Variant Limits review: Triseum's calculus game and its 2017 launch

Triseum calls Variant a learning game series, and Limits is the first title. The player explores a 3D planet governed by calculus principles and gets past obstacles by applying ideas from class. Triseum's own page says the aim is to stop geomagnetic storms that threaten the planet's survival, with a series of calculus problems standing in the way.

Any Variant Limits review has to start with the topic list. The game covers concepts taught in Calculus I: finite limits, continuity and infinite limits, with limit laws and asymptotes along the way. Its four zones are The Nature of Points; Functions, Function Relationships to Limits and Limit Laws; Relating Continuity to Limits; and Asymptotes.

Learning is recorded in an Instructor Portal, where faculty can follow engagement and progress toward targeted learning outcomes.

After a pilot in selected schools, Variant: Limits was released on January 9, 2017. By May of that year, students in almost 50 universities were playing it in introductory calculus, and 243 mathematics faculty from 195 universities had acquired it. In March Triseum opened direct purchase to students, including those in AP and college-level calculus.

The United States Distance Learning Association gave Triseum an Innovation Award for the game in May 2017. A Variant Limits review of the launch year should note the audience: Triseum described Introductory Calculus as one of the toughest classes on campus and sold the game as a complement to calculus instruction for both AP and college-level students.

Triseum's website lists Variant: Limits on its own page and says it is available to institutions, classes and individuals. Administrators and teachers are asked to make contact for classroom and institutional pricing, and individual users can purchase the game through the Triseum online store. Triseum says its games are quick for students and teachers to download and start playing. A demo and an introduction video are offered. Triseum presents itself as a maker of entertainment-quality learning games, and its games menu lists Variant: Limits next to ARTé: Mecenas, ARTé: Lumière and ARTé: Hemut. Its blog links include posts from 2018 and 2020. The old variant.triseum.com address leads to the same page.

Triseum says that 79 percent of students agreed the game increased their knowledge of limits and that 83 percent reported they could apply what they learned in class.