What Tiltfactor does

Tiltfactor is a research-driven game design lab founded in 2003 and hosted at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. It designs and studies games that apply psychological principles to drive learning, attitude change, and behavior change across domains including health, climate, gender equity, bystander intervention, and civic engagement. The lab operates as a small team (1–10 employees) under the leadership of Mary Flanagan, Professor at Dartmouth, with cross-disciplinary inputs from prevention science, climate science, and healthcare delivery researchers.

The product surface is a portfolio of 30+ titles spanning digital (web/mobile/VR), tabletop, and hybrid formats. Notable products include POX/ZOMBIEPOX/POX: Save the Puppies (vaccination and systems thinking), Mindflock (bystander intervention trivia for campuses), The Enchanter, Closed Circuit, and Dark Secrets (women-in-STEM bias reduction), Ship Happens (sexual violence prevention), Dragon Dad (climate agency), Woodhaven and The Rookie (loneliness reduction), and the healthcare literacy suite (Bill of Health, Gut Check, Pathways for Quality, RePlay Health). Underlying the catalog are proprietary design frameworks — Values at Play methodology, Intermixing methodology (blending social-change content with entertainment), Expectation Subversion Design Pattern, and the Grow-A-Game card-based brainstorming tool sold in three editions (Apprentice, Classic, Expert).

The business model is primarily grant-funded research. Revenue derives from research grants and foundation awards (National Science Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Institute of Justice, Neukom Institute, Leslie Center for the Humanities), with marginal commercial sales via Amazon ($15.75 per Grow-A-Game deck) and DriveThruCards (In the Village, The Source). The majority of titles are distributed free of charge as research and educational instruments; the organization is affiliated with Dartmouth College rather than conventionally venture-backed.

Name

Tiltfactor

Legal name

Tiltfactor

Website

https://tiltfactor.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Tiltfactor is a Dartmouth College-affiliated game design lab founded in 2003 that creates and studies games promoting learning, attitude change, and behavior change. It serves academic researchers, educators, foundations, and public-interest organizations through grant-funded research and a 30+ game portfolio.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Serious Games Research and Design

NAICS

Doll, Toy, and Game Manufacturing (339930), Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers (45912)

SIC

Games, Toys & Children's Vehicles (No Dolls & Bicycles) (3944), Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Mobile & F2P Game Studios (MPAFAAAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Family/Party Board Games Retail (CRALALAB)

Keywords

• Social impact games
• Serious games research
• Educational game design
• Behavior change games
• Values at play methodology

Headquarters

HQ city

Hanover

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Research Grants and Foundation Funding: Tiltfactor operates primarily as a research lab supported by grants from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Institute of Justice, and Dartmouth College. The majority of games are distributed free of charge as research tools.
2. Grow-A-Game Card Sales: Physical card decks sold through Amazon and direct retail channels at $15.75 per deck, targeting educators and game design professionals.
3. Game Sales via Third-Party Platforms: Physical tabletop games sold through DriveThruCards.com, including In the Village and The Source.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Tiltfactor designs and develops digital, mobile, VR, and tabletop games that use psychological principles to produce measurable learning, attitude change, and behavior change on social issues. The organization operates as a research lab at Dartmouth College, producing standalone game titles (POX, Grow-A-Game, Mindflock, Bill of Health, Ship Happens, Dragon Dad, Woodhaven, r-kive, and many others), game-design curricula, and accompanying peer-reviewed research. Most games are distributed free of charge as research tools; some products (Grow-A-Game cards and certain tabletop games) are sold through Amazon and DriveThruCards.

Product overview

Tiltfactor is a research-driven game design studio based at Dartmouth College that creates games for social change. Their portfolio spans digital games (web, mobile, VR), tabletop/physical games, and hybrid formats, unified by the mission to use psychological principles for learning, attitude change, and behavior change. Key products include: POX/ZOMBIEPOX (disease control and vaccination education games); Mindflock (bystander intervention trivia); The Enchanter and Dark Secrets (women in STEM bias reduction); Grow-A-Game (values-centered game design cards); Ship Happens (sexual violence prevention); Dragon Dad (climate change agency); Woodhaven and The Rookie (loneliness reduction); healthcare games (Bill of Health, Gut Check, Pathways for Quality, RePlay Health); and various social issue games. Products are distributed through their website, app stores, Amazon, and DriveThruCards. Research publications support the efficacy of their games in achieving measurable social impact.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Entangled A digital game addressing social issues, designed to promote learning and attitude change through gameplay.
• Crowded Dungeon A digital crowdsourcing game that leverages player participation for collective problem-solving.
• Smorball A digital crowdsourcing game featuring unique gameplay mechanics for entertainment and social impact.
• Beanstalk A digital crowdsourcing game with gameplay focused on social themes.
• buffalo: the name dropping game A tabletop game exploring social issues through interactive card-based gameplay.
• Awkward Moment at Work A tabletop game addressing workplace dynamics and social situations.
• Stupid Robot A digital crowdsourcing game with thematic elements related to technology and social interaction.
• Awkward Moment A tabletop game exploring social dynamics through interactive scenarios.
• POX A hybrid digital and tabletop game about disease control, teaching systems thinking and vaccination concepts.
• POX: Save the Puppies A mobile game where players vaccinate puppies to prevent disease spread, based on Canine Parvovirus and teaching systems thinking about vaccination.
• ZOMBIEPOX An evolution of the POX game featuring zombie-themed cooperative tabletop gameplay where players vaccinate humans against a zombie outbreak to save the town.
• Microbes A tabletop health education game exploring microbiology and disease prevention.
• Grow-A-Game A card-based brainstorming tool designed to help groups create novel game ideas that prioritize human values, available in three editions (Apprentice for beginners 10+, Classic for general users, Expert for advanced designers).
• Mindflock A multiplayer digital trivia game for college campuses designed to teach bystander intervention in sexual violence situations through competitive team play.
• Bill of Health A strategic tabletop game for 3-5 players where participants compete as healthcare providers bidding on patients and managing care quality and costs.
• Gut Check A party game teaching healthcare quality, cost transparency, and decision-making where players take turns as patients and providers.
• Pathways for Quality A strategic tabletop game where players compete and collaborate as healthcare organizations working to implement health quality initiatives.
• RePlay Health A role-playing sport that models the healthcare system, allowing players to experience and interact with healthcare decision-making dynamics.
• Ship Happens An interactive narrative comic-style digital game where players practice intervening in sexual and relationship violence scenarios, developed with UNH Prevention Innovations Research Center.
• Dragon Dad A climate change game where players complete minigames as a disappointed dragon's child, designed to increase feelings of personal agency over climate action by mixing sustainability prompts with entertainment.
• Woodhaven A mailed tabletop mystery game with jigsaw puzzles and narrative letters, designed to reduce loneliness in rural elderly populations by disrupting negative expectation feedback loops.
• The Enchanter A point-and-click adventure game where players help Gertie become Royal Enchanter, designed to combat internalized gender self-doubt in women STEM students.
• Dark Secrets A VR tour of Dartmouth College revealing hidden campus history, designed to combat bias against women in STEM through positive role model stories.
• Closed Circuit A digital puzzle game where players review security footage to find a culprit, designed to confront gender bias through an 'aha moment' when players realize they assumed a scientist was male.
• The Rookie A point-and-click mystery game where players solve a bank robbery as a new detective, designed to reduce loneliness through expectation-subverting storytelling.
• Clowns Applaud Insanity An adult party card game (18+) featuring fill-in-the-blank and question cards, formerly known as Cops Arrest Manatees, designed to encourage sustainable behaviors through humor.
• r-kive A personal photo-tagging mobile app created in partnership with the National Archives, allowing users to organize photos while contributing to national archival records.
• The Source A cooperative reasoning tabletop game for 4-8 players (ages 12+) based on the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak, where teams find the contaminated well.
• In the Village A cooperative tabletop card game where 5 players work together to survive mosquito attacks and prevent malaria through community-based healthcare solutions.
• Massively Multiplayer Urban Games A collection of team-based urban games including Massively Multiplayer Soba, Massively Multiplayer MuShu, and Massively Multiplayer 晚餐, focused on culture, food, and language in world cities.
• Windham Aging Games Five tabletop games (Growing Closer, Star of the Story, Respect Your Elders, The Golden Years, Harold's Hayday) created with Professor Flanagan's Game Design Studio class for Windham Aging to help older Vermonters age in place.
• Vexata A board game literacy tool for middle school students that builds game design understanding through adopting new rules related to specific values.
• Profit Seed A digital game exploring GMO and seed patenting issues where players control wind to plant heirloom seeds while preventing GMO seeds from contaminating their field.
• Photopolis A photography-based game encouraging cross-cultural dialogue where players compete to create interpretive photos involving values and culture.
• LAYOFF A casual digital game exploring empathy during the financial crisis where players take on the role of management making layoff decisions.
• Leechwyves & Bonesetters An active roleplaying tabletop game where players combat plague in medieval Europe while balancing manor work with healthcare visits.
• Metadata Games A digital game focused on metadata creation and tagging, developed in partnership with academic institutions.
• PLAYCUBE A flexible, waterproof, mobile public venue and research studio at Dartmouth for experimental new media work, performances, design charrettes, and educational gaming activities.

Quantifiable outcome

• Players of Dark Secrets showed increased belief they could succeed in STEM courses (preliminary study results)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Digital MillcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-designed and produced games including Pathways for Quality, Bill of Health, and Gut Check. Digital Mill provided production expertise for healthcare strategy games supporting the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality initiative.
• University of New Hampshire Prevention Innovations Research CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint development of games addressing sexual and relationship violence and stalking, including Ship Happens and Mindflock. UNH Prevention Innovations Research Center contributed game design expertise, research, and question writing for bystander intervention content.
• Windham AgingcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVermont-based nonprofit partnering with Professor Flanagan's Dartmouth Game Design Studio class in Summer 2025 to create games helping older Vermonters age in place. Student teams designed 5 tabletop games with different genres and goals.
• Rippel FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration to model and make playable elements of the ReThink Health simulation in RePlay Health, allowing healthcare decision-makers to experience empathy and understanding for major healthcare system players.
• The Dartmouth Center for Healthcare Delivery SciencecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner in the RePlay Health project, contributing healthcare delivery science expertise to game design for healthcare system understanding.
• National ArchivesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for r-kive app that allows users to tag personal photos while contributing to the National Archives database through crowdsourced image tagging.
• Mascoma Valley Health InitiativeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOriginal partnership that led to POX: SAVE THE PEOPLE game development to stop spread of vaccination misinformation.
• Rochester Institute of Technology Game Design ProgramminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on Values at Play curriculum development and games including Profit Seed and Layoff. RIT students contributed to game programming and content development.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Schell Games: Independent game studio with a dedicated serious-games/transformation practice producing VR, AR, and digital games for health, education, and training; comparable in multi-format production and behavior-change focus, though substantially larger and more commercial.
• Games for Change: Nonprofit organization that supports and promotes games for social impact; directly comparable to Tiltfactor in mission, audience (educators, researchers, NGOs), and games-for-change community positioning. Tiltfactor has presented at Games for Change conferences.
• Filament Games: Commercial educational and serious-games studio that designs and develops learning games for K-12, higher ed, and corporate clients; directly comparable in producing research- and impact-backed games for institutional buyers, though more commercially scaled than Tiltfactor.
• Institute of Play: Nonprofit that designs game-based learning experiences and curricula; shares Tiltfactor's research-driven, social-impact orientation and K-12/educator customer base with overlapping methodologies around learning through play.
• GlassLab (Institute of Play / assessment games): Research-driven games initiative that designs assessments and learning games in academic partnerships; closely comparable to Tiltfactor in embedding behavioral and learning research into commercial-grade game design.

Broad incumbents

• BrainPOP: Established K-12 educational content platform with interactive games and quizzes for classrooms; broader incumbent with overlapping educational, behavior-change content for schools but at much greater scale and commercial reach.

Emerging players

• Connected Camps: Online community and program operator using Minecraft and game design to teach STEM and social skills to youth; partial overlap with Tiltfactor's game-literacy and bias-reduction work with younger audiences.
• Climate Interactive: Nonprofit that creates simulation-based tools (e.g., En-ROADS) for climate decision-makers; overlapping with Tiltfactor's Dragon Dad and broader climate-behavior-change focus, though specializing in policy simulations rather than games.
• Nonfiction Games: Designs and develops serious, purpose-driven games for institutions and impact organizations; comparable to Tiltfactor in custom serious-games commissions for NGOs, foundations, and government, though smaller and project-based.

Regional players

• Smartypants (educational games publisher): Publishes educational and family tabletop games emphasizing curiosity and learning; comparable product family to Tiltfactor's Grow-A-Game and family/party tabletop portfolio, though commercially focused retail rather than research-driven.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tiltfactor

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tiltfactor