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Reinventing a Legacy Organisation Through Play-Based Learning
Scarlet City Studios · Co-Founder and Head of Studio Operations
Reinvented a declining legacy charity for the digital age by building an educational MMO from the ground up, raising $5M, scaling a 35-person studio, and reaching 30,000 children at triple the legacy model's peak with double the industry-average retention.
Context
A long-standing charitable organisation had once thrived by leveraging the most modern technology of its time: the postal system. Through this model, it distributed educational content to thousands of geographically isolated children. But by the 2000s, with the rise of the internet and mobile devices, the model had become outdated. Enrolment plummeted from tens of thousands to just a few hundred, leaving the organisation at risk of irrelevance and collapse.
Challenges
- Digital transformation urgency: the organisation needed to reinvent itself to reach and engage a new generation of children in a digital-first world.
- Sustainable revenue model: create a viable financial foundation to secure the organisation's long-term survival after decades of decline.
- Meaningful impact delivery: equip children with skills, values, and ways of thinking they could take into their communities to drive positive change.
- Geographic reach limitations: the legacy postal model couldn't compete with digital channels for engaging modern audiences.
What I did
- Strategic vision: proposed building an educational video game as the cornerstone of digital transformation, leveraging engagement through play and scalable digital reach.
- User and market research: conducted focus groups with children, parents, and educators to validate assumptions, plus engaged branding and business experts for monetisation strategy.
- Cross-functional leadership: managed a diverse team of artists, engineers, designers, and writers, alongside external studios and contractors, later transitioning to an in-house model.
- Game design excellence: hired a full-time game designer to embed retention mechanics and ensure high playability standards.
- Community ecosystem: oversaw user forums, companion apps, and spin-off content (books, events) to build a comprehensive ecosystem around the core game.
- Iterative development: ran frequent playtests and focus groups, incorporating feedback into rapid product updates and improvements.
- Financing and team: raised $5M seed; scaled a 35-person cross-functional studio.
- Multi-format delivery: shipped core MMO across iOS/Android/desktop and produced 2 museum AR games to reach new audiences.
Results
- User growth: achieved 30,000 signups, tripling the peak enrolment of the legacy postal model.
- Retention excellence: delivered 2x industry average retention metrics, with strong long-tail engagement (players continued for up to 24 months even without updates).
- Educational impact: demonstrated the viability of play-based learning for sustained educational and social impact in children's communities.
- Digital transformation: successfully repositioned a legacy organisation for relevance in the digital era through innovative product strategy.
- Product validation: proved that digital experiences can foster skills, values, and mindsets that empower children to drive positive community change.
Why it matters
This project proved that play-based digital experiences can do more than entertain: they can create meaningful social impact while driving sustainable business outcomes. The key lessons: product success requires alignment between user experience excellence, organisational stakeholder buy-in, and market-appropriate funding strategies. Even when structural challenges limit scale, the right product vision can fundamentally transform how legacy organisations create value in digital markets.