Denmark's Brain+ puts learning back into games


    Your average smartphone game might challenge your reflexes, memory, and use up a little of your brain’s processing power to figure out how to attack that base, but realistically plenty of games out there are mindless. Now a Danish app launched globally helps out its users with attention, memory, problem solving and planning by putting out challenging minigames developed by brain scientists from the University of Copenhagen.

    According to the website, Brain+ has seen over 250,000 downloads across all platforms (although it should be noted the game was first released on the Danish market in 2013.)

    Differentiating themselves from other educational games out there, Brain+ use machine-learning algorithms to continuously challenge users while staying close to the users’ skill level. The first games I played memorizing the position of rocks in the water to navigate a ship without touching them, and then later point out the rocks. That was fun enough, but the other minigame I tried had you give jumping instructions to a frog to help you reach a princess felt like I was wasting my time fighting against dumb instructions.

    “Not many people are fully aware of all the possibilities for their brains, but it’s very important how you train your brain,” said Brain+ CEO Kim Baden-Kristensen. “The capacity you build over the years prolongs your mental life and prevents aging. We built Brain+ in the belief that people want to keep developing and challenging their mental capacity.

    On the monetization side. Brain+ first gives users 18 minutes of free game time, and then cuts down users to 6 minutes of free time every day. Subscription plans are then available.

    The app can be downloaded on Android, Windows Phone, and iOS. Links to which can be found on their website.