A licensing agreement with the Discovery Channel has a St. Albert tech entrepreneur excited about the future.
Ken Bautista is the creator of an online game for kids aged eight to 13 called CIE: Seek Your Own Proof. The website launched this month and Bautista recently signed a deal with Discovery Kids to cross-promote the site. This means that Bautista’s site will be exposed to more than 50 million households.
“The sky’s the limit here. We’re really excited,” Bautista said.
The game is an online world with a historic and educational twist. Kids become agents of the Central Institute of Exploration (CIE). The game challenges users to investigate history and science through a series of story-driven missions and online games.
“This is like smart entertainment. It’s a lot of problem solving and puzzles,” Bautista said.
Discovery Kids is a brand owned by Discovery Communications, a huge non-fiction media company that reaches more than 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers in over 170 countries. Discovery has 100-plus worldwide networks, including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Planet Green, Investigation Discovery and HD Theater.
For Bautista, the potential is a tantalizing reward for years of pitching an idea that began in late 2005. He’s won a number of pitch competitions with the concept and burned through about $1 million in grant funding from various sources. Now he’s finally on the cusp of generating some serious revenue.
That’s the part that attracted local venture capital firm Foundation Equity, which recently bought into Bautista’s business. There are many games like Bautista’s out there but none of them have a deal with Discovery, said Foundation CEO Mike Cabigon.
“If you’re going to separate yourself from the thousands of potential competitors out there, having a partnership with one of the world’s most powerful media brands is a really good way,” he said.
Cabigon sees potential for his investment to provide a big payoff.
“We can’t say yet whether that’s going to pan out but we are looking for a home run or we wouldn’t do the investment,” he said.
For its part, Discovery Kids was looking for a partner in the online gaming area and Bautista’s product seemed like a good fit from the very start because it crosses the boundaries of online play and social networking while providing education and encouraging kids to engage in real world activities, said Rich Maryyanek of Big Tent Entertainment, the licensing agent for Discovery Kids.
The product has the potential to spin off in various directions depending on the reaction from kids. This could include a television show, publishing or video games, Maryyanek said. The key is for Seek Your Own Proof to build a solid roster of users over the next 18 months.
“They brought a really creative twist to an online environment that is becoming extremely cluttered,” he said.
In exchange for providing exposure to Seek Your Own Proof, Discovery Kids will receive a royalty for every subscription sold. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The game can be found at www.seekyourownproof.com.
