TEMPUS FOR THE CLASSROOM
A platform game where every level is one day and the only currency is 64,800 seconds of life.
Play the gameWhat it teaches
TEMPUS is a 2D game that looks like Mario and thinks like a life. Students wake with 64,800 seconds, spend them on work, people, screens and play, and see an honest scorecard every evening. Nothing is preached. The systems do the teaching:
- Time only goes down, and rushing earns nothing - a day lived well earns more than a day raced through.
- Attention is physical: worries are clouds on the street, spirals bend the level, and six seconds of held breath always wins.
- Kindness pays sideways: favors come back through other people, karma opens doors.
- Money compounds at 8% a day on the invest screen - the difference between saving flat and reinvesting is drawn as a graph a ten-year-old can read.
- Free time is scored as a win, not a leftover.
Classroom trick: the town is generated from the day number. Every student on Day 5 plays the identical Day 5 - same layout, same people, same offers. Set the class to the same day and their choices, not their luck, make the difference.
Four weeks, four lessons (about 30 minutes each)
WEEK 1THE DAY - where does time go?
- Start with the math on the title screen: 86,400 seconds a day, about 21,600 asleep, 64,800 yours.
- Everyone plays Day 1. Afterwards, compare the colored allocation bars on the scorecard: who spent the most on screens, on people, on their own head?
- Discussion: the game calls unspent evening time FREE TIME and pays points for it. Why is coming home early a win?
WEEK 2THE PEOPLE - kindness is a system
- Play a day hunting the three kindness moments on the road (a wallet, a door, a cat) and helping one person for coins.
- Next morning in the game, the network pays back: someone puts in a word, leaves a tip, opens a door. Ask: who noticed a favor coming back?
- Discussion: the game never rewards kindness instantly. Why does it pay the next day, through someone else?
WEEK 3THE MONEY - the compounding graph
- Everyone finishes a day and stops on the invest screen. Read the graph together: the flat grey line is saving, the gold curve is compounding.
- Try both: half the class presses 0, half presses ALL. Compare freedom clocks a few days later.
- Stakes teach risk: Dennis's fries van "cannot fail, it can fail". Ask who lost coins on a stake and what the label had already told them.
WEEK 4THE MASTERY - the breath that always works
- Let a thought spiral escalate on purpose, then stand still and hold the breath button for six seconds. It always ends it. Practice the same six seconds away from the screen.
- Finish the season: the report card grades presence, kindness, people, money, free time and moments in stars.
- Freedom Day closes the arc: a day with no rent and no shift, bought by four weeks of choices. Ask: what did you do with a day that wanted nothing from you?
Class code: one link, one day for the whole class
Make a class link below. Everyone who opens it plays exactly the same day - same street, same people, same lightning. One key and the game starts, no menus. On school computers nothing is saved: the link is always a clean start, even on a shared device.
Pick a code (e.g. CLASS7B):
Printable scorecard
Print this page and hand out the card below - students fill it in from their evening scorecard.
MY TEMPUS DAY name: ______________________ day: ________
| WHAT | MY NUMBER | STARS |
|---|---|---|
| Presence (how much of the day I was really there) | ________ % | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
| Free time kept | ________ seconds | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
| Kind things done | ________ | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
| Coins earned and what I did with them | ________ | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
| One moment from the book I found | ______________________________ | |
| Tomorrow I will spend more time on | ______________________________ | |