Custom video games for classrooms and churches

Your lesson. Their game.

We build real video games around what you teach. For 5th through 12th grade, built to your state standards and your scope and sequence. For churches, built to your curriculum and your beliefs. Our first classroom game put a fifth-grade teacher in Saint Paul into her own history adventure, in English and Spanish. Your students play as someone they know, in places they recognize, and every level is a lesson they have to use to win.

Build our game See the classroom game ▶ Watch the games
Runs in any browser, phone or ChromebookNothing to install, no student accountsTeacher view and answer key included
Ms. Brown's Time-Travel Trail gameplay: Ms. Brown at the trailhead asking where to look first, with a park ranger nearby
Level 1 · Map skills and the explorer's compass
Ms. Brown's Time-Travel Trail · Level 1Built for a Saint Paul Public Schools classroom

How it works

Three things every game gets from you.

1

Your lesson becomes the levels

Hand us the standards, the unit plan, the workbook or the curriculum. Each level is one objective. A fifth-grade social studies game follows the state standards unit by unit; a church game follows your lesson plan week by week. You approve the content before anything is built.

2

Your people become the characters

The hero can be the teacher, the youth pastor, the school mascot or a historical figure. The places are your town, your school, your church. Kids pay attention to a game about them. The villains and challenges come straight from the material, so the fun is the lesson.

3

Your questions become the game

Evidence to collect, choices to make, villains that pop and explain themselves, a bonus question at the end of every level. Wrong answers show a clue and let them try again. Every game ships with a Teacher View, an answer key, a standards-alignment sheet, and a guide to the characters.

Why a game

A worksheet gets done. A game gets played again.

Kids from 10 to 18 already spend their attention on games. We put the lesson where the attention is, and we build in the things that make learning stick.

They have to use it to win

Nobody finishes a level by skimming. The map key opens the gate, the evidence opens the portal, the right card gets paid off first. Recall is the mechanic.

Instant feedback, no shame

A wrong answer shows a clue and lets them try again. Falling off the road costs a heart, not the level. Students keep going because nothing feels like failing in front of the class.

Replay is mastery

They play Level 3 again to get three stars or a bigger Freedom Jar, which means they do the lesson again, by choice, on their own phone, on the bus.

It's about them

Their teacher is the hero. Their street is the level. Their language is in the menu. Ownership is the difference between a game they are assigned and a game they show their friends.

Case study · Public school

Ms. Brown's Time-Travel Trail

Built for a fifth-grade social studies teacher at a Spanish immersion school in Saint Paul Public Schools. Her students play as Ms. Brown herself, following an old map through fifteen levels of U.S. history, from Native homelands before 1492 to a present-day community decision in Saint Paul. Fully bilingual, English and Español, with a toggle that switches every word mid-level.

15levels, one per unit of the Grade 5 standards
2languages, switchable at any moment
45+evidence cards: maps, artifacts, documents, quotes
0student accounts or personal data collected
2021 Minnesota Grade 5 Social Studies standardsMap skills · primary sources · cause and effect · civics · economicsRead-aloud in both languagesTeacher View with editable objectives44-page teacher guide and answer keyClassroom and school licenses

How a level plays: a story intro with one learning goal, explore and jump, talk with two characters, collect every piece of evidence, open the time portal, solve the challenge, match evidence to a conclusion. Five to eight minutes. Badges for Explorer, Listener and Thinker. No penalties, only curiosity points.

Time-Travel Trail: Declaring Independence, Philadelphia 1776 The Trail Map: fifteen levels from Map Skills to The Community Challenge Teacher View: objectives, sample answers and standards for each level
Freedom Run: the Debt Demolition level at night with credit card towers Freedom Run: Compound Mountain with the Interest Imp tossing interest Freedom Run: the end-of-level Freedom Jar tally screen

Case study · Nonprofit & church

Freedom Run

Built for the Institute for Economic Freedom, a nonprofit that teaches families to live as savers and givers rather than debtors. Their five-week workshop became a five-level 3D game for ages 11 to 18. The hero is styled after George Washington. The villains are everything the course tells people to despise: Pay Day Pete, the Credit Con, Rent-to-Own Ronnie, Store Card Sally, the Minimum Payment Mousetrap, the Tax Taker and the little daily Money Leaks.

5levels, one per week of the workshop
15Freedom Weapons, each its own stage
$1,000Freedom Account goal, saved across every level
10%of every deposit set aside in the Giving Account, to help people in need
Jump on a villain and it learns the lesson, in the workbook's own numbersFreedom Thermometer banks what you carryTally screen with 40-year compoundingBonus questions from each week's workbookEnds by signing the Declaration of Independence from High Interest DebtOriginal music, five tracks
Play Freedom Run ↗▶ Watch the video

Watch

Two games, two minutes each.

First, a 5th-grade social studies unit that became a bilingual adventure with the real teacher as the hero. Then a nonprofit's financial-freedom course that became a five-level game for ages 11 to 18. This is what your lesson looks like in play.

Ms. Brown's Time-Travel Trail — how it works

Playing as the teacher, the 15-level trail map, Philadelphia 1776, switching to Spanish mid-level, and the Teacher View.

Freedom Run — gameplay

Five levels built from five workbook weeks. Every villain is a lesson from the workbook.

For schools · grades 5 to 12

Built to your standards. Any subject you teach.

Give us the standards and the unit, and we build the game to them. These are the starting points we bring to a first call with a teacher, a department or a district.

Social studies · 5th to 8th

The Time-Travel Trail

Students follow a map through your history units, collecting primary-source evidence and matching it to conclusions. Your teacher is the hero; your city is the final level.

  • One level per standard, in your sequence
  • Bilingual on day one if your school needs it
  • Teacher View, answer key, alignment sheet
Financial literacy · 8th to 12th

Financial Literacy Game

A savings-and-debt game built around your personal-finance standards: budgeting, credit, interest, taxes, paychecks. Students collect savings, dodge the debt villains and watch compounding work, with your numbers and your graduation requirement.

  • Maps to state financial-literacy standards
  • Savings tally and compounding every level
  • Class thermometer for the whole grade
Science · 6th to 10th

Lab Run

Collect the variables, dodge the misconceptions, build the hypothesis before the portal opens. Cells, ecosystems, forces, the water cycle, whatever the unit is this month.

  • Vocabulary becomes the pickups
  • Misconceptions become the villains
  • Claim, evidence, reasoning at the end of every level
ELA · math · any elective

Your unit, your game

Grammar gauntlets, fraction bridges, a novel's chapters as levels, a Spanish-vocabulary market run. If you can write the quiz, we can build the level.

  • Custom hero: teacher, mascot or student-designed
  • Review week, test prep or the whole semester
  • Works on Chromebooks and phones, no logins

For churches and ministries

Built to your curriculum and your beliefs.

Sunday school, youth group, confirmation, VBS, a stewardship series. We build to the lesson plan you already use and nothing you would not say from the front of the room. You approve every line before it goes in.

Youth group · ages 11 to 18

The Stewardship Run

A financial literacy game, built for your church: save, give, live on the rest. Your youth pastor as the hero, your town as the levels, your giving goal as the jar.

  • 10-10-80 built into every level's tally
  • Villains from your teaching series
  • Youth-group leaderboard on the big screen
Sunday school · ages 10 to 14

The Story Trail

A trail through the stories you teach this year, one per level. Collect the evidence, talk with the characters, answer the question the lesson is building toward.

  • Your reading plan, in your order
  • Memory verses as the pickups
  • Teacher guide for small-group leaders
VBS · confirmation · camps

The Week-Long Quest

Five days, five levels, one game the kids go home and keep playing. Unlock a level each morning. Finish the week with a certificate they can print.

  • Built around your theme and your songs
  • Daily unlock codes for leaders
  • Printable certificate at the end
Missions · outreach

The Giving Game

Show what the mission trip or the offering actually does: the money collected in the game turns into the rice, the wells and the sleeping bags your church funds.

  • Real projects as the level goals
  • Share link for families and donors
  • Works for a fundraiser night

How we work with you

Three ways to get a game.

Classroom
One teacher, one subject, one grade
  • Custom hero and up to 5 levels built to your unit
  • Teacher View, answer key and standards sheet
  • Bilingual option
  • Hosted for you, link and QR code, no student accounts
  • One content update per semester
Get a quote
School or District
A grade band, a department or every school
  • Full-course game, 10 to 15 levels, aligned to your standards
  • Teacher licenses for every classroom
  • Class and school leaderboards
  • Printable teacher guide and parent letter
  • New level or review pack each quarter
Talk to us
Church or Ministry
Youth group, Sunday school, VBS, a sermon series
  • Custom hero and levels built to your curriculum
  • Leader guide and discussion questions per level
  • Share link for families, QR for the bulletin
  • Certificate and leaderboard options
  • Nonprofit pricing
Get a quote

Every game is a custom build, so we quote after a short call about your standards or curriculum, grade band and how many students will play. Build fees can be spread over the school year. Nonprofits and churches get reduced rates, and founding partners get a further discount in exchange for a case study. Prices are in US dollars.

Let's build yours

Tell us what you teach. We'll come back with a game idea and a quote.

Two working days, usually faster. If you have a unit plan, a standards list, a workbook or a curriculum, mention it and we'll ask for it.