How it works
The learning is the game
A lot of educational software is a worksheet in a costume: play for a minute, stop, answer a question, collect a sticker. Children see through that quickly. We start from the other end.
Why “covert”
In Learn Dungeon a child builds a dungeon out of pieces that each cost mana, so staying inside the budget is arithmetic. Then they walk through it, and every room is a puzzle solved by carrying the right number of things to the right place. Nobody stops the game to ask what three plus two is. The room simply does not open until five cubes are on the plate.
That is the whole idea. The practice is not a toll booth in front of the fun. It is the thing the child is doing while they are having it.
The test we hold a game to is simple: take the learning out, and is there still a game? If there is, the learning was decoration.
Covert from the child, not from you
None of this is hidden from the grown-up. A dashboard behind a PIN shows what each child gets right, what they are stuck on, and whether that is improving. You can ask the game for more of a particular thing.
What you will not find is a record of your child on our servers. There are no accounts for children, and nothing about how a child plays is sent to us. The game works with the internet switched off.
The rules
Four rules every game is held to
Each is already true of Learn Dungeon. The next game starts from the same four.
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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.
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No buzzers
A wrong answer gets a nudge toward the right one. No red crosses, no fail screens, no score to feel bad about.
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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.
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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.
What we do not promise
We have not run a study, so we will not tell you that our games raise test scores or that your child will be a grade ahead by summer. If we ever have evidence, we will show it to you. Until then, the claim we make is a small one: the practice is real practice, and it is inside a game a child would choose to play.
We also will not call something finished when it is not. Every game page separates what is built from what is planned.
Who is behind it
Covert Learning is a small independent studio. Learn Dungeon began at home, with children who asked for magic, spells and a dungeon, and a grown-up who wanted the math to actually be in it.
We build slowly and we answer our own email. If you teach at home, run a co-op or just have a question, write to us.
