The Lost Lunchbox

The Lost Lunchbox is the one of internet’s first educational role-playing games (RPG) designed specifically for children in grades 3 –8. Conceived by Greg Nussbaum, creator of MrNussbaum.com, and designed by the team at igamestudio.com, The Lost Lunchbox is an unforgettable and exciting experience for students that incorporates critical thinking skills in multiple disciplines, problem solving, and a healthy dose of adventure and curiosity. The Lost Lunchbox is an outstanding, educational alternative to traditional video games that glamorize violence and promote mental stagnation.

The object of the game is to find the character’s lost lunchbox in an enchanted school. In order to find the lunchbox, the user has to accumulate a variety of prizes, tools, and clues that will lead to its location.  The accumulation of such objects is achieved through fulfilling the challenges in the school’s many classrooms.  The academic challenges were designed to be, well, challenging! Users will likely not succeed the first time. Some classrooms will require users to conduct minor on-line research or use process of elimination. Others will function as trials, in which users will improve over time before fulfilling that particular challenge. After the completion of each academic challenge, the user will undoubtedly feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Most users will not be able to “conquer” the game right away. It will take perseverance, persistence, and actual learning to do so. Below is a list of the academic challenges students have to fulfill to obtain the clues and prizes necessary to find the lunchbox.

Fulfilling such academic challenges results in the user earning magic pencils, the game currency, or different tools or prizes.  Users need to fulfill these challenges to obtain secret codes, locker combinations, locations of secret passages, elevator passes and much more. Students can save their games like real video games!

Storyboard

You have left your lunchbox at school! That was the one thing you were told absolutely NOT to do when you were accepted to the Deep Chamber School, a school for mathematical and scientific geniuses ages 6-12. No one has ever left their lunchbox at school as far as you know -- in its entire 785 year history!  You get one lunchbox on your first day. If you leave it at school, you must return to find it.

You will have to go alone --- in the darkness, as non-students are not permitted to enter. As you get close to the Deep Chamber School at night, crickets stop chirping, birds stop singing, and the moon stops shining. Your school is not like most. Things happen when the kids leave. The building changes. The teachers change. You've never seen it, but you've heard stories. Some say the principal turns into a gnome. Others say the teachers use strange mathematical formulas to turn into evil story characters and reverse time. No matter what, you can't come home without that lunchbox.

The quest to find your lunchbox will be anything but easy. They've been waiting for this.

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Rest assured, your lunchbox is there - somewhere. You will have to use your impressive academic skills in all subject areas to earn the school currency of magic pencils and gain clues to the location of your dear lunchbox. You will be required to complete various academic challenges that will push you to your scholastic limit and suck away your pivotal pencils if you fail. Be ready to conduct science experiences, complete math equations, identify types of prose, arrange historical events in their correct orders and much, much more. You will have to use the pencils and the clues you earn to find secret passages, secret rooms, locker and elevator codes, maps, and various detectors -- all of which will lead you one step closer to your precious lunch container. Beware of roaming security guards and the dreaded principal who will happily confiscate your hard earned magic pencils.

Finding your lost lunchbox will require time. You can save your game and anytime.

The Classrooms

Like any school, the Deep Chamber school is full of classrooms. These classrooms are the keys to earning clues to the location of the lunchbox and to earning crucial magic pencils. Users will need to accumulate a significant number of these pencils to pay off the right characters at the end of the game. Earning pencils, however, is difficult. Users will lose pencils if they do not complete the classroom challenge correctly.

	Math Classroom Here, students have to make ten math problems (with answers) from six random digits in three minutes. Numbers get dragged to the boxes and signs get dragged in between the boxes. You can drag two numbers to the same box thereby making double-digit numbers.
	Writing Classroom Here, students will have to read a famous passage and determine the type of prose it is from four choices. Students should brush up on themes such as ballads, quatrains, metaphors, limericks, haikus and others.
	Science Lab In one of the first classrooms you will have to enter, and one of the most challenging classrooms, users must conduct a science experiment by selecting the correct amount of an ingredient to be added. For example, a student might have to decide whether or not to put eight or five cups of flour in, or, three or six tablespoons of baking soda. The object is to cause a home-made volcano to erupt! Students must choose the correct amounts of five or six ingredients.
	Spelling Classroom In this room, twenty words will appear on the chalkboard and one of them is spelled wrong. Students must identify the incorrect word and spell it correctly before time runs out.
	Gymnasium Here, students will see a message such as "dress like a soccer player." The student has one minute to drag and drop all of the soccer related items to his character thereby dressing him like a soccer player.
	Cafeteria The cafeteria is the location in which students have to power up. Be very mindful of your energy level. When it gets too low, visit the cafeteria on the first floor. Make sure to pick a nutritious meal, because some items won't power you up as well as others. All cafeteria items cost three magic pencils.
	Reading Classroom In the reading classroom, students must read a passage taken from a famous book or publication with one word omitted. The student must select the omitted word from a scroll to complete the passage.
	History Classroom In the history classroom, the user is six historical events in random order. The object is to drag and drop them to their correct places on the timeline in chronological order.
	Geography Classroom In the geography classroom, the professor will give you a riddle to solve about a particular state (of the United States). When you solve the riddle, click the correct state on the map. You can get a hint for a cost of two magic pencils.
	Music Classroom In the music classroom you have two minutes to identify eight musical instruments hanging on the wall. A random instrument name will appear on the bottom of the screen. Your job is to find the instrument and click on it.

Objects to Find - Always refer to your book or sorts to guide you in earning and finding the objects below.

	School Map You will need this to navigate around the school, especially when you need to visit the cafeteria when your energy is low! The map will be the first object you get. Simply visit any classroom when you enter the school and fulfill the challenge!
	Guard Detector This device will enable you to detect when one of those darn guards is near. The guard image will show on your map.
	Principal Detector This device will enable you to detect where the principal is. The principal image will appear on your map.
	Gymnasium Key You need this key to get into the gymnasium.
	Locker Code 1 You will need the lock combination to the locker indicated on this scroll.
	Missing Page This is a valuable missing page from your book of sorts.
	Elevator Code You will need this code to be able to ride the elevator. The elevator can get you upstairs more quickly than the stairs.
	Magic Mop You will need to earn this and give it to the janitor and he will return the favor with something useful to you.
	Treasure Chest This chest contains information you will definitely need.
	Key to Chest In order to gain access to the contents of the chest above, you first need this key.
	Telephone You will need to dial a special number to unlock the desk drawer below. If you see this phone ringing, pick it up, there might be an important person on the line.
	Jane's Telephone Number This is a the scroll that contains the number you need to dial for the above telephone.
	Key to the Boiler Room If you are here, you are making good progress. You need this key to enter the boiler room where an important gnome resides.
	Hot-Cold Sensor This tool will tell you how hot or cold you are in relation to the lost lunchbox.
	Ms. Wordes' locker code If you have found this code, you are near the end. You will need this code to procure an important tool.
	Secret Passage Finder This is a crucial tool that you absolutely must have to find the lost lunchbox. You can also use it to access the pencil parlor, a gaming room in which you can gamble for more magic pencils.

Magic Places - These are some important places that are not classrooms.

	Locker Room Lots of important things are hidden within these lockers. You'll need to know which lockers and the lock combinations to those lockers.
	Boiler Room You'll need to earn the key to the boiler room in order to have an important conversation with the gnome who lives there.
	Janitor's Closet You'll need at least 100 magic pencils before the janitor will agree to let you search his closet.
	Pencil Parlor Need magic pencils quickly? Once you find the secret passage finder, you'll quickly learn the whereabouts of the pencil parlor, a place where you can gamble for more pencils.
	Pet Store Getting lonely searching for the lost lunchbox in the Deep Chamber school? You can now buy pets. You can have up to two pets at a time. Scroll over each pet to find out how and where it will help you or give you clues.

Ready to Play? Click here

Tips

Use this section for ideas on how to find that elusive lunchbox!

	Save your game often! This very important so that if your game ends, you can continue the game with all of the magic pencils and items you earned. Simply click "pause" and then "save game" from the menu. Click "resume game" to keep playing.
	Use your tools well! Watch out for the roaming security guard and principal. They will confiscate five magic pencils from you each time you encounter one of them. Luckily, you can earn a principal detector and a security guard detector. Check your map after you earn them to always know their locations in respect to yours.
	Use your book of sorts! Your book of sorts will usually tell you the next step in your quest and will store codes, phone numbers, and locker combinations that you will need. Important - Turn the pages of your book of sorts by clicking on the arrows in the bottom right corner of the pages. You will have to turn the pages to access some of your information.
Be careful! Not all of your tools will help you. Don't give in to temptation (especially when you earn the secret passage detector).

About Registration

In accordance with COPPA, students must obtain parental permission before registering for thelostlunchbox.com. Thelostlunchbox.com collects little personal information. Students must supply ONLY a user name. No one can see this but you, but we recommend using a nickname rather than your real name. We do not ask for actual names, addresses, phone numbers or anything else.

It is important to know a couple of things about your lostlunchbox.com registration. When you save a game on the lostlunchbox.com, the information (variables) that indicate your level, the tools that you have earned, your magic pencils, and other things are stored on a small file called a cookie. These cookies are stored on whatever computer you used to play. When you continue a game, the computer looks for these cookies on your computer. This means, that although you CAN save your game, you must use the same computer to continue a saved game later. Your user name will not work on a different computer. It is also important to note that you will need to make sure cookies are enabled on your computer. Rest assured that our cookies do not track anything, cannot access any other information on your computer, and are completely useless except when playing the Lost Lunch Box.