Mission & history

Since 1999, IDEA has worked at the intersection of technology and education. Our nonprofit studio creates games built on how words naturally connect. Real learning through genuine engagement, not educational theater.

We’ve evolved from grant-funded projects to self-sustaining games, spent a decade building linguistic infrastructure that few would attempt, and pioneered an entirely new category of word game.

In the late 1990s, that meant publishing interactive CDs about art conservation. In the 2000s, we created Web-based interactive museum exhibits and concept maps. Today, we champion games that reveal conceptual connections, developing our own titles and encouraging other studios to explore idea-linking mechanics.

Word games that explore meaning

IDEA pioneered idea-linking games—a new category of word game where players navigate semantic pathways rather than matching synonyms or spelling. Our two games demonstrate different approaches.

In Other Words, a daily word game and visual thesaurus where players find paths between seemingly unrelated words by following chains of meaning.
OtherWordly, a space-adventure word game where players dodge debris while matching words by meaning despite missing letters.
Linguabase, our semantic network of 1.5 million words—accessible through In Other Words as a visual thesaurus and the foundation for crafting OtherWordly’s puzzles.