HMH launches Number Stax game to boost maths skills


18 Jan 2012

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has launched Number Stax, a puzzle game app designed in Dublin aimed at students aged 12 and over to help them develop their maths skills.

Number Stax works similarly to Tetris but offers maths fundamentals through solving number problems and algebraic equations. It targets skills covered in the Irish secondary school maths curriculum.

Players can increase their score by strategically arranging integer and operation tiles to solve for designated numbers or expressions.

They can swap tiles, freeze the game against the ticking clock and get bonuses to eliminate as many tiles as possible to get higher scores.

The game’s speed increases as people play through it and the game ends when the tiles on the grid reach the top of the screen.

Number Stax proves that educational apps can make for highly enjoyable and compelling games, first and foremost,” said Emmet O’Neill, HMH’s Dublin-based director of Creative and Interactive Design.

“The talent amongst the design and development teams here at HMH in Dublin is truly world class. We’re excited to launch Number Stax as the first of a number of apps for 2012, designed to meet the consumer demand for tools which enable learning beyond the walls of the classroom,” said O’Neill.

Number Stax is available on all iOS devices for €1.59.