Case study

RogueLore

Twenty years of building engagement into classrooms, turned into free tools any teacher can use.

My role
Creator. Concept, design and development
Made by
Thursday Interactive, with extensive input from a UX developer with 20 years of experience
Years
2026 to present

At a glance

  • Free for teachers
  • iOS and Android in beta now; web version by the end of November
  • Grounded in 40 years of engagement psychology from games

The gap

In every school I've visited, I see the same problems. Students are disengaged, attendance is low, teachers are frustrated, and students don't stay. That shows up as behavior problems and as gaps in understanding, in grades and in missing assignments.

Even the engaged students are usually chasing the score, not the understanding.

What I built

Games solved this problem decades ago. You don't learn to play a game by reading a manual. You learn to jump because an obstacle is in your way. You want to clear it because something on the other side matters to you.

RogueLore gives teachers tools and training built on that idea. It draws on engagement psychology and game theory, not gamification. Points and badges don't make a lesson worth learning. Creating something to be proud of does.

With RogueLore, teachers can:

  • use built-in apps to write their own original curriculum, no AI necessary
  • build a course with real-world levels and bosses

What's next

RogueLore launches on iOS and Android by the end of October, with a web version by the end of November. Add-on modules and expansions will follow.