Click on the links to the left for systems requirements, download and installation, frequently asked questions or game play questions. May we suggest: many problems can be fixed by downloading the latest version.
What age group plays your games?
Are Your Games only for schools?
What math is taught in your games?
I NEED TO EXIT THE GAME, BUT WANT TO SAVE MY PROGRESS, WHAT SHOULD I DO?
WHAT IF I GET STUCK AND NEED HELP DURING THE GAME?
HOW LONG DOES A FULL GAME LAST?
CAN I USE A GAMEPAD/CONTROLLER TO PLAY INSTEAD OF THE KEYBOARD?
WHAT ELSE IS AVAILABLE WITH THE GAME?
IS THERE A MULTIPLAYER OPTION?
Are your games just for Native American or Latino students?
1. What age group plays your games?
About 90% of our players are aged 8-14 years old, that is, in third through eighth grade. Some older people – up to adults in their 70s – play just for fun. A small number of gifted first- and second-graders play our games. The youngest person to have ever won Spirit Lake without help was six years old. We often see parents playing with younger children, with parents helping with the math problems and the child playing the game.
2. Are Your Games only for schools?
No. Our users are about 50% playing at school, including after school programs, and 50% at home. Anyone can download our free apps or buy games from our website, the Apple app store, on Google Play or the Microsoft Store .
3. What math is taught in your games?
Spirit Lake and all of the Making Camp games teach multiplication and division.
Fish Lake teaches fractions.
Forgotten Trail, Aztech: The Story Begins and Aztech: Meet the Maya teach statistics.
4. WHY WON’T THE GAME RESPOND? I’M USING THE ARROW KEYS TO MOVE, HITTING THE CONTROL KEY TO SHOOT, NOTHING IS HAPPENING!
It’s most likely that you have some how moved out of the game play window. Use your mouse or keypad to move your cursor (the arrow) over the game, then click to make this the active window. Try using your keys again. We bet they’ll work.
5. How can I move faster?
Hold down the shift key and the arrow key at the same time.
6. I NEED TO EXIT THE GAME, BUT WANT TO SAVE MY PROGRESS, WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Remember your login, and the game will return you to the same level where you left off.
7. I FORGOT MY LOGIN.
If you are playing our game as part of a classroom assignment, ask your teacher if he or she has a copy of your login. Teachers usually record their students’ logins because they are brilliant like that.
8. I FORGOT MY PASSWORD.
Since answer above. Ask your teacher if he or she has it. We cannot retrieve any user passwords. You would need to start the game over with a new login and password.
9. WHAT IF I GET STUCK AND NEED HELP DURING THE GAME?
Press the “?” key for help at any time during the game. Please note that PC’s have two “?” keys and only the bottom, right-hand “?” will work- the “F1/?” key will not pull up the help menu.
10. HOW LONG DOES A FULL GAME LAST?
This will vary from person to person. For most games, if you go through the whole game without making a mistake and also answer every single question correctly along the way on the first try, then the game can be completed in 45 minutes to an hour. Each game takes the typical student about 2 – 3 hours. The record for completing Fish Lake was 30 minutes, by a student from Warwick Public School in Warwick, ND.
11. CAN I USE A GAMEPAD/CONTROLLER TO PLAY INSTEAD OF THE KEYBOARD?
The games require inputting digits to answer math questions. So you are better off sticking to the keyboard. Additionally, one of our aims is to help students learn to operate computers.
12. WHAT ELSE IS AVAILABLE WITH THE GAME?
If you are looking for information on what else is available with the game, such as getting access to the videos, PowerPoint presentations and more, please check out the teacher resource pages for general information. For resources for a specific game, select the game name under the RESOURCES tab in the menu above.
13. IS THERE A MULTIPLAYER OPTION?
Our games are only single player at this time.
14. Are your games just for Native American or Latino students?
No. That’s the short answer. The games are available to any district, school, class or individual who wants to purchase a license. Some games are even free.
We did initially develop our first games with Native American students in mind. We have extensive ties to the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation and we saw that American Indian students were severely under-performing when it came to math. So we created this game as a way to engage these kids when it came to math learning.
As we had hoped when we set out to develop Spirit Lake: The Game, the kids loved it and their math scores improved. But something we didn’t expect also happened along the way. This game that we’d created for what we thought was a smaller — but albeit substantial — market seemed to have a lot more marketability than we’d imagined.
Our president had made a few mentions of Spirit Lake: The Game on her blog and social media. We’d piloted it in a couple of schools. We hadn’t done any real marketing, but word began to spread. We started getting inquiries from schools and after-school programs in Native American communities across the country asking to be test sites or even just asking to purchase licenses outright. Then we had non-Indian schools and after-school programs inquiring about how they too could get our game into their classrooms. After all, not only does it teach math, but also combines a social studies component. Our depiction of the Dakota (Sioux) at the time of first contact is historically and culturally accurate, incorporating aspects of tribal life, native language and natural environment.
Now, we have games that feature other tribes as well as the AzTech Games series featuring Latin American history.