Unveiling History: iCivics, Colonial Williamsburg Launch ‘Investigation Declaration’ Game for Youth

Two organizations focused on promoting civics and history have launched a free and award-winning online game that teaches students how the Declaration of Independence captured the ideas of the Enlightenment and inspired movements toward freedom and democracy across Africa, Europe and the Americas.

iCivics, in collaboration with Colonial Williamsburg, launched the free online game Investigation Declaration (Photo courtesy of iCivics)

The game follows educational trends that show technology can help students learn, including in history.

Investigation Declaration, the game created by iCivics in partnership with Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, combines puzzle and strategy elements to engage students in a learn-as-you-play format. It is available for free in English and Spanish.

Recently, the game received Field Day’s 2025 GEE! Award in the Formal Games category. Judges were impressed by its “style, engagement, and gameplay, and it nailed core principles of great game-based learning — showing how a game can teach deeply while keeping players hooked,” Field Day said in a statement.

The game also allows teachers to track students’ efforts and enter the Civic Star Challenge to win prizes for their students and schools.

“Colonial Williamsburg is always looking for new ways to bring our unique brand of history education to as many students as possible,” said Mia Nagawiecki, senior vice president of education for the foundation located in Williamsburg. “Thanks to our partnership with iCivics, we have extended our reach beyond our physical location and even our significant web presence to reach kids where they are and through a medium that excites them.”

iCivics, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has focused on education games since it was founded by the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in 2009, after her retirement from the court.

Investigation Declaration’s learn-as-you-play strategy is similar to that of some hugely popular games such as Roblox and Epic Games’ Fortnite.

As “Agent 6,” students are transported to an alternate time and space where an international crime conglomerate has hacked the fictional Bureau of Ideas, corrupting every file related to freedom, democracy, and individual rights. Agent 6’s job is to restore the corrupted files while learning how ideas spread throughout Africa, Europe and the Americas in the 100 years following the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Agent 6 will also discover how the ideas of natural rights, state sovereignty, and the social contract spread from Colonial Williamsburg, Paris and Philadelphia to Haiti, Liberia and beyond to inspire a wave of declarations of freedom and rights.

“Investigation Declaration moves beyond the norms of classic iCivics gameplay to meet the moment in both gaming and civics instruction,” iCivics CEO Louise Dubé said in a statement. “The goal of iCivics has always been to meet young people where they are to teach them the complicated ideas behind our constitutional democracy. If we’re going to carry out that critical mission, we must continue to evolve.”

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