I am a product leader, developer, and startup founder in educational gaming, pushing the boundaries of integrating education into video games to create immersive and engaging learning experiences. I’m not talking about casual gamification like badges or streaks. I mean real video games. I spent 7 years as a founding team member building the world’s first math MMORPG and scaling it to tens of millions of players. I’m now building my own startup, Hyperthought Games, where we are creating video games that are designed to help you learn a new language. Our first game is a card-battling RPG called Lingo Legend, check it out: www.lingolegend.comWhy am I so hyped about educational gaming? - Engagement is a critical component of learning, and yet so few products focus on it. High educational efficacy is meaningless if nobody sticks with the product long enough to benefit from it.- Learning something new is tough, and we all get stuck. Instead of dwelling on it, educational gaming allows you to continue progressing through game content even if you need to spend more time on the same topic before moving on.- Video games are an interactive medium that can explore learning in ways that books or videos can’t. For language learning, you can engage in conversations with branching dialogue and a narrative that you influence while simulating conversations in your target language.That said, it’s a new frontier and immersive educational games are difficult to build. Figuring out the appropriate mechanic to use for teaching, balancing that with the right amount of game content to maximize engagement, and determining a growth strategy are all unique challenges. It took many years of experimentation to solidify my playbook for these questions, and I'm still learning every day.I’m also interested in connecting with people who are in the space and are looking to chat and learn more about educational gaming. It's an exciting space, and we are just getting started!