Covert Learning

// Covert Learning · games that teach

Play on the surface. Learning underneath.

We make games where the learning is built into how the game works. There is no quiz between the fun parts. The fun parts are the practice.

See the games Open the case files How it works
A cutaway drawing of a block of ground, seen from above at an angle. On top, a small city: a row of buildings, one a city hall with a clock tower, along a street, and a square with an old well where neighbors, grown-ups and children, are out and about. Cut into the side underneath, three torch-lit dungeon rooms joined by tunnels. In the first, a chalkboard reads 3 + 2, three cubes sit on a pressure plate with two more waiting beside it, and a lever stands ready to be pulled. The second holds a treasure chest and glowing crystals; the third a red banner with a gold star, and a ladder up to the well. 3 + 2
A city and its people, and what is underneath them.
Worlds
2
one being built, one planned
Built today
K–2
kindergarten to 2nd grade math
Quizzes
0
between the fun parts
Trackers
0
from anybody else, on this site

// The games

The case files

One is being built now, below ground. The other comes next, above it. Point at a black bar to lift it.

File 01 In development
The builder's view from above: a square stone hall with a pillar at each corner and its floor marked out in a grid of squares, joined by an archway to a long corridor.
The builder's view. Look-development render.

Learn Dungeon

Objective
Your child builds a dungeon, then walks it. The math is how it works.
Subject
Math · Kindergarten to 2nd grade today
Runs on
Windows
Hidden lessons
Counting Area Perimeter

  1. Build

    Lay floors, walls and puzzle rooms. Every piece costs mana from a budget, so building is already arithmetic.

  2. Play

    Walk the dungeon in first person. Each puzzle room seals behind you until you solve it by carrying objects and pulling a lever.

  3. Grow

    A solved room drops a loot chest. Stars track what a child has mastered, and the next concepts unlock as they go.

Read the file
File 02 Planned · Classified
A small city: a row of buildings, one a city hall with a clock tower, and a square with a tree and an old well, with neighbors, grown-ups and children, out in the street. 3 + 2

Learntropolis

Motto
A city to live in, a people to tend.
Brief
For the child who would rather look after a city than explore a dungeon. A sunlit world of streets and neighbors, built on the same rule as everything we make: the learning is inside the play.
Mechanics
Not decided yet. When they are, they will be here.
What we can say so far

// How it works

Four protocols

“Covert” does not mean hidden from you. It means your child is too busy playing to notice the practice, while you can see all of it.

  1. Protocol 01

    The lesson is the mechanic

    The learning is how the game works, not a quiz between the fun parts. If you took the math out of Learn Dungeon there would be no game left.

  2. Protocol 02

    No buzzers

    A wrong answer gets a nudge toward the right one. No red crosses, no fail screens, no score to feel bad about.

  3. Protocol 03

    Grown-ups hold the keys

    A dashboard behind a PIN shows what each child gets right and what needs practice. Your child is not under surveillance; you are simply kept informed.

  4. Protocol 04

    It stays in your house

    No accounts for children. Nothing about how a child plays is sent to us. The game works with the internet switched off.

// Get the briefing

Be told when there is something to play

An occasional email for grown-ups: when a game is ready, and when a new grade is added.

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