By Sara Zeglin

Not all games have flashy graphics—some don’t have graphics at all. And this one is perfect for Friday the 13th!

A Dark Room is a role-playing, text-based game that was released several years a browser-based experience, and has also been released as an app. You won’t “beat” this game in a single session, but thanks to browser cookies you can check in and play a couple times a day to watch the story unfold.

Why It’s Cool
This game evokes a sense of foreboding from its earliest lines: The room is freezing. The fire is dead. Even though you don’t “see” anything in A Dark Room, the line-by-line descriptions found in the text paint a vivid picture of where you’ve found yourself—a firelit room, a silent forest, and beyond.

Am I Learning?
Yes, you’re learning resource management—actions cost resources, which you must replenish. Balance your resource production to be successful. (Sounds a lot like real life, doesn’t it?) There’s more math involved here than you might realize.

Here’s some more information on this surprise hit.

Sara Zeglin is our once-and-future senior games producer here at National Geographic Education and Children’s Media. If you’ve discovered Pluto’s Secret, been stumped by a Quiz Whiz, or participated in a Dung Beetle Derby, you can thank Sara.