This Croatian startup from Zagreb is a real mix of classical and virtual mobile games, but also has an educational mission.
As Ivan Tominac/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 28th of April, 2019, today, virtual games have replaced classic ones like ”Čovječe ne ljuti se” (Ludo) or ”Monopoly”, but when classically associated with a digital game, you end up with a smart social game – Mundus.
A passionate love for technology is shared by three students from Zagreb. They all came together two years ago, and their project is Mundus. Social games are undervalued today, these guys agree, and although industry experts might say that their project isn’t in demand in this day and age, the fact is that they entered the startup world directly from their school desks and are learning in parallel with the development of the project.
“We had to combine what was unknown knowledge to us back then. But given the fact that we love to learn and to develop technology, it wasn’t difficult for us,” stated of Mundus’s members, Filip Hercig, who was the one to kick off the project initially.
The idea for Mundus was quite spontaneous back at the end of 2015 when Hercig, who is now in charge of business development, showcased the very first concept of this clever game during a competition for young technicians and young entrepreneurs. The name changed several times – at the earliest stage it was called ”Zabavan put Hrvatske” (A fun journey of Croatia) and then ”Svijet na dlanu” (The world in your palm), before taking on its current name.
“In the summer of 2017, when we came to the CROZ company to develop our ideas, we decided to shorten its name from Svijet na dlanu down to just Svijet, but as it didn’t sound good, we decided to translate into Latin, and that’s how Mundus began,” said Filip Hercig.
It seems that Mundus isn’t just your regular type of game, and the focus of the project today is on the application of this technology within the scope of formal education. It’s actually an educational system, and the game is just one of the solutions the Mundus team is working on. A mobile device acts as a kind of gaming agent, where players choose the theme for the game and launch a quiz, and everything else is played on the game’s board, like with classic games before the Internet age.
Things became much more serious for this Croatian startup back in September of last year, when they won the Good Game Liftoff startup competition.
“They chose us as the best startup and besides giving us their trust, they also gave us 100,000 kuna. We can’t forget to mention the Good Game Global company that actually organised the competition and raised all the funds for that prize,” added Hercig.
After winning the Good Game Liftoff, this Croatian startup managed to secure numerous collaborations, is currently working with 48 schools across the Republic of Croatia, and interest in the game has stretched far beyond the borders of the country, and even beyond the borders of the EU and the European continent.
“There’s interest on the Australian and New Zealand market, specifically in the education sector. We’re currently conducting tests that are a prerequisite for serious moves in these markets,” said Hercig. Mundus is actually still a non-profit organisation, explained Hercig, and in 2019, it should turn into a real company.
“We’re oriented towards cooperating with educational institutions, but of course we’re not closing the door to purchase options for private users. We’ve got potential there tool, and in order to best explore the mass market, we plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign in September 2019,” concluded Mundus’ Filip Hercig.
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Click here for the original article by Ivan Tominac for Poslovni Dnevnik
