Interview with Petr Meca – CEO, Mathgoras App [2023]

Hi, my name is Petr Meca, I´m a father of three and a husband to one 🙂 currently fully occupied with the development of the Mathgoras game. I´ve been developing the game all by myself – I am the creator of 3D models, I create the tasks with all of their difficulties, and I am also the programmer of the game.

At the beginning of high school, I got interested in 3D graphics and so I self-studied all I could, which later helped me to get a job in a local television station as a 3D graphic. In addition, I graduated from a university in the field of Applied Mathematics and Information Technology, and my main interests were programming mobile applications and websites.

Then my brother and I started a company where we developed mobile applications and information systems for large companies. After 10 years of cooperation, the idea for the Mathgoras game came to my mind, and my brother and I each went our separate ways.

I have a friend, who inspired me to create the game Mathgoras. He and his wife have been homeschooling their children, and once he explained to me how they teach them mathematics – that they go out to learn, they learn by counting things they see outside, etc. And that was when it occurred to me that I could connect the game with children’s everyday life. 

And all at once, I realized that it would be good for the kids if they could improve their logical thinking at the same time because as intelligent as we can be, there is always a situation in which we are groping. And if we want to handle this situation, we must be able to cope with it. And if we are able to think logically, we’ll manage to do everything. That’s why it occurred to me to add logical thinking to the game so that children will always manage and handle everything in life.

The result of this is the 3D mobile game Mathgoras, which deepens the logical thinking of children. The game helps them to improve in math, and it connects mathematics with situations that they can experience in life.

At first, I had to solve how to fund the development of the game. I had the funds for a few months, but the development takes at least 1 year, so I started writing to investors, created pitch boards, and was looking for ways to get the necessary finance.

After about 2 months, a great person called me. They liked my idea and the overall concept of the game, and so we agreed on cooperation, which got me the needed funding. Thanks to this investor, I was able to start working on the game to the fullest.

After that, the only things I needed to care about were the ones I understood best, namely finding suitable servers where the game data would be stored, inventing individual tasks for the game, and programming everything. So the hardest part was finding an investor, then it all went smoothly.

Yes, children are curious, they want answers immediately, but if we give them the advice straight away, they will remember it, and next time they will just do the same without thinking. However, if we just make a hint of what to do, then they have to try and think.

Sometimes they have to try multiple times, and they can come up with various ways how to complete their task, all of which help them to improve their logical thinking. They will be getting better at it and thanks to this they might be able to handle other situations too.

Of course, it is necessary that the kids want to give it a try, and that is also why I am offering them the opportunity through an adventurous game so that they enjoy it more and stay with it longer.

At the moment I don’t plan to look for any other tools. I already have everything for the development of the game, but I would definitely like to add multiplayer in the future so that children could connect and solve the tasks together and I’m also interested in VR and AR.

I set out right at the beginning that I will not work in the evenings and at the weekends, but only during the day, as I have 3 kids and a wife, and also because we all like to spend time outdoors, we like to go hiking, cycling, we like to wander around, etc, and I did not want to sacrifice this. 

That is why I set a little longer to develop the game, and I think it’s all going well. Of course, things never go as smoothly as we want, so sometimes I have to work in the evening.

From time to time it happens, that I just can’t finish something in time, the new level of the game needs to be released – and so to keep the deadline, I work overtime. However, as I said, this does not happen often, it’s rather exceptional.

As I said at the beginning, I am the only one who develops the game, I have no employees. I only have a colleague who takes care of finances and marketing. So I always determine the atmosphere in the workplace for myself, but of course, it’s all about the will. I have set my working hours that I adhere to, I have set the number of days off I can take in a year, as if I were an employee, just to let me stay in a constant work ethic 🙂 And it works.

I am in constant contact with my colleague through the internet. We discuss various matters related to marketing, which he then works on, and I work on development. So it’s just a matter of communicating with each other.

So far it’s just in my thoughts, but I am not determined whether to do it yet. First I’m planning to add multiplayer to the game so that the children could solve the task in a group, they could solve it at once, and I also think about bonus rounds to individual levels.

First, they need to be clear about how the complete game will work. It’s needed to spend a few days writing down all the ideas and thoughts and make it one unit, which will make them feel great. It’s also important that the idea really, really makes sense to them, that it keeps them entertained, and that they know that it will be a success.

It’s not about belief, you need to know that it will work. It’s this firm feeling inside that this is just a great product. It is important to keep and support this feeling constantly and to give it strength.

And it will all work out at a certain time. It is necessary to go for it with a strong will and to never let go of your vision. If in doubt, then give the doubts away immediately and just keep at it.

As I mentioned earlier, I would also like to add multiplayer and other bonus rounds into the game so that children can play the first level for the whole first class. We also want to expand (create dubbing and translations) to countries other than the just Czech Republic and English-speaking countries. We would definitely like to go to Asian countries like Japan, etc.