The Codex — hints that teach
Press “teach me” and the concept animates on your own seeded data: WHERE filters rows out before your eyes, ORDER BY re-sorts them live, JOIN slides matching keys together.
A 3D action-RPG that teaches code by casting it
The only weapon is the cast.
Cross a realm of floating table-islands, cut down NULL's lieutenants, and bring back Princess Primary Key — armed with nothing but real code, cast in your browser. SQL is the first tongue of power; more await.
What it is
CASTBOUND is the coding course that plays like a game — not a game bolted onto a quiz.
Beneath the grass of every island lives a real SQLite database. Nothing is simulated:
when you DELETE a monster, a row dies.
SELECT their secrets.Cast against your realm's goblins — seeded from your hero's name.
How it helps you
Press “teach me” and the concept animates on your own seeded data: WHERE filters rows out before your eyes, ORDER BY re-sorts them live, JOIN slides matching keys together.
Animated lesson → query skeleton with pulsing blanks → full answer. Help that scales to exactly how stuck you are — never a spoiler you didn't ask for.
After every win, a job-skill card maps the fantasy task to its real-world query — the one you'd write in an interview or on the job.
Lose all three hearts and the realm casts BEGIN … ROLLBACK. The battle rewinds, nothing commits. You learn transactions by dying.
Real gravity and an elastic rope sling you between floating table-islands. Miss your JOIN and the void answers — the chasm is uncrossable on foot.
Every player's tables are seeded from their hero's name. No walkthrough on earth can answer your realm's questions.
Why nothing like it exists
SQL Murder Mystery. SQL Island. SQLBolt. Fine tutorials — all of them reading exercises. CASTBOUND is the first action game whose verbs are real casts.
reading about queries
DELETE FROM monsters
WHERE name = 'Grubnak';casting them — a row actually dies
The Worlds
Strictly cumulative — every clause you win is a weapon you keep. Five realms live today, from your first SELECT to woven WITH queries.
Treasure chests & thorn gates
SELECT *columnsWHEREANDDark woods, fireflies, patterned prey
ORDER BYLIMITLIKEBETWEENINBungee physics between floating islands
INNER JOINLEFT JOIN … IS NULLFairy swarms merge when grouped
GROUP BYCOUNT / SUM / AVGHAVINGCrystal caverns — questions nested in questions
subqueriesCTEsFix live corruption — boss HP = corrupted rows
UPDATEDELETEtransactionsA raven was sent — confirm your email, then log in.