There are two ways to play. Join a designer at a featured game, or borrow something from the free play library and try it yourself.
Designer Games
Fantasy Map Maker
Designer: Harry Metcalf (Doopy Games)
Fantasy Map Maker from Doopy Games is basically what happens if a board game and your childhood “draw a fantasy world” obsession collide and decide to get organised. You roll dice, sketch mountains, rivers, towns and weird landmarks onto a growing map, all while chasing quirky quests that nudge your world in different directions. It’s half strategy, half creative sandbox. You can min-max your terrain placements like a ruthless cartographic genius or just vibe out colouring in your mushroom village empire. The clever bit is that it gives you just enough rules to feel like a game, but enough freedom to turn your map into anything from a Tolkien-style continent to a floating sky kingdom with dragon-volcanoes. By the end, you don’t just “win” you’ve built something you actually want to keep, which is a rare trick for a tabletop game.
Dungeon Map Maker
Designer: Harry Metcalf (Doopy Games)
Dungeon Map Maker from Doopy Games feels like the mischievous cousin of fantasy cartography games. First you build the dungeon, then you have to survive the rotten thing. You roll, sketch out twisting rooms and nasty little passages, stock the place with monsters, and then head in to loot, fight and make hard calls about where to push your luck. The fun of it is that it is not just a map-making toy and not just a dungeon crawl either. It is both at once, which gives it that neat “I made this mess, now I have to deal with it” energy. It sounds like a great fit for people who like solo games with replay value, light puzzle tension, and the satisfaction of ending with a dungeon that feels like their own grubby masterpiece.
Rebel Gardens
Designer: Lucienne Impala (Stitch Mouth Studios)
Rebel Gardens from Lucienne Impala of Stith Mouth Studios is a game about guerrilla gardening, using real-world information about germinating seeds and growing plants. The goal is to greenify spaces on the sly while avoiding being caught by the authorities. It is a fun game for people who want to learn a bit more about growing food, germinating seeds, and greenifying the spaces around them.
Duokiddo
Designer: Ina vergara
duokiddo is a playful bilingual English-Spanish learning experience created in Melbourne to help children explore language through play. Created by a bilingual mum who wanted something more engaging than traditional flashcards, it brings together language, illustration and family interaction in a way that feels visual, creative and genuinely fun. The star of the stall is the Alphabet Abecedario flashcard set, a set of 27 illustrated cards designed to introduce vocabulary, spark conversation and support early language learning in both English and Spanish. It works well for children aged 3+ with adult support, and for children aged 6+ independently. At the stall, families will be able to sit down, explore demo sets and try language games together, with flashcard sets available for purchase alongside display materials such as printable alphabet posters. duokiddo is a lovely fit for bilingual families, curious learners and educators who want a warm, inviting way to introduce a second language.
Metro Mapper
Designer: Julian O’Shea
Metro Mapper is a fast, tile-placing game about building transport maps on the fly. It is quick to learn, quick to play, and all about connecting the lines before things get messy. Players race to place tiles, extend routes and make sense of an ever-growing network, balancing smart planning with a bit of chaos as the map fills in. It plays with 2–6 players in about 15 minutes and suits ages 8+, making it an easy pick-up game that still has enough bite to keep people thinking.
Engineering With People
Designer: Spyros Schismenos
Engineering With People – Lesson 1: Empathy is the first video game in humanitarian engineering, turning community engagement challenges into an interactive serious game. It is designed for students, educators, engineering practitioners and related fields, high school students, and the general public, giving players a chance to step into situations that reflect real-world practice rather than abstract theory. The appeal is that it is not just telling people that empathy and human-centred design matter. It lets them experience how those ideas can be applied in practice, in a way that is thoughtful, engaging and grounded in the kinds of challenges people actually face.
CrossRoads of Liberty
Designer: Anne Zugan
Crossroads of Liberty drops students into the world of the early Christian movement, where they play characters from the time of Jesus, travel around the Holy Land, and answer questions as they go. It turns religious education into something much more active, social and gamey, with students learning through movement, decision-making and a bit of friendly competition. Instead of just hearing about the world of early Christianity, they get to move through it.
Faithbuilders
Designer: Ben Lawless (Lawless Learning)
FaithBuilders turns the classroom into a live, chaotic meeting of worldviews, where teams take on the role of major religious leaders and even scientists, each with their own unique powers. Moses can make rules, Jesus can heal, Mohammad mediates, Shiva destroys and creates, Buddha stops violence, Guru Nanak teaches, and Einstein invents. Across each round, teams answer questions to earn power, then face real-world style challenges placed around the board. The twist is that most problems cannot be solved alone. Students have to think, negotiate and combine powers in a timed brainstorm before pitching their solution to the Fates, who decide if it holds up. It is part knowledge game, part ethical simulation, and part collaborative chaos, where understanding beliefs actually matters because you have to use them.
Cosmic Cook
Designer: Pamudika Kiridena
This immersive VR experience, developed by Pamudika Kiridena from the University of Melbourne, explores the interconnectedness of ecosystems and the impact of human activity on environmental health. Using virtual reality, the project places participants inside dynamic natural systems, making visible the often-hidden effects of forces such as capitalism and colonialism on the environment.
Blending gameplay with education, the experience is designed to prompt reflection and behaviour change, and is supported by educational programs and hands-on activities aimed at schools and local councils. Through symbolism and interactive design, it connects ecological health to broader global challenges, while ongoing research and future exhibition plans aim to explore its impact on how people think about and respond to environmental issues.
Telling Our Tales
Designer: Daniel Machuca (Wonderbound Press)
Telling Our Tales is a lightweight tabletop roleplaying game from Daniel Machuca built for very young players, including those who are non-verbal or just starting out with storytelling. Players take on imaginative roles and build a story together, guided by a simple structure and a small number of dice.
It strips back the usual complexity of RPGs and focuses on participation, expression, and shared imagination. The game is flexible enough to adapt to any idea players bring, turning their interests into the centre of the experience. It feels less like learning a system and more like stepping straight into a story.
Adventure Recount
Designer: Daniel Machuca (Wonderbound Press)
Adventure Recount is a classroom game from Daniel Machuca that turns the writing process into something active and social. Instead of staring at a blank page, players move through a shared adventure, then use that experience as the basis for their writing.
The game creates a clear link between doing and writing, giving students something concrete to draw on. It is designed for learners who struggle to get started, helping them build ideas through action first, then shaping those ideas into written recounts.
Epic Garden
Designer: Jade (Epic Card Games)
Epic Garden is a family card game where players build and grow their own garden, managing crops while dealing with the kinds of challenges real farmers face. Players invest in planting, grow their crops over time, and try to bring them to harvest while navigating setbacks like pests, drought, weather, and the occasional thief.
The game takes the everyday work of gardening and turns it into a light, competitive system that’s easy to learn and quick to get into. It gives players a feel for how unpredictable growing food can be, while still keeping things playful and fast-moving. It’s particularly strong with younger players, where the mix of chance, decision-making, and theme creates a clear link between the game and real-world ideas about food, farming, and effort.
Cryptographic Monster-in-the-Middle
Designer: Isaac Morris
Isaac Morris makes lo-fi games for UniMelb’s subject Information Security and Privacy. They’re built with simple, cheap materials, and intended to provide tangible physical analogues to the more complicated ideas from lectures. Students can play out algorithms with them, testing them against the vulnerabilities they’ve learnt about and finding the flaws.
He also focuses on making games to teach analytical skills, not just lecture content. His games involve actually thinking like an attacker or defender, playing out real-world case studies to learn from both their own mistakes and the mistakes of others.
His approach will fit people interested in low-cost game design, classroom adaptation, and the scrappy but powerful end of learning games, teaching both technical ideas and sharper critical thinking.
Terra Pentorum
Designer: Nick Adeney
A role-play game based on the colonisation of a continent from Nick Adeney. Ideal for Upper Primary and aligned with the Victorian and Australian History Curriculum. The game can be set up cheaply and can be adapted to many classroom contexts.
Gotcha!
Designer: Nick Adeney
A role-play game which simulates the lead-up to an election from Nick Adeney. The platform is a Civics concept but incorporates ands draws on other Humanities areas, as well as various types of communication. This game is suitable for Upper Primary and older.
Fairy Tag
Designer: Stone Soup Games
Fairy tag is a 2 player light strategy game from Stone Soup Games in which players try to reach their opponents back row with their enchanted mushroom or capture their opponents enchanted mushroom first. Each players pieces are hidden, encouraging risk, planning, and trying to figure out what your opponent is up to. Simple core rules get turned on their head when spells allow players to turn the loss of their pieces into board advantage. (Spells cost crystals which you gain when you have to remove a piece from the board). Fairy Tag engages adults with a sense of whimsy and kids with an interest in strategy. With four spells chosen per game from a total of 30, every game can create new opportunities for tactical surprises. You can even play it in Tabletop Simulator!
VCE Games
Designer; Nikki Davies
Nikki Davies creates hands-on study games designed to help VCE students revise content through play, discussion, and competition. Her table at The Learning Game Playground will feature a range of classroom-ready VCE games that turn exam preparation into something more social, active, and memorable. Expect practical ideas for helping senior students engage with revision beyond worksheets and rote study.
The Ecosocial Game Deck
Designer: David Wright
Ecosocial Game Deck is a systems-informed game-based resource for building wellbeing, connection, and shared capability across people, places, and the planet, designed by David L Wright from the Wellbeing and Health Organisation of Australia.
Indiverse Games
Sugarrr
Sugarrr is a bright, oddball card game about collecting fruit and dinosaurs. Which is already a pretty good start.
Each turn, players choose between two useful resources: fruit and dinos. The trick is balancing the two, because scoring comes from matching fruit with the right dinosaur and multiplying by the dinosaur’s value.
It is set collection, but with a twist. The artwork gives it immediate table appeal, and the mix of luck, timing and strategy makes it feel unlike much else in the pile.
Crayne: Fractured Empire
Crayne: Fractured Empire is a fast-moving battle royale card game with the flavour of a trading card game, but without quite so much mechanical homework.
Players build from basic cards, draw from a shared market, mix factions and fight to be the last one standing. The game uses simultaneous turns to cut down waiting time and keeps the focus on building powerful combinations rather than choosing who to attack every five seconds.
With eight factions in the base game, plus more in the expansion, Crayne is built for variety. It is a strong choice for players who like Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, Gwent or deck battlers, but want something that can handle a bigger table without taking all night.
Aethermon Collect
Aethermon Collect is a quick-to-set-up set collection game about gathering strange little creatures from a shared board.
It can be played cooperatively or competitively. In the cooperative version, players work together with different movement limits, trying to clear as many Aethermon as possible before running out of space. In the competitive version, players race to complete sets while blocking each other’s plans.
It has the satisfying pattern-hunting feel of Sudoku, Mahjong and set collection games, but with charming creature artwork and some surprisingly tough decisions. It looks gentle. It is not always gentle.
We Forlorn Few
We Forlorn Few is a bleak survival game about leaving a ruined town, crossing dangerous ground and trying to reach New Haven before hunger, seasons and bad choices catch up with you.
Players begin with the option to work together, revealing tiles, gathering resources and managing the caravan’s survival. But if a player runs out of resources on the road, they turn into a hollow. At that point, the game changes. Their new goal is not to survive with everyone else. Their new goal is to eat.
It has echoes of Betrayal at House on the Hill, Mansions of Madness, Eldritch Horror, Dead of Winter and Zombicide, with random map reveals making each game unfold differently. It is tense, grim and more than a little hungry.
Cartograph
Cartograph is a solo roleplaying game about making a map by journeying through an unknown world.
You begin with a blank canvas, create your cartographer, build a dice pool and roll dice onto the page. From there, you draw locations, borders, towns, forests, mountains and landmarks, then use cards to discover what is hidden in each place.
It is not just drawing a fantasy map. It is mapmaking as adventure. Along the way, you collect trinkets, find wares, face dangerous environments and build a world that could become the foundation for a tabletop roleplaying campaign, a story, or just a very fancy map.
Caught in the Rain
Caught in the Rain is a solo mystery roleplaying game about playing an investigator caught inside a strange and unfolding case.
You create your investigator, generate a mystery through tables in the book, work out what drives your character, then start digging for clues. Dice rolls and playing cards bring danger, leads, obligations and complications into the investigation.
The game is built for mystery solving across fantasy settings, but it can stretch into different worlds and tones. You can play one case, or keep the same investigator going across multiple mysteries as their career develops. Detective work, but with more rain and worse odds.
Striker
Striker is a science-fiction roleplaying game about crews, ships, strange worlds and the many ways space can ruin your day.
Players create sci-fi characters, work together as a crew and combine skills in flexible ways. Want to investigate without alerting the authorities? Pair persuasion with investigation. Want to hack a system without being noticed? Mix hacking with stealth and hope the system admin does not ruin everything.
The game supports small ships, huge ships, weird species, planets, systems and whole galaxies. It leans into teamwork, planning and science-minded problem solving. Do not fire kinetic weapons in a vacuum. Do not fire lasers in high-oxygen environments. Space is cool, but it is also deeply inconvenient.
Free Play Library
You don’t need to bring anything to get started.
There will be a library of learning games available to borrow on the day. Pick one up, take it to a free play table, and give it a go. Play for five minutes or fifty. Try something new, or sit with a game and really explore it.
No pressure, no booking, no experience needed. Just choose a game and start playing.
7 Wonders
Age: 10+
Players: 2-7
Time: 30 minutes
Type: Card drafting, civilisation-building
Difficulty: Medium
What it is about: Players build an ancient civilisation by drafting cards across eras
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Good for trade-offs, resource management, civics/history themes, and long-term planning. Use it to discuss how societies develop through infrastructure, science, military, and culture
Ancient Civilisations
Age: 7+
Players: 2+
Time: 30 minutes
Type: Trivia card game
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: History-themed question game about ancient civilisations
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for retrieval practice and topic revision. Best used before or after a history unit as a quick knowledge-check and discussion starter
Axis and Allies 1941
Age: 12+
Players: 2-5
Time: 60-180 minutes
Type: War strategy, area control
Difficulty: High
What it is about: World War II strategy game where major powers fight for control
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for geography, alliance systems, military strategy, logistics, and cause-consequence. Use it with explicit debriefing so students connect choices to historical constraints rather than just winning the war
Axis and Allies World War I
Age: 12+
Players: 2-8
Time: 60-180 minutes
Type: War strategy, simulation
Difficulty: High
What it is about: World War I conflict game focused on major powers and fronts
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for alliance systems, attrition, geography, and strategic stalemate. Best used to deepen understanding of WWI structure and why the war became so draining
Carcassonne
Age: 7+
Players: 2-5
Time: 30-45 minutes
Type: Tile placement
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players build a shared medieval landscape and score cities, roads, monasteries, and farms
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Good for spatial reasoning, planning, and pattern recognition. In humanities, it can support talk about settlement patterns and land use
Careers
Age: 8+
Players: 2-6
Time: 60 minutes
Type: Roll-and-move, life/economics
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Players pursue career and life goals through money, fame, and happiness targets
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for discussing values, trade-offs, and personal goals. Can support economics, wellbeing, or careers conversations about what people actually prioritise
Cartographers
Age: 10+
Players: 1-100
Time: 30-45 minutes
Type: Flip-and-write, map building
Difficulty: Medium
What it is about: Players draw maps and place terrain for points
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for spatial reasoning, coordinates, visual planning, and optimisation. Very usable in classrooms because everyone plays at once
Cascadia
Age: 10+
Players: 1-4
Time: 30-45 minutes
Type: Tile and token drafting
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players build habitats and place wildlife to create a balanced ecosystem
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Excellent for ecosystems, habitat relationships, and systems thinking. Use it to discuss interdependence and how environmental choices affect outcomes
Catan
Age: 10+
Players: 3-4
Time: 60-120 minutes
Type: Trading, settlement, resource management
Difficulty: Medium
What it is about: Players collect resources, trade, and build settlements and roads
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Good for economics, negotiation, scarcity, and trade. Works well for showing how geography and resource access shape development
Chess
Age:
Players:
Time:
Type: Abstract strategy
Difficulty: High
What it is about: Two players move pieces with different powers to checkmate the king
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for foresight, pattern recognition, and strategic planning. Use it to teach thinking ahead, evaluating alternatives, and analysing consequences
Cities
Age: 14+
Players: 2-4
Time: 45 minutes
Type: City-building, drafting, tile placement
Difficulty: Medium
What it is about: Players build a city district using tiles and scoring goals
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for urban planning, design trade-offs, and spatial decision-making. Good fit for geography or civics discussions about what makes a city functional
Citizens Bank
Age: 8+
Players: 2–6
Time: 30–60 minutes
Type: Economic Strategy / Financial Literacy
Difficulty: Easy–Medium
What it is about: Players take on the role of citizens managing money, making financial decisions, earning income, saving, investing, and navigating real-world economic challenges. The goal is to build financial security while responding to opportunities and setbacks throughout the game.
Key learning links and how to use for learning:
Excellent for teaching financial literacy, budgeting, saving, investing, and decision-making. Use it to explore concepts such as opportunity cost, risk versus reward, personal finance, and responsible money management. It works well in economics, business, mathematics, and life-skills lessons, and can spark discussions about how financial choices affect long-term outcomes.
Codenames
Age: 4-8+
Players: 4-8+
Time: 15-30 minutes
Type: Team word association
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Teams guess secret words from one-word clues
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Excellent for vocabulary, semantic relationships, inference, and concise clue-giving. Strong as a warm-up for language and critical thinking
Dixit
Age: 8+
Players: 3-6
Time: 30 minutes
Type: Creative clueing, interpretation
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Players give imaginative clues for surreal picture cards
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for figurative language, perspective-taking, and interpretation. Use it in English for metaphor, imagery, and explaining how meaning is constructed
Earth
Age: 13+
Players: 1-5
Time: 45-90 minutes
Type: Engine building, tableau
Difficulty: High
What it is about: Players build ecosystems using plants, terrain, and ecological relationships
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Very strong for systems thinking and ecological interdependence. Best for older students because there is a lot going on
Eco Fluxx
Age: 8+
Players: 2-6
Time: 10-40 minutes
Type: Chaotic card game
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Rules and goals keep changing in an ecology-themed card game
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for adaptability and quick discussion of ecological concepts. Better as a light engagement tool than a deep content-teaching tool
Ecosystem
Age: 10+
Players: 2-6
Time: 15-20 minutes
Type: Card drafting, tableau
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players build a biodiverse ecosystem by arranging plants and animals
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for food webs, habitats, biodiversity, and interdependence. Easy to use as a short science consolidation task
Hegemony – Lead Your Class to Victory
Age: 14+
Players: 2-4
Time: 90-180 minutes
Type: Asymmetric political-economic simulation
Difficulty: High
What it is about: Players take different class roles and the state in a political economy system
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Excellent for economics, politics, ideology, labour, taxation, and class interests. Best for senior students with guided debrief, because the ideas are rich but the game is heavy
Mediaeval Times
Age: 7+
Players: 2+
Time: 30 minutes
Type: Trivia card game
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: History-themed question game about medieval life and events
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for retrieval practice and quick review in history. Best used as a low-stakes knowledge game, not as deep historical inquiry
Pandemic
Age: 8+
Players: 2-4
Time: 45-60 minutes
Type: Cooperative strategy
Difficulty: Medium
What it is about: Players work together to stop disease outbreaks around the world
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for teamwork, systems thinking, geographic spread, and crisis response. Good for talking about interdependence and coordinated action
Question Time
Age: 15+
Players: 2-6
Time: 90-120 minutes
Type: Australian politics, trivia, negotiation
Difficulty: Medium
What it is about: Players navigate Australian politics through speeches, trivia, negotiation, and passing bills
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Excellent for civics, political vocabulary, and understanding parliamentary culture. Best when paired with explicit teaching so the jokes and chaos do not replace the actual concepts
Rainforest of the World
Age: 7+
Players: 2+
Time: 30 minutes
Type: Trivia card game
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Question game about rainforest animals, plants, and environments
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for science or geography retrieval practice. Good as a short intro or revision tool before deeper work on ecosystems or biomes
Risk
Age:
Players:
Time:
Type: Area control, conquest
Difficulty: Medium
What it is about: Players fight for global territory and armies
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for territory, borders, alliances, and military expansion, but the learning link is broad rather than precise. Better for talking about strategy than for teaching actual history
Scrabble
Age: 10+
Players: 2-4
Time: 90 minutes
Type: Word game
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players make intersecting words from letter tiles
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Excellent for spelling, vocabulary, morphology, and flexible word-building. Easy to adapt for subject-specific vocabulary lists
Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilisation
Age: 14+
Players: 2-4
Time: 120 minutes
Type: Heavy civilisation strategy
Difficulty: High
What it is about: Players develop a civilisation through government, leaders, military, culture, and technology
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for systems thinking, historical change, governance, and resource trade-offs. Best for older students or clubs, not quick lessons
Timeline Events
Age: 8+
Players: 2-8
Time: 15 minutes
Type: Sequencing card game
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Players place events in chronological order on a shared timeline
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Excellent for chronology, historical sense of time, and checking misconceptions. Very good as a lesson starter or revision game
Undaunted Normandy
Age: 14+
Players: 2
Time: 45-60 minutes
Type: Tactical deck-building war game
Difficulty: High
What it is about: Two players command WWII squads in scenario-based battles
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for tactical decision-making, terrain, and scenario analysis. Good for older students discussing military history, but not ideal as a broad classroom game
Viscounts of the West Kingdom
Age: 12+
Players: 1-4
Time: 60-90 minutes
Type: Euro strategy, resource management
Difficulty: High
What it is about: Players move around a medieval kingdom gaining resources, manuscripts, and influence
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for planning, optimisation, and medieval theme connections, though the learning link is lighter than in a more directly educational game
Wingspan (with Oceania expansion)
Age: 10+
Players: 1-5
Time: 40-70 minutes
Type: Engine building, tableau
Difficulty: Medium-high
What it is about: Players build bird habitats and powers in a wildlife preserve
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for classification, habitats, adaptation, and ecological systems. The bird cards also invite factual discussion and research tasks
Worst Case Scenario Survival Game
Age: 8+
Players: 2-10
Time: 20-40 minutes
Type: Trivia / scenario response
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Players answer survival-themed questions about dangerous situations
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for discussion, general knowledge, and evaluating choices. Better as a fun speaking prompt than as deep curriculum learning
Exit the Game: Jungle of Riddles
Age 6+
Players 1-4
Time 20 mins
Type Escape room / puzzle
Difficulty Low
What it is about: A child-friendly EXIT game where players solve illustrated riddles to open treasure chests in a jungle setting. The puzzles can be replayed in different combinations.
Key learning links and how to use for learning
Good for early puzzle-solving, visual reasoning, teamwork, and explaining how you reached an answer. Works well as a small-group reasoning activity.
Exit the Game: The Enchanted Forest
Age 10+
Players 1-4
Time 60-120 mins
Type Escape room / puzzle
Difficulty Medium
What it is about
Players are trapped in an enchanted forest and need to solve puzzles, decode clues, and connect information to escape.
Key learning links and how to use for learning
Useful for persistence, lateral thinking, clue-tracking, and collaborative reasoning. Best used with older students in small groups where the discussion matters as much as the solution.
Fantasy Fluxx
Age 8+
Players 2-6
Time 10-40 mins
Type Card game / changing rules
Difficulty Low
What it is about
A fantasy-themed version of Fluxx where the rules and goals keep changing as cards are played.
Key learning links and how to use for learning
Useful for discussing systems, rules, adaptability, and cause and effect. Students can track how one rule change alters everyone’s decisions.
Droar
Age 8+
Players 3–6
Time 15 mins
Type Drawing / party game
Difficulty Low
What it is about
Players draw a word as quickly as possible, then race to identify each other’s drawings. The twist is that you need to recognise drawings fast while also trying to make your own clear enough for others to guess.
Key learning links and how to use for learning
Supports quick visual communication, clarity of expression, and interpreting incomplete information. Useful as a warm-up to get students thinking and responding quickly, and for building confidence in sharing ideas without overworking them.
Top Trumps: Geography
Age 6+
Players 2+
Time 10-15 mins
Type Card game / comparison
Difficulty Low
What it is about
Players compare country or geography statistics, such as population, distance, height, or other data, to win cards.
Key learning links and how to use for learning
Useful for geography knowledge, data comparison, and discussion about what different statistics do and do not tell us.
Scattergories: The Card Game
Age 8+
Players 2+
Time 15-30 mins
Type Word / category / speed card game
Difficulty Low
What it is about
Players race to come up with answers that match a category and starting letter before time runs out.
Key learning links and how to use for learning
Supports vocabulary recall, flexible thinking, category knowledge, and rapid idea generation. Useful as a warm-up activity or for reinforcing subject vocabulary in a fast, social format.
Cascadia: Rolling Rivers
Age 10+
Players 1-4
Time 15-30 mins
Type Roll-and-write / puzzle / strategy
Difficulty Medium
What it is about
Players roll dice and build river habitats while attracting different wildlife and completing environmental goals.
Key learning links and how to use for learning
Supports planning, pattern recognition, probability thinking, and systems thinking. Useful for discussing ecosystems, spatial decision-making, and balancing competing priorities over time.
Epic Garden
Age: 7+
Players: 2+
Time: Not listed
Type: Farming card game, light strategy
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players establish crops, plant them, and try to grow them through farming challenges such as droughts, pests, seasonal weather and the fruit and vegie thief
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for food production, farming, sustainability, planning, adaptability, and understanding where food comes from. Also useful as an example of a game created by a young Australian designer, with Jade Catania developing the game after learning from farmers while travelling around Australia.
Quiddler
Age: 8+
Players: 1-8
Time: 20-30 minutes
Type: Word game, hand management
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players make words from letter cards, with hands increasing in size across rounds
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for spelling, vocabulary, word-building, anagrams, and flexible thinking. Useful as a literacy game because shorter words can still matter strategically.
Odin
Age: 7+
Players: 2-6
Time: 15 minutes
Type: Card-shedding, hand management
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players try to empty their hand by playing stronger combinations of cards
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Good for pattern recognition, sequencing, risk-taking, and comparing card combinations. Useful as a quick classroom game because rounds are short and decisions are constant.
Monopoly Deal
Age: 8+
Players: 2-5
Time: 15 minutes
Type: Card game, set collection, take-that
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players collect property sets while using money and action cards to charge rent, steal, block, and trade
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for scarcity, trade-offs, negotiation, and opportunistic decision-making. Much faster than Monopoly, so it works better as a short economics or strategy activity
Say What That Word Means
Type: Word guessing, party card game
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: A 50-card word guessing game based around explaining or identifying word meanings
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for vocabulary, verbal explanation, definition-building, and quick thinking. Likely best as a light literacy warm-up rather than a deep teaching game
Conversation Linker
Type: Conversation cards
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: A set of conversation prompt cards for opening discussion in groups
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for speaking, listening, elaborating responses, and building classroom discussion. Better as a social connection tool than a curriculum-content game
Kindred Spirit
Type: Party/conversation card game
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: A light bonding or party card game designed to prompt conversation and connection
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for social connection, speaking, listening, and personal reflection. Better for pastoral, wellbeing, or icebreaker use than content-heavy learning
The Grimwood
Age: 12+
Players: 2-6
Time: 30 minutes
Type: Chaotic card game, set collection, sabotage
Difficulty: Medium
What it is about: Players search a dark forest deck, collect scoring combinations, steal cards, and use supernatural powers
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for probability, risk, opportunistic strategy, and theme-based creative writing. The fantasy theme could also support storytelling, character design, and discussion of how game mechanics create mood.
Act Out Lightning Challenge
Type: Charades-style party game
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: A fast-paced acting challenge game for group play
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for drama, body language, inference, communication, and confidence. Best as a quick energiser or drama warm-up, not a deep content game.
How Well Do You Know Me?
Type: Conversation question game
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Players answer questions to test or build knowledge of one another
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for connection, oral language, perspective-taking, and respectful listening. Best for wellbeing, advisory, or community-building contexts.
Smile Talk
Type: Conversation cards
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: A conversation card game designed to prompt parent-child or group discussion
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for speaking, listening, emotional expression, and building stronger relationships. Stronger as a wellbeing or pastoral resource than a conventional game.
Discover Yourself
Type: Self-reflection cards
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: A self-exploration card game for reflection and discussion
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for identity, values, reflection, and discussion. Best for wellbeing, journalling prompts, or small-group conversation rather than competitive play.
GoTown
Age: 6+
Players: 2-4
Time: 15-30 minutes
Type: Card game, set collection, take-that
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players race to build the tallest tower by placing floor cards while stealing, destroying, and disrupting each other’s construction projects
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for planning, sequencing, opportunistic strategy, and managing setbacks. Good for discussing competition, risk-taking, and how players adapt when plans are disrupted by others.
Self-awareness
Age: 8+
Players: 1+
Time: 10-30 minutes
Type: Conversation, reflection cards
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Players work through thought-provoking questions designed to encourage reflection about emotions, behaviour, relationships, and identity.
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for self-reflection, emotional literacy, perspective-taking, and building discussion skills. Strong fit for wellbeing programs, advisory sessions, or family conversations where the goal is thoughtful discussion rather than competition.
Mini Mysteries
Age: 7+
Players: 2+
Time: 10-20 minutes
Type: Riddle, deduction game
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players solve short mystery scenarios by listening carefully to clues, making inferences, and figuring out what happened.
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for inference, reasoning, questioning, and verbal explanation. Works well as a warm-up activity for critical thinking or collaborative problem-solving discussions.
Supernova Escape
Age: 8+
Players: 2-4
Time: 10-15 minutes
Type: Card game, bluffing, tactical matching
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players try to survive in space by playing astronaut cards, stealing, rearranging, and protecting themselves from the deadly Supernova card.
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for probability thinking, prediction, strategic decision-making, and adapting to changing situations. Fast rounds make it effective as a quick engagement or lunchtime game.
Say Out Loud Who I Am
Age: 8+
Players: 2+
Time: 10-20 minutes
Type: Riddle, guessing game
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players solve riddle-style clues to identify hidden people, objects, or ideas described on the cards.
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for vocabulary, inference, listening, and flexible thinking. Good as a social literacy game that encourages discussion and reasoning without needing long explanations.
Family Time
Age: 7+
Players: 2+
Time: 10-30 minutes
Type: Conversation cards
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Players work through family-focused discussion prompts designed to spark stories, opinions, memories, and conversations.
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for speaking, listening, reflection, and relationship-building. Best suited to wellbeing, pastoral care, or community-building contexts where conversation and connection are the focus.
Carcassonne Big Box
Age: 7+
Players: 2-6
Time: 30-60 minutes
Type: Tile placement, strategy
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players build a shared medieval landscape using tiles, scoring points for cities, roads, monasteries, farms, and expansion features
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Good for spatial reasoning, planning, pattern recognition, and decision-making. In humanities, it can support talk about settlement patterns, land use, and how small choices shape a larger map
EXIT: The Game – The Cursed Labyrinth
Age: 10+
Players: 1-4
Time: 60-120 minutes
Type: Escape room, cooperative puzzle game
Difficulty: Low-medium
What it is about: Players work together to solve puzzles and escape a mysterious labyrinth
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Useful for logical reasoning, collaboration, clue interpretation, persistence, and lateral thinking. Best used with a debrief about how players tested ideas, shared information, and changed strategies when stuck
Classic Charades
Age: 8+
Players: 4+
Time: 20-30 minutes
Type: Party game, acting, guessing
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Players act out words or phrases without speaking while others try to guess
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for communication, inference, vocabulary, physical expression, and confidence. Useful as a warm-up for drama, English, language learning, or any lesson where students need to explain meaning without relying only on words
Really Loud Librarians
Age: 8+
Players: 2-12
Time: 15-20 minutes
Type: Word game, party game, quick thinking
Difficulty: Low
What it is about: Players race to shout words from a category that begin with the letters shown on the track
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Excellent for vocabulary, categorising, retrieval speed, flexible thinking, and verbal fluency. Works well as a fast language warm-up or as a playful way to get students making word connections
Connect 4
Age: 6+
Players: 2
Time: 10–20 minutes
Type: Strategy game, competitive, critical thinking
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
What it is about: Players take turns dropping colored discs into a vertical grid. The goal is to connect four discs in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally before the opponent does.
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for strategy, problem-solving, planning ahead, logic, and decision-making. Useful for math thinking, pattern recognition, and classroom teamwork activities where students practice predicting outcomes and creating strategies.
Tetris
Age: 6+
Players: 1
Time: 10–30 minutes
Type: Puzzle game, strategy, spatial reasoning
Difficulty: Moderate
What it is about: Players arrange falling block shapes to complete horizontal lines without leaving gaps. Completed lines disappear, creating more space and increasing the score. The game becomes faster over time, challenging players to think quickly and strategically.
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for problem-solving, spatial awareness, pattern recognition, concentration, and quick decision-making. Useful for developing logical thinking, planning skills, and visual processing in math, STEM, and brain-training activities.
WAVELENGTH
Age: 14+
Players: 2–12
Time: 30–45 minutes
Type: Party game, communication, teamwork, deduction
Difficulty: Moderate
What it is about: Players give clues to help their team guess a hidden position on a spectrum between two opposite ideas, such as “Hot ↔ Cold” or “Easy ↔ Hard.” Teams discuss and interpret clues to place the dial as close as possible to the correct target.
Key learning links and how to use for learning: Strong for communication, critical thinking, perspective-taking, vocabulary development, and collaboration. Useful for classroom discussions, debate activities, language learning, and building inference skills as students explain reasoning and interpret different viewpoints.