The short answer is "NOTHING." Playnormous 100% free. The mission of Playnormous is to improve the health and lives of children. This applies to all children, big and small, rich and poor. Playnormous won't require a monthly subscription fee and doesn't have any "try-and-buy" features.

We are well aware that virtual communities can serve as dangerous hunting grounds for online criminals, such as identity thieves and stalkers, with children particularly at risk. For that reason, Playnormous users are not able to display personal information of any kind. If your child is 12 years old or younger, a parent or guardian will have to approve the child's email address and screen name before the child receives full Playnormous privileges. Parental participation in the online experience is greatly encouraged.

The Playnormous team is an energetic and talented group of game developers, artists, and animators. We strive to make fun games and and interactive content for kids that will make them live healthier lives.

Archimage, the parent company of Playnormous, has been "designing what's next" for a quarter century. During the last decade we've been working with our colleagues in the health research arena to find ways to reach kids with a healthy message. Improving nutrition and increase physical activity is the goal.

The work we're doing with the Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, USDA, and the National Institutes of Health is making its way onto the Playnormous website. Your children will be the beneficiaries of this work, as Playnormous content comes from our work with the medical research community and has been field tested with kids.

Seventh iMac Winner Announced - Health Creative High School Coach

You really have to see this entry to believe it. The most comprehensive use of Playnormous health games to this date. Follow Coach Ann King's Playnormous blog to see how she used her creativity to create an all-encompassing nutrition and physical activity experience for her high school kids. A huge congratulations to our first high school winner and her new iMac "The Game".

Sixth iMac Winner Announced - Tech-Savvy Second Grade Teacher

Using their class blog, Mrs. Trevino and her second graders created multiple posts describing what they learned about healthy and unhealthy foods while playing Playnormous health games. Her students created Playnormous trading cards and a healthy foods animation. Multiple students answered our contest questions too using their class blog comments section. What an amazing entry for our contest! Congratulations to Mrs. Trevino and her new iMac "Screamin' Cinema".

We've Moved!

It is official: the Playnormous health games office has moved! After a week of old fashioned muscle and a little physical labor, we are finally up and running in our new space. Where did we move, you ask? Not as far as you might think. Just down the street from our old office, that's how far! Come visit us at 4100 Montrose Blvd, Ste 200, Houston, TX 77006.

Fifth iMac Winner Announced - Teacher Blogger

Blogging is a powerful and important way to get the word out about interesting topics. We are so grateful to all of those who stumble upon our site and choose to tell others about us through social media. Because of this, we decided to reward a teacher blogger for writing something great about Playnormous. Presenting iMac Winner number five, sixth grade teacher and blogging champion Mr. Keith Schoch. Read his article all about Playnormous Health Games and browse his amazing blog Teaching That Sticks. Congratulations to Mr. Schoch and his new iMac "Mean Bean".

Healthy Recipe Cards

By popular demand, Monstrously Healthy Recipe Cards are now available on Playnormous! Print out some of our cute cards and try the recipes at home. Each contains at least half a serving of fruit or vegetables. You can start with an easy one like Ferocious Fruit and Chocolate Fondue. Monster Chefs, take a stab at Professor Mad Monster's Peach Orchard Oatmeal or Magic Monster Pocket. Delicious!

Fourth iMac Winner Announced - Children's Museum Giveaway

"It's My Party and I'll Growl if I Want To" went to six-year-old Nzinga, the winner of our Playnormous iMac Giveaway at the Children's Museum of Houston. She and 400 other families participated in Playnormous Day during Family Fit Week at the Museum. Upon accepting her Monster iMac, Nzinga told us that "Juice Jumble" is her favorite Playnormous game. That's our most challenging game to date so she must be a smart health gamer! Congratulations to Nzinga and her mom Stacy!

Playnormous Now a Part of Children's Museum of Houston PowerPlay Exhibit

You can now play Playnormous health games at one of the most popular children's museums in the country! Visit their PowerPlay Exhibit (which is all about being physically active and having fun) and drop by the PowerScience Lab to play Lunch Crunch or Bubble Rubble. Feel free to quiz and Baylor College of Medicine students that might be helping out too. Don't forget to come by for our Playnormous Day extravaganza too and get your own Playnormous T-shirt.

Third iMac Winner Announced - Librarian

The Valley Oaks Elementary 1st and 2nd grade G/T library class really outdid itself. Check out their amazing video about Playnormous which features students playing games and explaining their favorite things about the website. Congratulations to librarian Becky S. Lee who adopted "Rock Monster" into their school library.

Second iMac Winner Announced - Creative Pre-K Teacher

Pre-K teacher Patti Portice of Valley Oaks Elementary in Houston, Texas is our second Monster iMac winner for her essay and photos on how she brought Lunch Crunch to life in her classroom. She and her students adopted the "I am Legend" iMac for their classroom. Enter to win your own Monster iMac today!

Playnormous Wins Web Health Award

The Playnormous Team is proud to announce that our site is a Merit Winner of the 2009 Web Health Awards! An international panel of health information and Internet experts have judged Playnormous a great place for 0-12 year olds to find accurate, quality health information. Browse our site with confidence knowing we have a "seal of quality" for electronic health information.

First iMac Winner Announced - Footgaming Teacher

Fourth grade teacher Heather Renz is our first winner in the Monster iMac contest! It's now even easier to win if you're a teacher, school librarian or public librarian to win your own computer. Visit the new official rules page to learn about entering your Playnormous Story in the media format of your choice such as blogging, essay, or online video.

Updated Parents Section

The parents section got a major facelift this week and is ready for its red carpet debut. Get answers to common questions on the FAQ page, print out the parent game guides that describe what your child will learn on our site, apply gameplay knowledge in the kitchen with our list of fruit and veggie-packed recipes, and much more!

Facebook and Twitter Buttons

Social media is king, and now it's even easier to find us with our latest Facebook and Twitter buttons. Just look in the upper left hand corner of every page for direct links to find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Win a Monster iMac for your classroom.

Our first big Playnormous contest, the Playnormous Monster iMac Giveaway, is now open to reward U.S. teachers and librarians for using our health games. Win a custom iMac computer for your class by writing to us about how you use Playnormous health games in your classroom.

Article by Playnormous Director of Marketing featured in Casual Connect Magazine.

Playnormous makes its debut in the pages of Casual Connect Magazine, one of the biggest magazines in the casual games industry. Read Melanie's article Using Gameplay Science to Change Lives to learn about how we got into the business and how we're using Playnormous games to change the lives of kids and our medical research clients.

Playnormous in latest Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop report.

Creators of the popular children's show Sesame Street releases a report on technology, learning, and the well being of children. Read about Playnormous and other health games in Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children's Learning and Health.

First Playnormous contest revealed.

Details on our first ever super amazing contest is revealed on Monster's Blog! Teachers and librarians, you could win a free iMac computer for your classroom, designed by an actual Playnormous artist. Stay tuned for details.

See the faces of Playnormous on ABC News.

Playnormous is the featured HealthCheck story on ABC Channel 13 news. If you missed the show, view the two minute story Can Video Games Be Healthy? online.

Common Sense Media gives Playnormous 4 stars!

Parent-approved media rating site gives Playnormous a 4 star rating. Experts agree that Playnormous is a great place for kids and families, ideal for 9-year-olds and appropriate for kids 7-17+.

Games for fun — and perhaps profit

Playnormous establishes itself in the Texas start-up scene gets more press coverage, this time in the Houston Chronicle.

Playnormous gets some monstrous national press.

Thanks to the help of our friends at Humana Games for Health, Playnormous has broken into the national news. Find us on:

• Bloomberg

Monster Gear Store open for business on CafePress

With such a great response for monster t-shirts, we decided to make cool Playnormous stuff available to everyone. Visit our Monster Gear Store to start shopping now for Playnormous shirts, aprons, bibs and more!

Playnormous games featured on the Humana Games for Health website

Lunch Crunch and Bubble Trouble can now be found on the revolutionary HG4H website created by Humana. Click on the schoolhouse to see Chicken Dawg and the Monster Lunch Lady!

"Get to Know Your Playnormous Monsters" campaign launched

See which Monster Mini is your favorite by visiting Monster's Blog where you can now read about all of our monster characters. A new monster bio is posted at least once a week!

Playnormous gets the Kids.gov seal of approval

Playnormous is now listed on Kids.gov, the official kids' portal for the U.S. Government. Find us in the Grades K-5, Grades 6-8 and Educators sections.

Playnormous website officially out of beta

With the addition of our teacher guides, the Playnormous site is officially out of beta. On to bigger and better features!

Playnormous is for teachers too!

Incorporate Playnormous into your current curriculum with downloadable teacher guides, classroom activities, student assessments and more.

Double Dose of gameplay fun!

We decided to give you two scoops of new Playnormous treats, just in time for Halloween. Munch on our new fruit and vegetable identification game, Lunch Crunch. Be the smartest monster on the block by playing our reaction-time-sharpening, vocabulary-level-increasing, math-skill-testing, problem-solving, super wonder-of-a-health-quiz-game, Brain Gain.

More fun features on Monster's Blog.

Check out the latest features on Monster's Blog including a game release schedule, a list of our most popular posts, informative series, and more!

Sign up for Big Monster Mail.

Want to be the first to hear about what's new at Playnormous? Enter your email address in the left sidebar to receive Playnormous news, straight to your inbox!

Juice Jumble is fresh!

Can you believe it? It's ALREADY time for another Playnormous game release! Juice Jumble is live and ready to action. Try it out and let us know what you think! This is a tasty little game all about fruit juice...or lack thereof. 100% juice, 100% juice blends, juice drinks, fruit drinks, and fruit-flavored drinks. We think it's pretty darn challenging. Give it a try and see if you can make the Top 15 List.

Bubble Trouble has been just been released!

Our second featured game, Bubble Trouble, is up and ready to play. Help Chicken Dawg learn all about being fit by popping aerobic bubbles and collecting activity minutes for the day. Careful--strength activities like weight lifting don't count as aerobic minutes. But watch out for sedentary bubbles--they turn into rocks and block the screen. Dude!!

Post your high scores on Playnormous.

Now when you play any of our games you can post your high score. Try to get into the top 15 or beat your personal best. Nothing like a little competition to liven up your day!

See all our best buddies on the Friends and Researchers page.

The Playnormous site now features a page dedicated to all our wonderful friends and researchers. Check out some of their sites by going here.

Extra, extra, read our Press and News page.

We're getting a lot of press these days, and it's hard to keep track sometimes. So we've added a new page to the Playnormous site which catalogs all of the amazing folks that are writing about us. Check out the Press and News section and see what people are saying about Playnormous.

New 3D medical animation from our friends at CareFlash.

Playnormous is teaming up with CareFlash to let you see hundreds of their
3D healthcare animations on disorders, procedures, and anatomy, all medically accurate and explained in a way that is easy to understand.

We're ready to give you a sneak peek of the Playnormous website!!

We're still working hard, building fun and exciting games and activities for kids. When we're done, kids and their parents will find a monstrous selection of health games that are all "kid-tested" and "doctor-approved." You'll be able to navigate through the site as a Monster Mini of your choice, which can be customized with your favorite colors and accessories. Playnormous will be free to join, and by joining you can earn Monster Money that can be spent outfitting your monster's world. Track your high scores, set goals and challenges, vote for your favorite games, and more!

Our new game Bubble Trouble is up and running.

April Fools!! Sorry, just had to take advantage. We are still working on our second game called Bubble Trouble. In this game, the player uses an underwater monster to crash into bubbles and collect 30 minutes of aerobic activity for the day. But be careful, if you hit a strength or sedentary bubble, you might get into trouble! The goal is for players to learn what an aerobic exercise is, what is not an aerobic exercise, which exercises are better, how many minutes they need in a day. Check back soon to play the Bubble Trouble game.

Today the Monster's Blog was born

The Monster's Blog is designed to keep you informed about the latest and greatest at the Playnormous office. The author and editor of the Monster's Blog is Melanie M. Mowry, MPH, Director of Marketing. Melanie has been charged with the task of keeping you informed about all things Playnormous. The new, the old, the technology, the science, the games, the fun.