There’s a hot concept called “stealth education” that says it’s possible for people to play a game because they enjoy it and “accidentally” learn stuff along the way. Unfortunately, the concept has yet to prove its worth with the pre-teen and teen community. But what if educational games rivaled the quality and game-play of today’s top selling video games? There’s a good chance they could teach even difficult subjects to middle school children. That’s where you come in.

For a stab at the $25,000 prize, you create a game that teaches a middle school subject in a way no child has experienced before. The goal is that they’ll learn something, we’ll prove that stealth education can work and you’ll walk away with a juicy prize.

So why should you enter? As a college student, you’re the ideal developer for this project. As a student, you have the passion and creativity necessary to break through barriers. As a gamer, you understand the genius of good game-play, but you are still deep in the trenches of learning. We’re also hoping that the project will influence student developers to focus on game-based learning after graduation when they enter the professional game development community.

In addition to prompting the creation of this stealth education game, the Liemandt Foundation also plans to facilitate, test and promote similar games in the future. We're already doing this past Hidden Agenda winners at www.hagames.com! Once stealth education is proven to be successful with middle school students, we see no end to the effect that the educational games can have.

This contest has been developed by the Liemandt Foundation, a nonprofit group devoted to furthering education through technology, and an all-star board of advisors and affiliates, such as the Digital Media Collaboratory at the University of Texas.

For more information on the program or the Liemandt Foundation, contact help@hiddenagenda.com.