Prodigy Education

The game began development as a school project by University of Waterloo engineering students Rohan Mahimker and Alex Peters.[5][6] Mahimker sought to address, in part, what he saw as the lack of appeal of most educational software aimed at children. Mahimker and Peters published Prodigy initially under the label of SmarTeacher, Inc.[5] Mahimker and Peters initially focused on utilizing biometrics and facial recognition software to personalize the educational experiences of students, but they later abandoned the focus on hardware to focus more on the in-game software.[6]

Teachers can use the game to assign homework and monitor students. The game sells players items that they can use to customize their avatar, and has a "paid premium" membership level. The game uses a turn-based battle system. Prodigy Math integrates math exercises into its gameplay.[6] The game borrows concepts from Pokémon and World of Warcraft.[5]

Initial tutorial screen of Prodigy Math Game

The player controls a wizard, which is the main protagonist of the game, in a place called Prodigy Island. The game initially starts with a short tutorial, where the wizard is shown sleeping in a house. A fairy named Noot wakes up the wizard and takes them out of their house, telling them that they have to go to the Academy, a school where wizards are trained to cast spells.

On the way to the Academy, the wizard encounters a monster. Noot teaches them how to use magic to defeat the monster. To cast spells, the player has magic points with a maximum of 2 at a time, when all are used up the player must answer a math question to refill it back to two again. After defeating that monster, the wizard encounters a set of 5 monsters to choose from to use as their first "starter" pet. Monsters, when caught and trained, can also be controlled by the player; they can cast spells and attack in battles with other wizards and/or monsters.

When Noot and the wizard reach the Academy, the wizard first encounters the Puppet Master, the main antagonist of the game. The Puppet Master then proceeds to attempt to destroy the five Warden Keystones, but instead scatters the stones across Prodigy Island. The Keystones allow the five elemental towers (places where students can learn different elements of magic) in the Academy to stay open, so as soon as the Puppet Master attempts to destroy the Keystones, the towers are locked. It is then the player's mission to travel to the five elemental subareas within Prodigy Island (Firefly Forest, Shiverchill Mountains, Bonfire Spire, Skywatch and Shipwreck Shore) to find these Warden Keystones and return them back to the Academy.

In 2013, Mahimker claimed that the game's playerbase was growing at a monthly rate of approximately 50 per cent.[5] By January 2021, Prodigy Math had about 100 million registered users and nine million active monthly users, its growth affected by the need for distance learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[6]

In February 2021, Fairplay, an American advocacy organization, criticized the "freemium" model of Prodigy Math, stating that the models are "manipulative" and "promote inequity".[2][7][8]

According to the Johns Hopkins University, students in fourth grade were more likely to score higher on standardized assessments if they used Prodigy more extensively.[9]

In February 2021, Fairplay, formerly the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, an American advocacy organization, submitted a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission regarding the premium model of Prodigy Math. The organization stated that "[while it] does cost nothing for schools to implement Prodigy, the in-school version encourages children to play at home" and that "And when children play at home, they are met with a steady stream of advertisements promoting a 'premium annual membership' that costs up to $107.40."[2][7][8]

James Bigg, a spokesman for Prodigy Math Game, responded to these allegations by stating in an email interview that the game notifies players about memberships "from time to time". Furthermore, Bigg has stated that "[Prodigy Education looks at] this responsibly and sparingly so it does not detract from the free game play experience or educational quality. ... [they] do not pressure users into upgrading."[11]