Geek of the Week: Thomas Brand, Developer of MathRider

This week’s Geek of the Week is Thomas Brand—a software engineer with a passion for psychology, creativity, and making a meaningful difference. By day, he runs a web development and marketing agency; by night, he’s the mind behind MathRider, a fantasy-inspired math adventure game designed to help kids master arithmetic with confidence and fun.

We sent Thomas a list of questions to delve into his geeky pursuits, and he will take the story over from here!

Introduce yourself:

My name is Thomas Brand. With a background in software engineering and a passion for psychology and helping others, I run a web development and online marketing agency by day, and developed MathRider, a children’s math facts adventure game born from personal need.

I approach life and work with respect for all and a deep curiosity for the world around me. Whether it is optimizing client websites, refining programming code, ballroom dancing, cooking, or making a cosplay prop, I aim to bring love, precision, empathy, and playful wonder to everything I do.

What do you geek out on?

Most things fantasy! Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, Game of Thrones (apart from the final season), The Witcher, Elder Scrolls.

You haven’t lived until you’ve played the Witcher 3’s Dead Man’s Party quest with your daughter, lost the Gwent game and had to wear donkey ears for the rest of the evening while trying to romance Shani!

Marvel or DC? 

Marvel first! Their movies just feel so much more fun than DC’s where it often gets a bit too dark and un-fun for my sensitive soul…

Do you cosplay? And if so, tell us a bit about that.

I discovered cosplay less than ten years ago when I took my kids to a comicon-type convention called Supanova I had just heard of. And boy is it fun!

My first cosplay endeavour was Jon Snow when GoT was still amazing, and I didn’t mind being told “you know nothing” by all kinds of strangers. Things got a little more serious when I got stabbed with a plastic sword by Xena and her friend Gabrielle. They were shouting “for the watch…!” Well, GoT went downhill, didn’t it? 

Being a software engineer by profession, I discovered just how gratifying it is to make something with my hands. Be it a scabbard for Longclaw, sewing the cape of the north with some black sheepskin, because (luckily for me) I couldn’t find a black bear…

I am really proud of my Loki scepter, complete with its glowing animated space/mind stone.

My (adoptive) brother seemed to like it, too

But the elven Tauriel and Legolas daggers and his holster are also up there for me. Took me so long to figure out how to do the blade holster. And perhaps even longer to work out how to give my girlfriend’s Tauriel a spot for hers. These were done using a combination of craft foam and Worbla. Learning how to airbrush and testing how to get the colors just right also took forever.

Testing the positioning of Tauriel’s scabbards with a dagger equivalent.

Mission accomplished with my favorite Tauriel (I’d date her any century).

Are you a gamer now or as a kid? If so, what is your favourite all-time game or series?

Always! I’ve always loved gaming. My all-time favourite has to be the Elder Scrolls, especially Skyrim. One of the very first games I played was actually Arena – the very first Elder Scrolls game. It was amazing for the time. I got back into gaming just when Oblivion came out. Fantasy RPGs have always been my first love. 

I probably played Skyrim to death, but sometimes I still like to fire it up, just to soak in the incredible atmosphere and gorgeous soundtrack. Right now I stalk medieval Japan as Naoe, busily appropriating loot when I’m not busy petting virtual cats.

You created a Math Game for kids. What was the spark that started that project?

When I saw my kids struggling to remember their math facts, I was reminded of how tedious it was for me when I was their age and had to memorize the times tables. 

So I thought why not get them a really fun computer game to make this less of a chore? I bought a few and none of them worked. The girls felt the games were either too boring, random, tedious, or even outright stressful.

In the end, I decided to write my own. I wanted it to play like a game, but really be just about answering math questions. I mean, nothing is more frustrating than having a math game where you know the answer, but cannot get the arrow keys right to navigate your snake at the same time…

At the same time, it’s really boring to just answer questions presented via a cute interface with some bubble sounds. 

I wanted something that’s more interactive. 

I also wanted it to be adaptive, so kids practice what they need to, and not just random numbers. Finally, I wanted it to be smart, to work out when all questions in an operation like multiplication have been mastered.

And then one day the idea of a horse speeding up and slowing down based on answer speed while riding across a fantasy landscape came to me while having a shower. I think that’s where most good ideas come from, right?

It clearly had to be a fantasy themed game with quests. I mean, what better way to memorize math facts than while riding a horse through enchanted forests, elven lands or a dragon realm? 

Answer faster and watch your horse speed up!

The relative difficulty is indicated by the number of crossbars on the obstacle

Collect bonus points for answering multiple questions correctly in a row

What makes your MathRider game unique?

I guess I alluded to it already. MathRider is pure math practice while playing like a game. It employs storytelling, beautiful fantasy visuals and adaptive intelligence.

Everything is measured and statistically analysed to guide kids to mastering arithmetic. Mastery is determined on an individual basis for each unique player. The game does not use a blanket “answer correctly within three seconds” approach. Far from it. In this way, someone who is simply a little slower in thinking or typing will not get penalized, and the game still recognizes when they are fluent with their math facts.

You also do not compete with other people, and there really is no failure. The horse simply stops and lets the obstacle blow up if a question hasn’t been answered.

Everybody’s journey and progress is uniquely their own. Rewards are guaranteed just by putting in regular effort. But the rewards do adjust based on mastery. It was very important to me to not just go for results, but also be able to reward effort.

In the end, kids and parents will be left in no doubt they have indeed mastered addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. And they will have the master flags and castle to prove it!

Don’t just take my word for it though – try it out here at https://mathrider.com/ and do send me your feedback, so I can keep improving the game for everyone!

What was harder, creating the game, or marketing it?

*I ask because I wrote a children’s book, and the hardest part was the marketing!

Definitely marketing! I can easily stay up until 2am when I am in programming mode! And I keep thinking about what I want to improve when I find time. Marketing on the other hand feels very hard. I keep finding other things I need to do. Classic case of procrastinating. 

I think a big part of that is wanting to make it perfect! Of course, there is no such thing as perfection, plus I do need to make a living. So my plan is to keep doing both – I keep improving it and make these improvements available to everyone who already has the game, while I am finally getting serious about marketing. The affiliate program is up and running as well

Do you plan to create any more games?

First and foremost, my goal is to keep improving MathRider, actually. I have so many ideas for it, and my mission is to produce the very best math facts game I possibly can. This is also why I have made all MathRider updates so far available to everyone who has purchased MathRider in the past. 

I believe that everything we do, we should do with love. Be it spending time with family, listening to a friend, making cosplay costumes, cooking dinner, or working on a game that hopefully makes a difference to lots of parents and their kids. I believe love is the key. And it’s what makes life worthwhile. 

That said, I have another game idea for a historic game that delves into trigonometry and some physics. But that’s either in the realm of science fiction or outright fantasy for me right now…

What has been the most surprising part of creating the math game?

I was surprised that even in the early days when the game was really rough and still running in a fixed size window using Adobe Air, people loved it!

I also won awards for the most favorite math game / resource from the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew in two separate years – in fact, each time I submitted it for review. So that was really gratifying.

Of course, anything you put out there, some people will love it, and some people will hate it. I recently received a request to make the game suitable for 2-year-olds and use dots instead of numbers, since they can’t read yet. I’m really not sure why you’d want to train your two year old to remember math facts.

Are you active on social media? If so, please share your accounts.

I’m not really active on social media as an individual, other than the MathRider channels at this point.

Part of this is obviously to get the word out there about the game. But I also want to take the opportunity to be of service in other ways. I have been very blessed to have had some invaluable lessons in life that enabled me to create an incredibly loving connection and friendship with my daughters. There is so much love and trust between us, which is just the most wonderful thing for me, and I am keen to share some of what I’ve learned with others.

The channels are:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MathRiderGame 

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/themathridergame/ 

X – https://x.com/Math_Rider 

Anything else you would like to add or mention?

You probably got the idea that I love fantasy. But the greatest adventure was being there as my kids grew up and seeing the world through their eyes pretty much every step of the way. 

I think one of the biggest lessons I learned early on that alleviated a lot of potential drama was this: 

When they were crying or upset, I would turn to them and give them my full attention and say “Oh, you’re crying. What happened?” in a curious tone, but never in a tone that would imply there was something really wrong. I had read about this in a book. And boy was that wonderful advice! We had such few dramas in the house, because when differences or upsets surfaced, they were never amplified to earth shattering level.

The other one was a conversation I had when they were about 10 years old. I said “Hey, I just want you to know that while I’m your dad, and I know you look up to me as this wise figure in your life, I want you to know that I will also make lots of mistakes. Of course, I will always do my best to do everything right. But I will still get stuff wrong. So if something I do or say seems stupid to you, it probably is. And in that case, please tell me. Because your opinion is just as valid as mine, and you will see things from angles that I don’t. We are a team and we look out for each other. Trust your gut and what you believe in and let me know. And of course, you are free to make mistakes, too, just like I am.”

The effect was wonderful. My kids knew they were respected for who they are, and their opinion mattered. But the effect was even more profound for myself. Because I was now free. I no longer had to be the perfect dad for my perfect children! I simply needed to do my very best. And that is so much easier than “getting it right” all the time!

Thank you to Thomas for answering all our geeky questions!

And if you happen to be a good candidate for Geek of the Week, feel free to apply right here on the website at: https://geekmamas.com/be-a-featured-geek-of-the-week/

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