Prize Climb: climb on or bank your points, with three lifelines
A climb-or-bank quiz game for teams: each right answer climbs a step, then bank the points or risk them for more. Three lifelines per team. Free, one screen.
Prize Climb is a climb-or-bank quiz game for teams. Every team has its own tower of ten glowing steps with a star at the top. A right answer climbs one step, and then the team decides: bank the step's points now, or climb on and answer the next question too. A wrong answer drops the team back to its prize jar, keeping only what the last safe flag protects. Three lifelines per team (50:50, Swap and Ask the class) help on the hard ones.
At a glance
| Players | The whole class in 2–4 teams free (up to 8 with Oly Pro) |
| Time | About 15–20 minutes for 12 questions |
| Works with | Multiple choice questions: English picture, word, listen, meaning and your own questions; subject sets with multiple choice questions |
| Best for | Test review, older students, talking about risk and decisions, team discussion |
| You need | One screen (projector, TV or interactive display) and your phone as the remote |
How to play Prize Climb
- Make or pick a question set. Snap a textbook page, paste a word list, type a topic or your own questions, or open a set from the free library. Every question has four answer options, so the lifelines always have something to work on.
- Pick Prize Climb, set the teams and start. Every team starts on its prize jar at the bottom of its tower.
- Play. The team whose turn it is answers. A right answer climbs one step. Then the team chooses (on the screen, on your phone, or with keys 1 and 2): Climb on, and the same team answers the next question, or Bank, and the step's value goes into its jar as points and the team starts again from the bottom. A wrong answer ends the climb. When the questions run out, the team with the most banked stars wins.
Rules and scoring
- Steps are worth their number. Banking on step 5 scores 5; on step 8 scores 8.
- The top: reaching step 10 banks 10 straight away, with a fanfare, and the team starts again at the bottom.
- Safe flags on 3 and 6. A wrong answer drops the team back to its jar, but it keeps the value of the last flag it passed: 3 from steps 3 to 5, 6 from steps 6 to 9, nothing below step 3.
- The last question: only Bank is left, so nobody climbs into nothing.
- Lifelines, once per team per game, while the question is open:
- 50:50 greys out two wrong answers. - Swap changes the question for another one from the set. - Ask the class shows a 10-second "Class, hands up!" timer: the team can ask the rest of the room before it answers.
- Steal (off by default): after a miss, another team may answer for +1. A steal doesn't climb.
- Double and triple questions climb two or three steps at once.
- Also: a timer per question (10 to 60 seconds; running out counts as a wrong answer), wrong answers losing a point (off by default; scores never go below zero), hidden scores, seasonal looks and calm or no effects.
What you can teach with it
Prize Climb plays multiple choice questions only, in English and in other subjects; true/false and open questions are left out.
English: picture, word, listen, meaning and your own multiple choice questions.
- Vocabulary at A1–A2: picture questions on the low steps are a gentle start; teams learn to bank early.
- Grammar at B1: your own questions with three tempting wrong answers ("If I ___ rich, I would travel": am / was / were / be). The 50:50 is a nice talking point: which two were obviously wrong?
Other subjects: multiple choice.
- Math: mental math with close wrong answers (48, 54, 56, 64 for 7 × 8).
- History and geography: dates, capitals and famous names with four options.
Tips from the classroom
- Make the team decide out loud. "We're on 5, the flag is on 6. Do we risk it?" That talk is half the lesson.
- Talk about risk afterwards: who banked early, who climbed on, and who won?
- Ask the class works best when the other teams have to explain their answer, not just shout it. It also keeps them following every question.
- Big classes: with a class list, Oly names one student per team each turn. The student answers; the team decides climb or bank.
- Mark a few questions double in the editor: a double climbs two steps, so it can jump a team past a safe flag.
Play it without a screen
- Draw a ladder of ten steps for each team, with flags on 3 and 6.
- A right answer moves the team up one step; the team then says "climb" or "bank".
- Bank: write the step's number in the team's score box and go back to the bottom. Miss: back to the bottom with 3 or 6 if a flag was passed.
- Give each team three cards: 50:50 (you cross out two wrong answers), Swap (another question) and Ask the class.
The screen version keeps every tower and jar, runs the lifelines and the score, all from your phone.
Questions teachers ask
Is Prize Climb free?
Yes. You can play it free with up to 4 teams, with library sets and your own typed questions. The free plan also makes 10 AI question sets a month (3 from photos); Oly Pro allows up to 8 teams and more AI sets.
Do students need devices?
No. The class plays on one screen. Only you use a phone, as the remote; the keyboard works too.
What happens on a wrong answer?
The team goes back to its jar. If it had passed a safe flag, it keeps that flag's points (3 or 6); below step 3 it keeps nothing.
Can I use true/false or open questions?
Not in Prize Climb. It needs answer options for the 50:50, so it plays multiple choice questions only. True/false and open questions work in the other games.
Can I use my own questions?
Yes. Paste them as question | answer | wrong, wrong, wrong, type them in the editor, or edit any set before you play.
For more choosing and risk, try Dare Board or Hoop Shot. For a dice race to the top of a board, try Ladder Climb.