SAN ANTONIO – In a world of video games and social media, there are creators working to offer educational experiences like never before seen. The San Antonio based company, QuantumEra has launched their new app Gettysburg: A Nation Divided that takes users back to 1863 to the Battle of Gettysburg.
“This app is like a time machine,” Michael McGar, president of QuantumEra said. “You can see the battle happen from where you’re standing. You can stand next to the people that participated in the battle.”
The app uses augmented reality and 360-degree views to place users in the middle of the battle from the comfort of their home, school or park. Creators also included an option to experience the app when physically visiting the battlefields at Gettysburg.
“We’ve put in flags across the battlefield so that you can see where the different commanders were and where the different landmarks were,” McGar said. “You have 360-degree scenes where you're in the middle of the battle, it's in slow motion and the violence is not it is not oppressive.”
McGar began working on the app three years ago when he first visited Gettysburg. After almost 20 trips and working with historians, McGar says they wanted to release the app ahead of schedule and temporarily free to give kids a fun education opportunity during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Kids are trying to learn things and probably they're playing games that are not necessarily educational games,” McGar said. “The kids can play and and learn at the same time.”
Users can interact with an artifact scavenger hunt, earn virtual gold Civil War coins and achieve military rankings.
“We also have animated scenes where we fly you up above to watch the mass troops marching across the field,” McGar said. “It gives you multiple perspectives on how this battle happened.”
Currently, the app is available for download on iPads. McGar says QuantumEra will make the experience available for all Apple and Android devices by the end of the month.
To learn more about QuantumEra’s new app, visit its website.
To download Gettysburg: A Nation Divided click here.