With a nod to beloved board games like Trivial Pursuit, Category Quest—ELB Learning’s latest game—is a board game-inspired digital experience designed to refresh and reinforce learning in an exciting, effective, and genuinely fun way. ELB Learning’s own game designer, Lydia Symchych, unveiled Category Quest in a recent webinar and gave everyone a satisfying peek behind the curtain.
“We really wanted to make a game that you could play multiple times and still have fun, but also respect how busy people are.” — Lydia Symchych, Game Designer, ELB Learning.
Modern, Game-Based Learning
While drawing inspiration from classic, tactile board games, Category Quest adds a modern, game-based learning twist. Players journey around a colorful, dynamic digital board, answering questions from various categories to complete them, all while racing to finish in as few turns as possible.
The game can be played solo or in a group, inviting a team dynamic similar to pub trivia, where players work together to recall information. Each correct answer moves players closer to completing a category. A series of design choices—like optional sound effects, bonuses, and customizable avatars—make the experience even more tailored and enjoyable.
Category Quest isn’t awesome because of its format (or beauty) alone; it’s awesome because it was intentionally designed to fit into a thoughtful learning cycle. Rather than rushing players with strict timers, the game rewards quick thinking with time bonuses without penalizing those who take a little longer, which makes it far more accessible for players using screen readers or those who (like me) sometimes need more processing time.
Category Quest encourages:
- Review and reinforcement. Players revisit known material, strengthening recall and confidence.
- Collaborative play. In team settings, learners benefit from peer discussions to deepen understanding.
- Repetitive practice without fatigue. Each session feels fresh and motivating thanks to features like event tiles, inventory items like “rewind” tokens, and a final capstone challenge.
It’s important to note: while the game feels like a race against the clock, the real goal is mastery and reinforcement of the content, not speed.
Designed with Players (and Authors) in Mind
An impressive commitment to both player experience and ease of development for content creators guided Category Quest’s creation. Game authors can easily upload bulk questions using a simple spreadsheet template, customize game themes with unique backgrounds, music, and icons, and fine-tune settings like the number of categories or required correct answers per deck.
The game also includes thoughtful accessibility features like icons and supplemental color coding for the colorblind (no essential gameplay function relies on color alone).
Best Use Cases for Category Quest
While it might be tempting to use a dynamic tool like this across all phases of learning, Category Quest shines brightest in two specific areas:
- Practice. Helping learners actively work with material they’ve recently encountered.
- Review. Providing an energetic refresher that keeps information alive and top-of-mind.
Category Quest was not designed to introduce new material or to assess proficiency. It’s a confidence-building learning tool created to sharpen the recollection of previously introduced information. If you want a tool to help you review and evaluate comprehension, we recommend you pair Category Quest with a formal trivia-style quiz afterward.
Category Quest artfully combines the nostalgia of board games with the best of modern instructional design. Whether you’re aiming to add a taste of competition to your next training session or provide a lively new way to lock in important information, Category Quest is a flexible, scalable, seriously fun solution.
Watch the full webinar below to see Category Quest in action, watch Lydia build a game, and hear all the insightful questions (and answers).
Want to learn more about how Category Quest can transform your training programs? Explore Category Quest.
Disclaimer: The ideas, perspectives, and strategies shared in this article reflect the expertise of our featured speaker, Lydia Symchych. To explore more insights from her, be sure to follow her on LinkedIn.
View the original article and our Inspiration here