A cozy math adventure for K through grade 12.
A child washes up on an island with nothing and builds it back — and the math is how. Counting stacks the logs. Sharing splits the firewood. Multiplication plants the garden in rows.
No combat. No timers on the island. Nothing is taken away for a wrong answer.
Players under 13 see no ads at all and are never shown a sign-in.
See it running
Every frame is the game itself, recorded as it plays. Nothing is mocked up or composited.
No sound — nothing is missed with the volume down. There is a longer, thirty-second cut if you want more of it.
Some children decide early that they are bad at math.
Once that decision is made, more practice usually makes it worse. The worksheet becomes a test of whether the belief is true, so the child stops trying rather than find out again. Any app that opens with a timer and a score is asking the same question the child is already afraid of.
Math Empire never asks it. There is a shore, a cold fire, and an old man who is glad to see you — and a great deal of work to do. The math is the work, not the quiz in between it.
Your child can see the question coming. Before it is ever pressed, the button turns gold and says a question waits. For a child who has learned to brace, that is everything.
And a wrong answer costs nothing. The picture of the problem comes back, the mentor names the thinking that went sideways, and your child tries again. That is the entire penalty — nothing is deducted, nothing is ended, nothing is locked.
Show, then try, then do
The method is ordinary and deliberate. It is the sequencing that does the work.
Shown first
The mentor demonstrates with objects the child can count, then they practise with the picture on screen, and only then is the picture taken away. Nothing is ever asked that has not been taught first — that rule is in the code.
Practised in the world
Chopping, mining, fishing, foraging, crafting and building are each made of math. Counting is how the logs get stacked; sharing out is how the firewood gets split; multiplication is how the garden gets planted in rows.
Reviewed on a schedule
Facts a child stumbles on come back sooner; facts they own come back later. Nothing is quietly forgotten, and review is woven into the work rather than stacked into a session of its own.
Held at the right difficulty
The game aims at roughly four right in five — the band where a child keeps going instead of closing the app. It adjusts as they do, in both directions.
Two mentors, not a mascot
Archimedes explains calmly and takes his time. Sofia is warmer and quicker. Your child picks whichever suits the day and can switch at any time — and on the island it is Grandfather who shows the method before anything is asked.
One learner profile
The island adventure and the practice room share the same record of what a child knows. Practise multiplication at the study table and the island already knows it.
What a session looks like
Captured from the build that is live right now — not concept art.
Runs on the devices you already have
No install, no signup, no licence to arrange before a class can try it.
Open it in a browser and start
The full game runs in any modern browser at https://mathempire.app/play/. There is nothing to install, no account to create, and no email address to collect — from a teacher or from a student. It loads on Chromebooks and on managed school devices where installing software is not an option.
That means a class can try it in the time it takes to type a URL on the board, and a student can pick it up again at home on any device without anyone signing in.
| Island | Grades | Math domains |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · The First Shore | 1–2 | Counting, addition and subtraction to 100, place value |
| 2 · Isle of Groups | 3 | Multiplication and division |
| 3 · Isle of Broken Bread | 3–4 | Fractions |
| 4 · Decimal Harbor | 4–5 | Decimals, money, measurement |
| 5 · The Geometer's Isle | 5–6 | Area, perimeter, angles, volume |
| 6 · Isle of Ratios | 6 | Ratios, percent, proportion |
| 7 · The Tide Isles | 6–7 | Integers, the coordinate plane |
| 8 · The Forge of Unknowns | 7–8 | Expressions, linear equations |
| 9 · Algebra Archipelago | 8–9 | Algebra I: slopes, systems, quadratics |
| 10 · The Proof Temples | 9–10 | Geometry: congruence, similarity, Pythagorean theorem, introductory trigonometry |
| 11 · Isle of Functions | 10–11 | Algebra II: polynomials, exponentials, logarithms, trigonometric functions |
| 12 · The Navigator's Sea | 11–12 | Pre-calculus, introductory calculus, statistics |
Classroom codes and a class view
In the Android app a teacher can open a class, which produces a join code for students to enter. The class view then shows the roster and, for the class as a whole, how many students were active this week, how many problems were solved, the average accuracy, the topic the class finds hardest, and who has improved most.
It is free, and it lives inside the app rather than on a separate website.
The practice room
Alongside the adventure there are 29 practice modes across 12 worlds, from counting and times tables through fractions, algebra and trigonometry. Every topic opens with an animated worked example that shows the method before asking for an answer, read aloud for the youngest readers.
Placement without a test
An older student who starts late is not marched through grade 1. A placement quiz can start a learner at any island, with the earlier facts seeded into their review schedule so the gaps still get filled.
What students see, and do not
- Players under 13 see no advertising of any kind — not a banner, not a video, and not the offer of one.
- Under-13 players are never shown a sign-in and are never asked for an email address.
- There is no chat, no messaging and no profiles. There is no way for anyone to contact a student through the game.
- Nothing is deducted or locked for a wrong answer.
Cost
Every topic and every island is free. There is an optional upgrade that removes ads for players 13 and over and adds coins and cosmetic items — it buys nothing academic, and no part of the curriculum sits behind it.
Offline and low bandwidth
The installed Android app plays offline: the practice room and the first island need no connection, and later islands fetch their scenery once and keep it. Useful where the network is thin rather than absent.
Data and deletion
The browser game asks a student for no name, no email address and no sign-in. It keeps their progress on the device and backs it up under an anonymous random save key, so a cleared browser does not have to mean lost work. What is stored, and how to have it removed, is set out plainly in the privacy policy and on the support page.
Two things worth knowing before you plan around it.
The class view described above is in the Android app. There is no web version of it yet — a teacher following a class needs the app on a device, even though students can play entirely in a browser. The web dashboard is being built, and the form at the foot of this page is how to hear when it arrives.
All twelve islands are in the game and each has its story written, but the first island is much the most developed — it is the one with a full arc, an ending and a hundred and thirty-five things to find. Islands two and up are shorter. If you are trying it with a class, island one is what to judge it on.
What we do and do not do
- No ads at all for players under 13. Not a banner, not a video, not the offer of one. The app asks one question the first time it opens — what year you were born — and decides on the device. You do not need Family Link or any other setup.
- No sign-in is offered to a child under 13, and no email address is requested. Progress moves between devices with an anonymous Player Code instead.
- No chat, no messaging, no profiles. There is no way for a stranger to reach your child inside the game.
- Ads run without an advertising ID. The Android advertising-ID permission is removed from the app, so ads shown to players 13 and over cannot be targeted using one. The optional upgrade removes those ads entirely.
- Plays offline once the Android app is installed — the practice room and the first island need no connection.
- You can delete the account and its data from inside the app, or by asking us. Both routes are on the support page.
Asked often
What ages is it for?
Kindergarten through grade 12, plus an adult mode — so roughly ages 5 to 18 and up. The island adventure begins at grade 1; the practice room starts at kindergarten. The Google Play Store rates it Everyone.
The first time the app opens it asks one question: what year you were born. If the answer is under 13, the app shows no ads at all and never offers a sign-in. You do not need Family Link or any other setup for that — it is how the app behaves on its own.
Is it really free?
Yes. Every island and every practice topic is free, and always will be. There is an optional upgrade that removes ads for players 13 and over and adds coins and cosmetic items. It unlocks no curriculum.
Does it need an install or an account?
Not in a browser. mathempire.app/play/ runs the full game with nothing to install and no account to create — which is usually the deciding detail on a school Chromebook or a managed device.
The Android app adds offline play and notifications. It is free on Google Play.
What data do you collect?
For players under 13: no email address and no sign-in, and the birth year is kept on the device rather than sent to us.
For everyone: a display name the player chooses, their gameplay progress and mastery record, and — if a player 13 or over chooses to sign in with Google — the email address on that account, so progress can move between devices. We use Google Analytics for Firebase and crash reporting to see which screens are used and to receive crash reports; those are Google services and that data goes to Google.
There is no chat, so there are no messages. We do not collect location, contacts or voice. The full list, and how to have any of it deleted, is in the privacy policy.
Is there anything for teachers to track a class with?
Yes, in the Android app. A teacher can open a class, hand out the join code, and see the roster along with how many students were active this week, problems solved, average accuracy, the hardest topic for the class, and who has improved most. It is free.
What does not exist yet is a web version of that view, so following a class needs the app on a device even though students can play in a browser. The form below is how to hear when the web dashboard is ready.
How is it different from the other math apps?
Most of the category is a quiz with a theme painted over it: answer ten questions, receive a reward that has nothing to do with the questions. Here the math is the mechanism. You cannot stack the logs without counting them, and the garden will not go in without the rows.
The other difference is what happens when a child is wrong, which in this game is very close to nothing. There is no combat anywhere in it, and no countdown on the island.
Does it work offline?
The installed Android app does. The practice room and the first island need no connection; later islands fetch their scenery once and then keep it. The browser version needs a connection to load.
Is there an iPhone or iPad version?
Not yet — Android and the browser first. On an iPhone or iPad you can play the browser version today at mathempire.app/play/. Leave your address below and we will tell you when there is an iOS app.
What is coming next?
More of the island's own story, spoken voices for the characters, and the teacher progress dashboard. Progress, purchases and the kingdom carry across every update.
Five minutes will tell you if it suits your child.
It opens in a browser with nothing to install and no account to make. If it is not right for them, you have lost five minutes and left nothing behind.
Hear about the web teacher dashboard and the iOS app
One list, two announcements. We will write when there is something to say and not otherwise.