A game platform for classrooms, game jams, and educational play
Twenty spare minutes, a room full of Chromebooks, and nowhere safe to send the class: free game sites run on ads and tracking, not learning. Very Boring Homework is a growing platform of free browser-based games built for elementary through middle school classrooms. I work with makers and educators to come up with games that are engaging and educational. Every game is classroom-safe: no accounts, no ads, no downloads.
Educational games have a reputation problem. Kids can smell a worksheet wearing a costume from across the room, and once a game feels like an assignment, no amount of polish wins them back.
I flipped the order: build games kids genuinely want to play, then let the learning ride along inside them. Play comes first, and education earns its way in through mechanics rather than lectures. Looking ahead, the platform is scoped to host game jams and classroom collaborations, giving students and educators a way to build for the arcade, not just play in it.
I built a full style guide for the brand: dark navy backgrounds, pixel-art visual language, Press Start 2P and Karla typefaces, and a yellow/pink/cyan accent palette. The system covers everything from typography and color to component patterns and tone of voice, built to keep things consistent as the game library and contributor base grow.
I'm building a suite of educational games that teachers can customize for their classrooms. The games cover elementary through middle school and are designed to be replayable, engaging, and safe for school networks. No accounts, no ads, no downloads. Teachers get tools that fit into their day without friction, and students get games worth coming back to.
A game that gets played once isn't doing its job. I record high scores across every game and surface them on leaderboards, giving every player a number to beat: their own, a classmate's, or the current champion's. That little pull of unfinished business is what turns a single play into a habit, and players stay anonymous on the boards, so the competition stays fun without putting anyone on the spot.
Every choice on this platform answers to two juries at once. Kids abandon anything that feels like homework in about ten seconds, and teachers and parents abandon anything that feels unsafe even faster. Passing both tests shaped everything: anonymity in the leaderboards, zero accounts, zero ads, and games tuned to be genuinely fun rather than vegetables dressed up as dessert. A game only earns its place on the site when a kid would pick it on a Saturday.
Building something for kids, classrooms, or education? Let's talk.
