Vanished: status, maker and key facts on file
Vanished is a game by MIT Education Arcade with the Smithsonian Institution. Status: Discontinued, checked November 2026.
Updated
Vanished in brief
Over two months, middle school students solved a science mystery in a free alternate reality game, collaborating online and in person. The puzzles touched life sciences, paleontology, archaeology, geology, anthropology, math and language arts. MIT's Education Arcade created it for the Smithsonian Institution with a 2009 National Science Foundation grant, and the team built metrics to assess how it performed.
Vanished is a game by MIT Education Arcade with the Smithsonian Institution. Vanished is filed under Science, sector Education. Platform on file: Web (alternate reality game). Cost on file: Free. The maker's page said in November 2026 that Vanished is no longer offered.
One article on this site names Vanished: Vanished: the MIT and Smithsonian science mystery game. More entries are in the games directory.
Key facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Maker | MIT Education Arcade with the Smithsonian Institution |
| Topic | Science |
| Sector | Education |
| Platform | Web (alternate reality game) |
| Cost | Free |
| Status | Discontinued |
| Checked | November 2026 |
| Official address | education.mit.edu/project/vanished |