Top 5 Math Games for the iPad & iPhone: 2014

'Tis the season to spread holiday cheer, so we wanted to take some time to highlight other companies that are making amazing educational games.  Here are our five favorite math games for that were released for iOS this year (in no particular order):

DragonBox Elements

Ages: 9-11

This geometry game was inspired by Euclid's "Elements", one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics that describes the foundations of geometry.  Kids will work their way through geometry puzzles to build an army, climb up the tower and fight the monster!

Why we love it: Elements is a beautifully polished game that does a great job of progressing kids naturally through the concepts of geometry.

by We Want to Know

The Land of Venn - Geometric Defense

Ages: 6-8

This game also teaches geometry, but for a slightly younger age group.  The Land of Venn is a fast-paced tower defense game where kids will need to make points, lines and shapes to defeat the evil wizard Apeirogon and prevent the Bookkenriders (monsters) from drinking all the Magic Juice.

Why we love it: This game just oozes personality.  Kids (and adults!) will love the wacky characters!

by iMagine machine

Motion Math: Pizza!

Ages: 9-11

Kids will be able to create and run their own pizzeria in this math simulation game.  Players get a lesson in both math and economics, needing to please customers while calculating the right price for orders quickly enough!  (This game technically released in December of 2013, but I figured it was close enough to count for 2014.)

Why we love it: The context of running your own pizza shop is a fun motivator to get kids to practice their math, and also requires strategic thinking.

by Motion Math

Slice Fractions

Ages: 6-8

This game tackles the challenging subject of fractions, with kids slicing through ice to clearing a path for the wooly mammoth to cross the landscape.  Slice Fractions starts with the fundamentals, helping kids visualize parts of a whole and equal shares, then later progresses to fractions.

Why we love it: The difficulty curve is very well done, and it starts with the fundamentals in such a way that kids who haven't been exposed to fractions yet can still jump in and learn.  You also earn hats for your mammoth, which is just adorable.

by Ululab

Twelve a Dozen

Ages: 6-8 (ish)

Twelve a dozen is a beautiful 2d puzzle platformer.  Players take the role of Twelve who travels through the world of Dozenopolis to save her family, overcoming many math challenges and earning special abilities along the way.

Why we love it: This game sets an incredibly high quality bar for educational titles.  The beautiful graphics, charming narrator and engaging puzzles all come together to make a wonderful game.

by Bossa Studios

What were your favorite math games this year? Tell us in the comments!

Thankful for Teachers Giveaway

It's nearly Thanksgiving and we have a lot to be thankful for here at Little Worlds Interactive. We're thankful that the iOS launch of The Counting Kingdom has gone wonderfully, and we're thankful for our amazing and supportive community.  We're especially thankful for the teachers who work incredibly hard every day to help students be the best math wizards they can be!

To show our thanks to teachers we'd like to give back: between now and Friday Dec. 5th we're giving away 5 free copies of The Counting Kingdom (on PC/Mac) to every teacher who emails us!

Here's how to redeem your 5 free copies:

1) Email us at hello@littleworldsinteractive.com with the subject line "Thankful for Teachers Giveaway".  Please make sure you email us from your school account.

2) Verify that you are a teacher in your email.  You could link to your school's faculty directory or email us a scan of your faculty ID card.

(PS - If you're not in the US make sure you let us know what country you're from! We'll need this info to send you the correct copies of the game.)

Thank you to all of the amazing teachers out there, we hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

<3, The Little Worlds Team

The Counting Kingdom, where "learning IS fun"

It's been only a few weeks since The Counting Kingdom launched on the App Store and the response has been amazing!  The game has been featured by Apple in the Educational and Kids categories, and is listed as a "Best New App".  It has also earned a 5-star ranking from players, with over a dozen reviews from happy parents and teachers.  Please don't forget to rate and review the game on the App Store - the monsters would be so grateful!

Reviews have also been pouring in from all over the web - here are a few of our favorites:

"A delightful blend of tower defense, basic math concepts and cute graphics that should be a hit with any young gamer." - Gamezebo

"Learning is so much more effective when it's fun. It's also better because it's, you know, fun. That's what works so well for The Counting Kingdom, a game that teaches kids all about the importance of addition - plus it's actually a good game in its own right." - 148Apps 

Don't have The Counting Kingdom yet?  This award-winning game would make a great present for any kid, parent or teacher!  

Throwback Thursday: Environment Art

This week's Throwback Thursday takes a look around us at the wonderful world of The Counting Kingdom:

You can see that, from the very beginning, artist Luigi Guatieri had a blocky geometric look in mind for the environment.  We saw this pop up in many places down the road - check out the forest in the world map! (Or the clouds, I think those are my favorite!)

Early concept art for the world map

If you add one part blocky shapes, one part lush painterly style, and one part bright bold colors, you'll get the environment art for The Counting Kingdom!

Help the wizard's apprentice save the kingdom- download The Counting Kingdom today for iPad & iPhone!

A look back at the development of The Counting Kingdom

The past year and a half of developing The Counting Kingdom has been an amazing ride!  Now that the game has successfully launched for iPad & iPhone I want to look back on some of the highlights:

Sept 2013: Boston Festival of Indie Games

This is the first time we showed off a demo of the game.  At this point it only had three levels - easy, medium and hard.  Founder Jenna Hoffstein crafted all sorts of wizard goodies, including a basket of (very popular) wizard wands, and the day was spent playing the game with teachers, kids and parents.  Judging from all the smiles on everyone's faces, we knew we were making something special!

March 2014: MassDigi Game Challenge

After a long winter of heads-down development, The Counting Kingdom was entered into the MassDiGi Game Challenge.  Jenna competed against fourty-five other teams to impress a judging panel of industry veterans, and The Counting Kingdom took home the Grand Prize!  Attending journalist Dennis Scimeca had this to say about the game:

"Educational video games often don't feel like video games at all.  They're just not fun enough... But the game "The Counting Kingdom," developed by the Boston-based studio Little Worlds Interactive to teach children basic math skills, smoothly avoids this hurdle on the way to becoming an ideal of what a "serious video game" (in the industry lingo) ought to be.  Its extremely entertaining gameplay doesn't take a back seat to learning, and vice versa."

Spring & Early Summer 2014: Awards and festivals and early access, oh my!

Things kicked into overdrive as Jenna worked to get word out there about the game.  We exhibited at PAX East and the Cambridge Science Festival, and won the Big Indie Pitch Jr. at the Game Developer's Conference.  In June the game officially launched on Steam Early Access, which was an amazing opportunity to get feedback from early players!

Jenna also attended Casual Connect where The Counting Kingdom was nominated to be in the Indie Prize Showcase, and Jenna gave a talk about how to make great educational games.

August 2014: PC & Mac Release on Steam, PAX 10

I think it's fair to say that August was an incredibly exciting month.  The game released for PC & Mac on Steam and the Humble Store to hugely positive reviews. Here are a few of my favorites:

"Little Worlds Interactive's The Counting Kingdom is a relatively rare breed of learning game: It's so successful at being a good game that your kids may not even realize they're learning while playing it.  It's a game that is educational - not just an educational game." - The Examiner

" If you're looking for a math game for your elementary-aged kid, or it you just like number-puzzles, Counting Kingdom is the charming (yet educational) game for you.. I would much rather play The Counting Kingdom than any other game on my iPhone, and I'd still choose it over half the games in my Steam library." - Game Skinny

The end of August also brought with it PAX Prime!  The Counting Kingdom was selected to be in the PAX 10 this year; 50 industry experts selected the ten best indie games in regard to gameplay and overall fun-factor.  Being in the PAX 10 is an incredibly honor to being with, but to make it as an educational kids game was unprecedented.   We gave ourselves a high-five and packed our bags for Seattle to exhibit the game!

This brings us up to the present!  This week hasn't exactly been small potatoes either - releasing the game for iPad and iPhone has been an enormous milestone from the beginning, and we're so glad to be able to get The Counting Kingdom into the hands of more kids, parents and teachers.

It's been an amazing journey, and hopefully just the beginning of many wonderful things! We never would have made it this far without the support of our amazing playtesters, players and supporters, so a big THANK YOU to you!  We hope you'll stick around so we can see what's next together!