TL; DR; To survive long-term, your company needs to make a profit. The work you are doing that pays money today is not developing a new product you aren’t selling yet. So, there is a trade-off and innovation takes longer but your company is more likely to survive. I have a lot more to say but I need to get back to development. If you want to meet me in person, check out the bottom of this post.
You’ve probably heard about this no-code educational game builder we’ve been working on. A week ago, I decided to use the no-code builder to re-create the game we created during Global Game Jam.
SUCCESS! I was able to create a splash screen, visual novel block and a moving targets game, all in 20 minutes and just by typing in text, pointing and clicking. All of the blocks we used for the demo version so far can be played on a touch device, like an iPad, as well as on a Chromebook or other computer.
Why don’t you have 7 Gen Blocks in your hand right now?
The short answer is, you’re not on the list. We’re starting with our earliest beta testers today. We know that there are a few pieces missing, like we haven’t yet added the help screens for each block. We want to add several more blocks, like a runner game, a matching terms activity for assessment. We start testing with a small group, fix the bugs they find, expand to a bigger group until, eventually, we take over the world – or something like that.
One reason the no-code builder has taken this long is it’s our third iteration. The first was tested with users and found to be not intuitive enough. The second was integrated with AI and we decided it was not a sustainable business model. Now, we have our Goldilocks version which is just right.
We are on schedule to release our no-code blocks in April as a free demo. This is a no-code version of the low-code developer version that has been used to make dozens of games. We already have districts signed up for professional development on using the blocks. We’re offering one free PD per district. There will be a couple of online webinars also for people who are not with a school or district and just want to make educational games without coding. Sign up for PD here.
Why Don’t I have 7 Gen No code blocks NOW ? (Or, how not to die)
Paul Graham said that the number one task for a startup is not to die. If you are making a profit, you can go on working on your idea forever. We took that advice to heart and have been making a profit making customized games and other interactive software. If you want us to make a game to teach just about anything to anybody, hit me up!
All the time we spend doing work using our low-code game builder that pays off today is not time spent working on the no-code builder. We were able to make the low-code builder thanks to investments from Brown Ventures and some angel investors (thank you, you all rock). That year, we lost money because we spent all the money on development. We could have done another raise to fund the no-code builder, but we decided to divide our time between work for money now and work on our new product.
Time > Money . When I thought about doing another seed round or writing another SBIR grant, I concluded that the time it would take me would be equivalent to the time I would spend on customized development and it would add another layer of requirements for reporting. In the case of a seed round, it would also dilute our ownership, without getting us any further ahead in development.
What comes next?
I have a lot more to say about how we did and didn’t use AI, our next steps, which is a whopping bunch of documentation on the website and in YouTube, adding new blocks, creating more demo games and crisscrossing the country to sign up new users.
Want to meet me?
I’m always happy to meet up and talk games, startups and how interactive software can be used to teach. Let me know if you want to meet up.
I’ll be at GDC , now called Festival of Gaming, March 8-12 in San Francisco
March 14 2026 7 Generation Games will have a table at Pi Day at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center 2401 12th St NW, Albuquerque, NM 87104
March 21, 2026 Critical Play: Play, Interaction, and Learning Conference is free and online. https://forms.gle/2Wk85kAdM9YPgsum9
March 28, 2026 Using games to integrate Indigenous culture and STEM at Native American & Indigenous Education Summit Hosted by California Indian Nations College! Grand Ballroom at Soboba Resort Casino 22777 Soboba Rd, San Jacinto, CA 92583