Happy July! 

June was another big month! Josh graduated high school, we attended our first ISTE, and we interviewed dozens of amazing candidates for the three roles we're hiring for. Even though most schools hit summer, we had an awesome month that felt jam-packed and super productive.

In June...

• Usage and new Gimkit members both slowed, because Summer 

• We combed through over 300 amazing applications for our non-technical/teacher-focused hires 

• Josh & Jeff went to our first ISTE conference & connected with incredible educators 
• Josh started work on Gimkit 4.0, which will address many teacher requests & issues 
• We signed an agreement for our first office in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle 

Here's the Gazette for you to watch!

Whoa! It's been a month already!?

May is in the books, schools across the country are winding down, and summer is quickly approaching 😎

Most important? It's time for our monthly recap! 📰📹

May's Gazette is a video because we decided what you need more of in your life is our faces! Before you watch, here are a few highlights:

In May, we

• Shared three new game modes, launched teacher challenges, and introduced two new powerups 🎁
• Added a few teacher-requested mini-features, including the ability to turn off Chrome's translate feature and starring out inappropriate names 🗣
• Celebrated Gimkit's 340,000th user account 😳
  

Thank you all for another great month and an unbelievable school year 😊

📎Link up!

The new Link powerup is now in Gimkit! Activate it and choose a link partner. You and your partner will share earnings for the next 60 seconds!

Update 3.3.1 is now live with some important changes.

• Names that students enter when joining a game will now be starred out if they include inappropriate words
• The Summer Song powerup and future music powerups will be unavailable if you have music off in game options
• You can now gift another player even if their shield is on
• Changed the secondary drawing color from pink to orange
• Changed action text from "Use" to "Give" for the Gift powerup

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where powerups would not be accurately displayed for some players joining in late in team mode

Starting with April, we plan to share a monthly recap called The Gimkit Gazette!

Each month we'll discuss challenges, highlights, and what we're working on. Our goal is to share as much of the inner-workings of Gimkit as possible.

Below are a few bullet highlights, but you can read the full version here.

https://www.notion.so/gimkit/The-Gimkit-Gazette-April-2019-2609e7ea90804dea96a5667b440af223

Last month we:

• Got the new Game Engine, Blueboat, up and running! ⛴
• Conceived of and released our first limited time game mode 😈
• Welcomed our 250,000th Gimkit account 🥳
• Hit 2M Monthly Active Users (MAUs) for the first time 🤯

Thank you for an amazing month and we're so excited to build the future of Gimkit with you!

☀️Summer is just around the corner!

With that, comes our brand new limited time powerup, The Summer Song! Students can use this powerup to play an upbeat tune to set the summer mood. The Summer Song is available now until the end of June!

We're excited to introduce Teacher Challenges! 

You can access your challenges by visiting https://www.gimkit.com/challenges or clicking "More" and "Challenges" in the header from your dashboard.

It's been the greatest joy and honor of each of our lives to build Gimkit with you and your students. Thank you for trusting Gimkit in your classrooms and all of your feedback, support, and patience.

Teaching is one of the hardest jobs there is and you tackle it head-on with grace, unbelievable selflessness, and unwavering resolve.

You deserve so much more than one week of appreciation, which is why our goal with Gimkit is to create tools that make your job easier and as impactful as possible year-round.

Your amazing responses to Thanos Mode increased our determination to deliver memorable classroom experiences as often as possible. This week, we'll be featuring three new limited time game modes for you and your students!

Here's the schedule for when you can play the new game modes:

• Monday & Tuesday: Drained Mode
• Wednesday & Thursday: Hidden Mode
• Friday: Super Rich Mode

In Drained Mode, students` balance will constantly be depleting. The balance drain amount will increase exponentially over time, so stay on top of purchasing upgrades! In Hidden Mode, not much is known until the end of the game! The leaderboard doesn't display names or balance amounts. Students won't be able to see their balance on their devices either! They will have to use other strategies to figure out what's going on and where they stand. All is revealed when the game ends! In Super Rich Mode, students earn 500x more money than traditional Classic Mode, but upgrades are more expensive too! This is the chance for your students to reach the trillions!

On top of that, we're introducing Teacher Challenges! You can access your challenges by visiting here https://www.gimkit.com/challenges or clicking "More" and "Challenges" in the header.

Throughout the week, play the new game modes with your students to complete the Teacher Appreciation Challenges. Play all 3 game modes, and you'll get $10 of account credit. These challenges are available to all Gimkit users (paid and free). 

We're here for you regardless of what week it is. In addition to the things we're doing this week to celebrate the incredible work you do, let us know if there is ever anything at all we can ever do to make your life better. 

With love, respect, and more admiration than we can express,
Josh & Jeff

⭐ For Teacher Appreciation Week, we’re releasing not one, not two, but three new limited time game modes!

Monday/Tuesday: 🚰 Drained Mode

Wednesday/Thursday: 🙈 Hidden Mode

Friday: 💸 Super Rich Mode

Teacher Appreciation Week starts Monday, May 6th!

The Rebooter is here!

The new Rebooter powerup is now available in Gimkit! Activate it and you’ll be able to reuse all the powerups you’ve already purchased!

Notes from the changelog:

• Allows you to reuse all the powerups you've already purchased & used
• Does not apply for powerups currently active. Meaning, wait until your shield & discounter expire to use them again!
• Costs $1000 + 30% of balance
• Enabled in Live Games + Homework Games