offers a mobile solution for exhibition content or the placement of interactive content in existing space. A tracker mat is used as an anchor for the digital rooms, which serves as the center for the augmented reality application. The devices align themselves with the mat, the application starts by itself and allows navigation through one or more rooms. The application is played together in the room, the principle is based on the placement of location-based installations.

Heartucate is the winner of the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow Challenge 2020 and won the Sächsische Mitmachfonds 2020 in the category “Start-Up”. In addition to the EXIST start-up grant, Heartucate received funding from the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung to develop an initial demo format of the application. The Arktis Demo produced by Heartucate won the Games Innovation Award Saxony 2021 in the category “Best Gamification” and the XR Competition 2022 of the Kurzsuechtig Film Festival Mitteldeutschland. In addition to its own production series and its distribution, Heartucate offers interested institutions the opportunity to develop their own content in the format.