Best Games for Perseverance

Stellar collaboration tools, controls make Minecraft classroom-ready

Bottom Line: An excellent tool to engage students in learning, collaboration, and critical thinking is now more accessible than ever to teachers.

Gentle chess puzzle game ideal for young newbies

Bottom Line: For kids who are new to chess but want to learn how to play, this fun intro to the game provides a well-done tutorial combined with a light overarching storyline.

Simple game-design app has endless creative potential

Bottom Line: Letting students design, play, improve, and share their own games opens up opportunities for learning potential in many subject areas.

Classic logic puzzler gets a beautiful new look

Bottom Line: Promote powerful thinking skills, resilience, and decision-making through purely fun gameplay that will keep students begging for more.

Digital scavenger hunts provide dynamic, fresh learning experiences

Bottom Line: Students and teachers will enjoy the powerful learning of a modern scavenger hunt.

Spiraling sandbox of adventure and creation gets kids to dig deep

Bottom Line: An irresistible and seemingly limitless incubator for 21st-century skills that, with a little guidance, can chart new courses for learning.

Unique puzzle game's artistic geometry rewards and frustrates

Bottom Line: Play for the surprising geometry and beautiful art; consult the web or just walk away for a while when stuck.

Accessible yet deep game creator will dazzle and challenge

Bottom Line: A deeply charming experience for teachers and students interested in pushing boundaries, making things, and participating in a healthy community focused on boundless creativity.

Practice typing by exploring and defending a world made of paper

Bottom Line: Great for practicing touch-typing skills, this adventure game draws players in with a slowly revealed backstory.

Failure is frequent and fun in this strategic starship sim

Bottom Line: This starship simulator isn’t easy, but gritty kids will learn from failure and practice systems thinking.

Refinement of strategy game formula supports historical exploration

Bottom Line: Like any consumer-oriented game, this experience will absorb and delight students far more than "educational" games, but it'll require open-minded and creative teaching.

Addictive, unique way to supplement coding instruction

Bottom Line: A novel way to learn programming that will require student collaboration and extra adult support.

Powerful tale of alcoholism uses puzzles and metaphor to build empathy

Bottom Line: A beautiful game that's sure to build students' empathy skills and provoke deep conversations about alcoholism and abuse as well as metaphor.

Deceptively gentle coding game really packs a problem-solving punch

Bottom Line: This gorgeous, immersive programming game encourages novel solutions.

Well-developed biome sim provides cheap, endless learning

Bottom Line: This affordable ecosystem balancing game teaches life science skills while keeping students engaged.

Unique cooperative adventure with lasting social and emotional impact

Bottom Line: With good support, an extremely powerful game to build empathy.

Mind-bending level editor for beloved physics game

Bottom Line: For STEAM educators with the right tech and know-how, it'd be puzzling not to use this tool.

Best entry in classic strategy series might not be best for classrooms

Bottom Line: As with all games in this series, Civilization VI is a great learning experience with the right support, but older, cheaper versions may be more practical for classrooms.

Design and launch a rocket into space in realistic astrophysics sim

Bottom Line: This accurate rocket sim encourages trial-and-error learning and makes for great (and often explosive) physics and engineering experiments.

Effective and affecting game about dealing with depression

Bottom Line: A slow-paced SEL game for helping students understand the nuances of managing mental health.

Strategy game offers superb, mature take on war and civilian survival

Bottom Line: A stark portrayal of civilian life in a war-torn city that requires strategic thinking and invites repeated plays.

Incredibly relatable story about navigating adult love and life

Bottom Line: This heartwarming game helps kids empathize with the highs and lows of romantic relationships.