Dan Roy

Background

About Dan Roy

I founded Skylight Games to inspire a love of learning through play. We make learning games for mobile, VR, and web for both kids and grown-up kids. We launched "Lyriko: Learn Languages with Music" on android and iOS, winning eight awards including the Apps for Class Challenge and Best Learning Game at the Boston Festival of Indie Games. Our design philosophy is finding the fun in the learning. Instead of using common quiz formats, we try to stimulate curiosity through play and develop a lasting interest in a subject. I'm also a research scientist at the MIT Education Arcade. In partnership with HP, we wrote the report Learning Across Realities: Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education. https://education.mit.edu/publications/learning-across-realities/ Through a partnership with Oculus, we designed Cellverse, a collaborative, crossplatform VR game to learn about cellular biology and personalized medicine. https://education.mit.edu/project/clevr/ Other past projects include a casual, multiplayer, language learning game called Xenos with the Learning Games Network, and a couple of science games with BrainPOP: and "Lure of the Labyrinth" to teach math and literacy to middle school kids. When not designing games, I spend my time thinking about social entrepreneurship through organizations using markets to solve social challenges. To that end, Skylight Games joined the Social Impact track at MassChallenge, and I organized the financial sustainability for nonprofits track at Forum for Social Entrepreneurs. For me, social entrepreneurship and language learning games are closely connected, as better language skills can open doors in the global economy to groups who are currently struggling and can facilitate cross-cultural understanding and appreciation.