Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, a fictional university composed of five islands offers a unique educational experience. Each island specializes in different academic disciplines: Oceanic Island focuses on humanities, Tidal Island on social sciences, Artificial Island on biological and physical sciences, Coral Island on arts, and Volcanic Island serves as the administrative center.

This imaginative setting is part of Haven Academy, a multimedia role-playing game developed by scholars and students at the University of Chicago (UChicago). The game aims to orient first-year college students to the Core curriculum, university life, and the Chicago Principles of free expression. During Orientation this summer, over 1,000 incoming first-years participated in Haven Academy. The game is now available for all undergraduates to play during winter break.

Christopher Wild, faculty director for the Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse in the College and Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Germanic Studies, stated: “It's really about putting the Chicago Principles into practice.” He emphasized that orientation provides an opportunity for students from diverse backgrounds to engage collectively with important topics as they begin their undergraduate journey.

The development team at UChicago’s Weston Game Lab played a significant role in creating Haven Academy. Patrick Jagoda, a scholar of media theory and game studies who has previously designed orientation games for UChicago, explained: “Learning should be a form of play—it’s joyful experimentation.”

Planning for Haven began early in 2024 with Jagoda and Ashlyn Sparrow leading the effort. By springtime, they had assembled a larger team that included undergraduate students who contributed to programming, storytelling, puzzle design, and more.

Mack Minter shared insights into how free expression was incorporated into the game's narrative: “How we thought about free expression developed as we worked on the game throughout the summer.” Jamie Shiao added that promoting freedom of expression can occur through collaborative puzzles where participants share different opinions.

Jagoda described Haven Academy as "enormous," featuring 130,000 words of text along with puzzles created by the team. Shayla Beltran highlighted communication among teams as crucial to successful game design.

Ashlyn Sparrow expressed pride in student involvement: “To watch students take ownership of this project was really special.” Students continue advocating for their work by helping peers solve puzzles within Haven Academy.

Looking ahead, feedback from its pilot year will guide refinements before relaunching next summer during Orientation. Sparrow noted that adjustments would cater to new student groups each year.

Shiao encouraged participation by highlighting her favorite part—the unexpected final chapter—urging everyone to play until completion.