MathBreakers: the 3D action puzzle game that teaches elementary math

MathBreakers was the first title of Imaginary Number Co., a startup in Mountain View that aimed to disrupt STEM education through a community-driven gaming platform. Founder and CEO Charlie Van Norman designed it around one idea: mathematics is a single connected subject, so the game is meant as one immersive experience in which all of it fits together.

The long-term plan was a platform where players build their own levels, with an editor that could take community-made math games from basic counting up to calculus. The first release was aimed at the standard curriculum for grades 1 to 6. The game could be used at home or at school, and it had been play-tested in San Francisco Bay Area schools and children's technology programs before it reached a wider audience.

In the world of MathBreakers the enemies and barriers are numbers. Players win by zeroing them out, which means applying arithmetic, fractions, factoring, exponents, multiples, negatives and prime numbers to the problem in front of them. Operations become spells and gadgets: the Factor Hammer breaks a 30 into the 3 and 5 a player needs, and a +/- Portal flips a number to its negative.

Each puzzle ties to a topic from the curriculum, and each level builds on principles from the previous ones. Because several tools often solve the same barrier, players are pushed to look at a problem from different angles. Repeated play is meant to build a strong intuitive understanding of mathematics from different angles.

The address given for the game in 2013, supermathworld.com, no longer shows it. In November 2026 the secure address does not load, and the plain address forwards to the sales listing of another domain name.

The game has a site of its own at mathbreakers.com. In November 2026 that page describes MathBreakers as browser based with no install, offers a Play Test, a Buy Now button and a waitlist, and lists fractions, arithmetic, algebra, factorization, number sense and primes among the topics it covers. The footer carries a 2026 copyright line for ManaBorn Studios LLC. The page also states its mission as demonstrating the joy of mathematics through play, and it names math anxiety, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD and autism among the needs the game says it is built to support.