Games That Make You Smarter

Monthly Archives: April 2016

new page with background added and new activity — Today, for the first time in a month, I woke up in my own bed and had nothing scheduled. No meetings, no family events to attend. The happy thought that went through my mind is that now I can spend all day working on our new game, Forgotten Trail. Today, […]

Why the “game” part of math games is so important

April 30, 2016 in AnnMaria / Educational Games / Game Progress by AnnMaria De Mars

Eva, Maria and me — I get asked this question all of the time in many, many different contexts, from elementary school children who play our games, to game developers who are not involved in education. There are multiple questions for this, but let me answer the grown-ups first. I care so much about math […]

Why Do You Care So Much About Math?

April 30, 2016 in AnnMaria / Educational Games / Game Progress / Math by AnnMaria De Mars

Happy Friday! We have two FREE math mini-games for Multiplication. Answer the problems correctly and you’ll be rewarded with short videos on Native American clans. The videos offer historical information, along with amazing rare photographs on the Crane Clan. MULTIPLY MATCHING 6-10’S MULTIPLY MATCHING BY 7 These mini games are part of our free […]

Freebie Friday: Multiplication Mini-Games

April 29, 2016 in 7GenGames / Freebie Friday tagged Freebie Friday / Mini-Games / Multiplication Games / Summer Site by Erick Salomon

In my last post, I tackled basic physics — and I use “physics” loosely, but amusingly — and children. This time, I’ll be going over units of time and age. Our upcoming game, AzTech, hits on data and measurements as well. The measure concepts we hit on in AzTech are […]

How Old Is My Baby? Wait, How Old Am I?

April 28, 2016 in Parenting Like I Know What I'm Doing by Maria Burns Ortiz

Going through our archives, we came across this great post from October 9th, 2014 “How to be Amazing” that we wanted to share in case you missed it the first time around. I find it weird when I make people nervous. I’ve had people shake and stutter so much that I thought […]

Throwback Thursday: How To Be Amazing

April 28, 2016 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged Amazing / AnnMaria De Mars / Dr. AnnMaria De Mars / Life Advice / Throwback Thursday by Erick Salomon

cat — Well, it’s been a minute. Months ago, I started writing about reusable code and was then interrupted by flying around the country to present game results, getting an alpha version of our Aztech game to testers, getting Forgotten Trail ready for release FRIDAY (!!!) etc. You can read Part 1 […]

Game Design: Reusable Code, Part 2

April 27, 2016 in AnnMaria / Code Talk / Educational Games / Game Progress / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

In my very introductory to introductory physics class in ninth grade, we were taught that there is a basic principle of physics that no two objects can occupy the same space. I know my physicist co-founder would likely take issue with my oversimplifying of this statement as when I looked […]

Testing the Boundaries of Physics and My Patience

April 27, 2016 in Parenting Like I Know What I'm Doing by Maria Burns Ortiz

I get this question all of the time, What’s it like working with your family? In case you don’t know, the three co-founders of 7 Generation Games are my husband, Dennis, me and my daughter, Maria. It’s not how most people seem to think. First of all, we’re not together […]

What’s it like working with your family? Part 347

April 26, 2016 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Giant house screen shot — A few weeks ago, I posted an activity that I had started where the player had to find items in the giant’s house. (Brief background – in Forgotten Trail, there is a legend that involves a giant.) I asked input on options we were considering: Clicking on the item gives […]

Reader Comments Made into a Game

April 25, 2016 in AnnMaria / Game Progress by AnnMaria De Mars

Me thinking blah blah blah — Often people say they really support the work that we do, and although I like to be complimented as much as the next person, I am secretly thinking this: It’s sort of like hashtag activism. While tweeting, “Help our schools #education” probably makes a few teachers feel better, it is […]

The Best Ways to Encourage a Start-up Entrepreneur

April 25, 2016 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

To all of our New York City friends, If you plan on attending the Games for Change – Tribeca Street Fair, we want to meet and talk with you! Offering a full city block of digital and card games, live action games, hands-on building and a parkour obstacle course, the […]

Meet Us This Saturday At Games For Change – Tribeca ...

April 22, 2016 in 7GenGames / Events tagged Aztech / forgotten trail / Games For Change / Games4Change / Maria Burns Ortiz / Tribeca Street Fair by Erick Salomon

Okay, it’s over, you missed hearing me live … I feel your disappointment, so I have linked to the full interview on youtube here. A week ago, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Sara Mohsin about our work at 7 Generation Games. The interview will be on the […]

I’m radio famous!

April 22, 2016 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria by AnnMaria De Mars