Vidya Books seek to make reading interactive with help of Kickstarter

The creators of Vidya Books, a project that seeks to reimagine books for the 21st century on iPad and iPhone, have taken to Kickstarter to try to raise the final $10,000 they need to launch the app.

The Vidya Books app contains interactive books that resemble Choose Your Own Adventure books, with the reader being able to change the story as the words appear by touching the screen and manipulating the device in other ways.

Vidya Books is a project from a company named Vidya Gamer. Its founder, Joe Booth, has 25 years of experience in game development, and he created Vidya Books because he wanted something that could help older children learn to read.

"The creative and technical foundation is complete," says Booth in the Kickstarter pitch video. "We just need that little kick to get us over the finish line." According to the Kickstarter page, the story arc for the first Vidya Books title — a globe-trotting adventure in the vein of Indiana Jones stories — is written and the first chapter is ready to read. But Vidya Gamer wants the input of the project's Kickstarter backers in determining how it all plays out.

The $10,000 in Kickstarter contributions would cover the costs of hiring an illustrator; doing additional writing, design and programming; community management; and overhead. If the campaign is successful, Vidya Gamer would be able to release the app and the first book in May.

Vidya Gamer launched the 32-day funding drive earlier today, and has already pulled in more than $3,000. Check out the video below for more details.