FAQ

What is edu.games?

A learning-games platform combining a curated marketplace of educational games, lightweight class management for teachers and tutors, and a built-in xAPI Learning Record Store so educators can see real learning data — scores, time spent, completion — for every student.

Do games run in the browser?

Most do. HTML5 and xAPI games play directly in the browser at edu.games with nothing to install. Some titles ship a desktop build — those are licensed per seat and run through the edu.games launcher on the student’s machine (see Desktop Games & the Launcher).

How do I sign in?

Every portal shares one account. On the sign-in page you can use a magic link (an email with a one-time link), an email and password, or Continue with Google / Microsoft. Which portal you land in — student, teacher, tutor, parent or developer — follows the role on your account. Details in Accounts & Signing In.

What does it cost?

Browsing the catalogue and previewing games is free, and developers can publish free games. Paid games are licensed as seat pools priced per seat per year in Australian dollars — auto-renewing yearly by default, or a one-time purchase covering a 1–10 year term. See Buying Games & Licences.

How do students join my class?

Create a class in the teacher portal and share its class code. Students sign in at student.edu.games, open Profile & Class and enter the code — they then appear on your roster, and their progress shows up in your dashboards as they play. Step-by-step: Joining a Class.

How do seats work?

Buying a paid game gets you a pool of seats. Seats are consumed by distinct students across all your classes, first-come first-served, and the game appears on those students' dashboards automatically. Free games can be assigned to any class without seats.

Can I try a game before buying it?

Yes. Every published browser game can be previewed free from the catalogue before you buy seats.

What are Insights?

Insights are preset visualisations built from your classes’ activity — the learning data games report through xAPI, turned into charts per class, game and competency. Which presets light up for a game depends on how much of the emission profile it follows. See Insights.

Does edu.games integrate with my LMS (Moodle, Canvas, etc.)?

Yes, as an early-access integration. edu.games supports LTI 1.3: teachers can deep-link games into LMS courses, students launch them from the LMS without a separate login, and scores flow back to the LMS gradebook via the Assignment and Grade Services (AGS). See LMS Integration (LTI 1.3), then contact support@edu.games and we’ll set your LMS up with you.

Can I use edu.games as a private tutor?

Yes. A tutor account works without a school, class code, or academic email. Each student is linked to you through an invitation their parent approves, and your seat pools cover your linked students. See For Tutors.

How does parent consent work?

The parent’s acceptance of a tutor’s invitation is the consent for the tutoring relationship. Parents see who tutors their child and can revoke that access at any time from the parent portal — the student then leaves the tutor’s roster and the tutor no longer sees their progress. See For Parents.

What does an institution account add?

An institution account groups your teachers into one organisation, lets you license games institution-wide (seats shared by students of any of your teachers), gives read-only visibility of every licence, and can carry your own branded edu.games subdomain. See For Institutions.

How do we handle student data compliance?

Where edu.games processes student data on behalf of a school, we act as a data processor under the institution’s direction. Our Data Processing Agreement and sub-processor list cover this, and Data Retention & Privacy explains what is stored and for how long — email privacy@edu.games with questions.

What game formats are supported?

A game can ship a browser build (standard HTML5, or an xAPI package — HTML5 with learning analytics) and/or a Windows desktop build, with Mac to follow. Browser builds are uploaded as a ZIP with an index.html at the root or one folder down — up to 1 GB, containing any assets and sub-folders. See Packaging Your Game for the full rules.

How long does game review take?

2–5 business days. You’ll receive an email when your game is approved or rejected. Rejections include written feedback so you know exactly what to fix before resubmitting. Every status a game can be in is described in Review & Game Lifecycle.

Can I update a published game?

Yes. Open the game’s Edit page under My Games and replace the build or change the listing. On a live game the change is staged for review and the current version keeps serving until it is approved. Your existing xAPI credentials remain active throughout. See Review & Game Lifecycle.

Are free games allowed?

Yes. Set the price to $0. Free games are still reviewed before publishing to ensure quality for schools.

What subjects and age ranges are supported?

Any subject and any age range. You specify subjects and a recommended age range when uploading; schools use these to filter the marketplace.

What revenue share do developers get?

Developers receive 70% of every completed sale. edu.games retains 30% to cover platform costs, payment processing, hosting, and support. Payout schedule and method are set out in your developer agreement; the Sales page in the dev portal shows plays, downloads and earnings per game.

In what currency are games priced?

Prices are set in Australian dollars (AUD). Buyers are charged in AUD; their bank or card provider handles any currency conversion.

What payment methods do buyers use?

Payments are processed by Stripe checkout using a card. edu.games handles all payment collection — developers never deal with billing directly. Institutions that need invoicing or purchase orders can contact support@edu.games.

Do I need to implement xAPI?

No. xAPI is optional. Standard HTML5 games are fully supported. xAPI enables richer progress tracking for teachers — they can see individual scores, time spent, and completion rates per student. Start with the xAPI Overview.

What happens when a game is approved?

xAPI credentials (key and secret) are automatically generated for your game. Find them under Plugins & SDKs in the developer portal — only a hash of the secret is stored, so press Rotate Secret to reveal a fresh one, shown once. These credentials are for server-side use; inside the player your game receives a short-lived launch token instead. See Authentication.

What xAPI version is supported?

xAPI 1.0.3. The LRS is fully spec-compliant for all core endpoints: statements, state, agents, activities, and about — see the API Reference.

Can I use the same credentials for multiple games?

No. Each approved game gets its own unique key and secret. This allows per-game reporting and lets you revoke credentials for one game without affecting others.

How are learners identified in xAPI statements?

Inside the edu.games player, the launch context hands your game an opaque platform actor (an account with homePage https://edu.games and an id that is not the student’s name or email) and the LRS stamps that identity on every statement itself — never put names or emails in statements. Anonymous play uses an anon:-prefixed id. For server-side clients using Basic auth, use the account form with an opaque id rather than mbox. See the Emission Profile and Data Retention & Privacy.

Is there a rate limit on the LRS?

Yes — statement POSTs are limited to 120 requests per minute per credential (PUTs have their own separate 120/min bucket), comfortably above normal game traffic; batch up to 250 statements per request if you get close. Every limit is listed in Rate Limits. If you’re doing bulk data migration or load testing, contact us at developers@edu.games so we can accommodate your usage.

Can I query statements for all my games at once?

Each set of credentials only has access to statements submitted using those credentials. To aggregate data across multiple games you'll need to query each credential set separately.

Are xAPI statements permanent?

Statements are immutable by spec — once stored they cannot be edited, and a game cannot delete them. State documents and profile documents are mutable and can be overwritten or deleted by the game. How long raw statements are kept is a platform retention setting, described in Data Retention & Privacy.

How long is learning data kept?

Indefinitely, or as agreed in your institutional agreement. Raw xAPI statements and the aggregate fact rows built from them are kept indefinitely by default — learning records are not deleted unless an institution’s agreement sets a different period. Replaced game builds are archived for 90 days before disposal. Full details in Data Retention & Privacy.

Can my game run in an iframe on a school's VLE?

Yes. The LRS uses CORS with Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * so xAPI calls work from any origin, including games embedded in Moodle, Canvas, Google Classroom, or any iframe host.

Does the LRS support SCORM?

No. The edu.games LRS speaks xAPI (1.0.3) only. SCORM is not supported. If you have a SCORM game, convert it to HTML5 + xAPI or contact us for options.

Can I test xAPI without submitting a game for review?

Yes — the developer sandbox at edugames.dev runs your draft game against a live statement feed with test personas, no review needed. See Testing on edugames.dev. For a server-side credential check, an authenticated GET of /xapi/statements returns 401 on a bad key/secret — see Authentication.

How do desktop games work for students?

A game with a Windows build is downloaded as a ZIP that includes launcher-win.exe. The student generates a launcher token in their portal (Launcher Setup), saves it locally, and the launcher checks out one of their licensed seats each time it runs. The token only unlocks games they hold a seat for and can be revoked at any time. See Desktop Games & the Launcher.