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A Buffalo-based firm has been tabbed for a role in developing a major online educational product, Go Math! Academy, which will be marketed worldwide by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

JR Visuals, an Allen Street company which mostly works in the gaming and advertising industries, is part of a team that will repackage existing Houghton Mifflin curriculum for the new product, which will be sold directly to families via subscription at gomathacademy.com.

"The part we're doing is giving (the content) a facelift, visually and technically, so it can work as a consumer product, and such that it can work on desktops, laptops and mobile devices" said Jose Rodriguez, the firm's owner.

The Go Math! brand existed before but never in the online format. JR Visuals is working with Minnesota-based Simulation Curriculum on the project, which involves Houghton Mifflin curriculum that had been previously used in classroom textbooks.

"The goal is to make it easier for teachers and parents to provide additional educational support in the home," Rodriguez said. "To really make it playful and work with the fact that kids love games, but they may not like homework."

Houghton Mifflin, a venerable publisher of academic textbooks, is seeking a modern identity and new sources of revenue, Rodriguez said. The contract qualifies as a big one for JR Visuals, though the company has a catalog of other current projects. The company once had a staff of 12 employees but recently cut back to be more nimble. Rodriguez is working on the Houghton Mifflin project with a "team of trusted contractors" - all of whom live in and around Buffalo.

The project just wrapped up its phase one beta testing and will begin later this week with more content and enhancements. It is live right now for grades K-3.

Dan Miner is Business First's enterprise reporter. He also covers education and public companies.