A Game Scholastics Production

GBITS™

The Bayesian Trials

Three days ago, Kaylee’s father didn’t come home. She won’t find him by running in circles — she’ll find him by thinking it through. A cinematic game that teaches real Bayesian probability, one zone at a time.

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Ages 11+ · middle school and up Free to play in any browser ~20 min story + 5 trials
GBITS game cover art
The Premise

A search you can reason your way through.

Kaylee’s father went out to hunt and never returned. Her grandfather, Papa Joe, won’t let panic lead the search. Instead he teaches her a rhyme — a way of weighing every place her Dad could be, updating her guess each time a search comes up empty, and always looking where the odds are best.

That rhyme is Bayesian probability. Players don’t memorize a formula; they use one — to bring someone home.

“We will not find him by running in circles. We are going to think our way to him.” Papa Joe — opening
Why it works

Real math, carried by story.

GBITS teaches the actual mechanics of Bayesian reasoning — priors, likelihoods, posteriors, and updating on evidence — inside a narrative that gives every calculation a reason to matter.

Prior belief

Every zone starts with a chance of hiding Dad. Players learn to name what they believe before they look.

Update on evidence

Search a zone and come up empty? The odds shift. Players watch belief change with a live probability table.

Decide, then act

Find Chance = how likely he’s there × how well you can search it. Always look where the payoff is highest.

Bayes’ Theorem is usually written in symbols. GBITS uses words instead — because a player who knows what the words mean has understood the theorem.

Find Chance = how likely he’s there × how well you can search it

The symbols say the same thing. Players meet them in Trial 3, once the idea is already theirs.

P(H∣E) = P(E∣H) · P(H)P(E)

Inside the game

Watch the odds change.

Kaylee starts with five places her father could be, and no reason to favor any of them. She searches the River. He is not there. Nothing about the other four zones was touched — and yet all four just became more likely. That shift is Bayesian reasoning, and the game shows it happening.

Five search zones — Forest, River, Mountains, Cave and Plains — each showing Dad here: 20 percent.
Before the search. Every zone reads 20%. No place is better than another yet.
The same five zones after the River search failed: River now 5 percent, the other four now 24 percent, Plains marked Highest Zone.
After it comes up empty. River falls to 5%. Forest, Mountains, Cave and Plains each rise to 24%. Plains is now the best place to look.

And the arithmetic stays on screen.

Players are not asked to trust the numbers. Every zone shows its own line of the calculation, in the numbers of the search they are actually running.

A table headed Zone, Prior, times Detect, equals Find Chance, with a bar for each of the five zones.
Prior × detection rate = find chance. How likely he is there, times how well that ground can be searched. Search the highest one.
How it plays

Story first. Then five trials to prove it.

The game opens as a cinematic. Once Kaylee is found, players enter The Bayesian Trials — five escalating challenges that turn a felt idea into a skill.

1

Find Dad

The core search. Weigh five zones, choose, update after every miss, and bring Dad home.

2

Speak Bayesian

Match each idea to its real name — Prior, Likelihood, Posterior, Detection Rate.

3

Read the Equation

Connect the game’s language to Bayes’ symbols, then read the theorem aloud.

4

Fill the Blank

Rebuild Bayes’ Theorem piece by piece, against the clock.

5

Master the Scenario

Apply it cold to fresh situations — and earn the certificate.

★

A certificate to keep

Finish all five and print a named Certificate of Achievement — built for classrooms and library programs.

The Cast

Three people, one search.

Kaylee

The one who reasons

The player. Bright, determined, and learning — in real time — that careful thinking beats frantic searching.

Papa Joe

The teacher

Kaylee’s grandfather. He turns a hard idea into a rhyme, and steadies the search with patience and reason.

Dad

The one being found

Kaylee’s father, lost in the field. He’s the reason every calculation matters — and the reward for getting it right.

Preview

Look inside — or play it right here.

Press play to load the full game in the frame below. No download, no sign-up.

gbitsgame.com
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For educators & librarians

Bring GBITS to your program.

Built and piloted with youth through a library partnership, GBITS drops into a single session and leaves something to take home.

  • Runs in any browser — nothing to install, works on Chromebooks and tablets
  • Narrated throughout, with on-screen text for every spoken line
  • One sitting: a ~20-minute story plus five short trials
  • Ends with a printable, named Certificate of Achievement
  • Designed around a pre / post learning-measurement approach

Ready when you are

Play it, share it, or print a flyer for your space.

▶ Play GBITS free
Get in touchwritepress@gmail.com