'The Game of Books' National Gamification Project Receives $30,000 Boost From Lulu.com
'The Game of Books’ combines books with video-game-style achievements to promote reading amongst kids and young adults.
BOISE, Idaho — November 16, 2012 — Lulu.com today announced that they are pledging $30,000 to support BookLamp's innovative 'Game of Books' campaign on Kickstarter.com.
Powered by BookLamp's ‘Book Genome’ technology, The Game of Books (http://gameofbooks.com) rewards readers for completing literary “Journeys” - earning badges and experience levels based on the books they've read. Played primarily through a website and a mobile application that allows readers to scan the barcode of a book to see its gaming card, The Game of Books engages readers by turning the discovery process into an exploratory adventure and a modern-day treasure hunt.
The Game of Books is currently raising funds through Kickstarter.com to provide gaming kits to schools, teachers, and libraries across the United States. The starter kits are intended to help participating schools and libraries play The Game of Books with their readers and will contain everything needed to begin playing. Lulu's pledge will fund nearly 1/3rd of The Game of Book's fund raising targets.
“Lulu's generous support of innovation and technology to promote reading will allow us to send gaming kits to hundreds of schools and libraries across the country on Lulu's behalf,” said BookLamp's founder and CEO, Aaron Stanton. “Our goal is to provide additional rewards for readers when they pick up a book, and to promote adventurous reading in the front, mid, and backlist. We're creating a national game for readers to play and compare their scores with each other around the world.”
Powered by 'big data' provided by the Book Genome Project, which uses computers to analyze books for thematic and writing style make-up, every book cataloged in The Game of Books has a unique digital game card based on its content. There are more than 100,000 game cards already in The Game of Books, allowing readers to earn rewards for the books they've already read. The Game of Books combines elements of Foursquare with Xbox Live-style gamer achievements (such as badges) to encourage social reading.
“Every reader already has a game level,” said Stanton, “because every book already has experience points and themes that are left there for readers by the author. We're providing for the first time the tools that readers can use to know what their score is over time. Lulu's contribution gives The Game of Books a fantastic start in our efforts to build a national reading game that's accessible to everyone.”
“I can't wait for when The Game is successfully funded and launched,” Stanton adds, chuckling. “I look forward to the day that I can challenge our friends at Lulu to a friendly reading competition inside of The Game. All sorts of things become possible when the tools exist to keep consistent score anywhere in the world.”
Please find The Game of Books Kickstarter page at http://gameofbooks.com.
Contact Brooke Bloomfield at bbloomfield@booklamp.org or visit http://gameofbooks.com/press with media inquiries or questions.
About BookLamp
BookLamp is a publishing technology company powered by the Book Genome Project, which uses the DNA of language to explore the world of books. BookLamp uses computer-based modeling to compare books and manuscripts based on their thematic makeup, character prevalence, and language elements. This provides fingerprinting and "place in the universe" information for authors, trend and market targeting for publishers, and the next generation of book discovery for readers. We aim to be the best in the world at applying science to the written word, to share the knowledge we gain from that passion, and to be an ally to publishers in an industry where technology has been a double-edged sword. Connect with us digitally at Facebook.com/BookLamp, Twitter.com/BookLamp, or BookLamp.org.
About Lulu.com
Lulu.com helps all kinds of people and organizations share stories, knowledge, experiences and passions through words and pictures. Since 2002, millions around the world have used Lulu.com’s pioneering open publishing tools to create, distribute and often sell quality, customized books, eBooks, photo books, calendars and more. With technology offering more ways than ever to share, Lulu.com continues to innovate with interactive multi-media solutions. Whether it’s fiction or photos, unique gifts or personal milestones, memoirs or thought leadership, Lulu.com is the place to tell your story.
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