Silicon Sisters' Relationship-Focused School 26 Coming To iOS In April

Vancouver-based Silicon Sisters Interactive announced today that its relationship-focused, tween girl-targeted simulation School 26, will be available on iOS platforms sometime in April, with PC, Mac, and Android versions to follow. The company's first title since its founding last July, School 26 focuses on the story of Kate, a high school student trying to make friends after being enrolled at her 26th new high school, thanks to a frequently relocating family. Attracting these friends requires players to pick up on non-player-characters' emotional cues and select situationally appropriate responses during conversations. The game will also include quizzes that help highlight characters' personalities and a card-matching game "with shifting rules that reflect the evolving social dynamic," according to the announcement. Canada's first female-owned game studio, Silicon Sisters Interactive was formed by former Radical Entertainment executive producer Kristen Forbes and former Deep Fried Entertainment COO Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch. While Silicon Sisters says it has plans for more broadly-focused games, School 26 is targeted specifically at girls aged 12 to 16, based on game studies research that highlights how important "social engineering" is in the day-to-day lives of this audience. "By highlighting and rewarding the social activities girls engage in every day, School 26 legitimizes ‘soft skills’ such as communication, empathy, and networking," Gershkovitch said in a statement. "Girls need to understand that these skills will give them a competitive advantage not only in high school, but also later in life."