Meaningful mechanics
Points and badges can be useful, but they are not the learning. We aim for the decisions, challenges, collaboration and consequences themselves to carry the learning.
Our Approach
Learning by doing.
Aotearoa-led, game-informed and built around the whole learner.
Iconic Games combines game-based learning, storytelling, interaction, feedback and technology with an approach shaped by the culture, curriculum and communities of Aotearoa.
Our starting point
Built here, for the realities of learners here.
A lot of digital learning is designed somewhere else first and localised later. We want to begin from Aotearoa instead.
That means recognising te ao Māori, local places and language, whānau, wellbeing, the New Zealand education context and the realities of learners living here — while creating experiences that are welcoming and useful for everybody.
A te ao Māori approach is not a decorative layer. It influences how we think about relationships, belonging, identity, wellbeing, responsibility and connection. We approach that work with care and humility, and we do not claim cultural authority or endorsement that has not been given.
Design principles
The learning should live inside the experience.
Story creates context
Information is easier to care about when it has purpose. Story gives learners a reason to solve a problem, make a choice, remember what happened and keep moving forward.
Choice → consequence → reflection
Good learning experiences let people make decisions, see what changes because of them, reflect on the outcome and try again. That creates understanding rather than simple answer-checking.
Replay matters
Games normalise another attempt. Learners should be able to practise, fail safely, change strategy and improve without one mistake becoming the end of the experience.
Intrinsic before extrinsic
Rewards can encourage participation, but lasting engagement comes from curiosity, progress, competence, agency and wanting to know what happens next.
Test with real people
A learning theory is not enough on its own. We want to pilot, observe, gather feedback and evidence, improve the design and be willing to change something that does not work.
Whole-person learning
People do not learn as isolated brains.
Wellbeing, confidence, identity, relationships, environment and a sense of belonging can all affect somebody’s ability to engage with learning.
Te Whare Tapa Whā, developed by Tā Mason Durie, is one influence on the way we think about the whole person. We do not use it as a game mechanic or claim it as an Iconic Games model. It reminds us that learning sits within a wider picture of wellbeing.
That matters particularly when designing for rangatahi. A resource can be technically correct and still fail if the learner feels excluded, overwhelmed, bored or disconnected from it.
Education context
Designed for Aotearoa’s learning environment.
New Zealand Curriculum context
School-facing resources are designed with the applicable Aotearoa curriculum context in mind and are reviewed as curriculum expectations evolve. We do not treat “curriculum aligned” as a permanent label that never needs updating.
Te Marautanga o Aotearoa
Where relevant, we consider Māori-medium education contexts separately rather than assuming one framework can simply be translated into another.
Te reo Māori and te ao Māori
Language and cultural context should be accurate, purposeful and respectful. When knowledge sits outside our expertise or authority, the right response is to seek guidance rather than invent certainty.
Game-based learning research
Our thinking is informed by research into game-based learning, motivation, retrieval, feedback, storytelling and meaningful interaction from Aotearoa and internationally — but the final test is whether the experience actually helps real learners.
Technology is a tool. The relationship between people and learning is the point.
Iconic Games is not trying to replace kaiako, schools, whānau or human connection. We want technology to give them more ways to support learning.
The method
Build. Test. Listen. Improve.
Our approach will keep evolving as we learn more from learners, teachers, whānau, organisations, research and the products themselves. The kaupapa stays consistent: make learning easier to enter, harder to disengage from, and more meaningful once you are there.