Deck.Toys and Lock Challenge both let students solve a problem to open a lock, but they are different tools. Deck.Toys is a lesson platform: activities on a map, connected by paths, with class games, a teacher view and reports, and a lock as one activity among many. Lock Challenge is the lock itself, made to be shared: one link or QR code that anyone opens on a phone, with no classroom to join, in a class or anywhere else.
The Deck.Toys facts on this page are what deck.toys says itself on its home and pricing pages, read on 15 October 2026. Plans and limits change, so check them on their site before you choose.
| Criterion | Lock Challenge | What to check on Deck.Toys |
|---|---|---|
| Lock formats | 15, all free, including a real GPS position check, a generated sudoku and a Wordle | How many mechanics, and whether any of them verify a physical location |
| Player accounts | Never required | Whether players are asked to register or install anything |
| Free tier metering | Players and attempts are unlimited; the free tier is bounded by what you build (3 basic locks, single or multi-step, of up to 3 steps each), and a basic lock never expires | Whether the free tier counts players, attempts, experiences or days |
| Paid options | Two ways to pay: the Event Pass, paid once for one event, at $7.90 for 15 days or $9.90 for 30 days, or Pro at $14.90 per month, cancellable at any time | Whether pricing is per event, per seat, per month, or one time |
| Opening animation | 54 filmed objects that fidget while the lock holds and open on video, with sound, when it gives way, the reward inside; 36 celebrations with sound (Event Pass and Pro) | What the player sees and hears at the moment the lock opens |
| Where the answer is checked | On the server, after the player submits. Written answers, codes and patterns are stored as bcrypt hashes, GPS, number and Wordle answers are checked against parameters the page never receives, and the reveal is not sent to the browser before a solve. Only the hint and step titles are in the page | Whether the answer, or the next page, can be reached from the page source or by clicking around instead of solving |
| Nearly right answers | Free: your own wrong-answer line, a second line for an answer that was nearly right (one digit or one letter off, or a word you listed as close), and a hint that shows itself after a set number of wrong tries | Whether a wrong answer can say something different from a nearly right one |
| Who played, and how | Free accounts see sessions, solves and attempts. Pro adds each player's result, attempts and hints used, names and emails when you ask for them, a live board on the day and a CSV export | Whether you can see who finished, when and in how many tries, and take that list away |
| Languages | English, French, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese, player interface included, in the language the creator picks | Whether the player interface is translated, not just the marketing site |
| Chains | Ordered multi-step trails with per-step briefs, hints and error messages | Whether multi-step routes exist and what they cost |
Only what deck.toys states on its home and pricing pages. Anything we could not confirm there, such as the list of lock types, is left out rather than guessed.
Sources: deck.toys, deck.toys/pricing
Players open a link or scan a QR code and play in the browser they already have. There is no classroom, code or account to set up first, so the same lock works for a class, a family, a team or a public post.
Numeric, directional, touch pattern, written answer, colour sequence, musical sequence, switches, a 4x4 grid, a real GPS position, a generated sudoku and a Wordle among them. Each step gets its own brief, hint, wrong-answer message and a line for an answer that was nearly right.
Treasure hunts, gender reveals, proposals, birthdays, team building and classroom escape games use the same builder. With the Event Pass or Pro, a lock wears a theme and opens as one of 54 filmed objects, with sound, the reward inside.
On Pro ($14.90 per month), ask players for their names at the reveal and see each result, attempts and hints used, with a server timer, a leaderboard and a CSV export.
Choose Deck.Toys to run a whole lesson on screen: slides, PDFs and videos turned into a path, games the whole class plays together, a teacher view that brings everyone to the same slide, and reports that show who is stuck. Choose Lock Challenge when the lock is the point and it has to travel: one link or QR code for a class, a treasure hunt, a birthday, a reveal or an event, opened by anyone without joining anything, and opening on a filmed object if you want it to.
If you want a complete lesson platform, with slides and documents turned into a path, many activity types, multiplayer class games on the projector, a teacher view that synchronises the class and progress reports by student, Deck.Toys does far more of that than Lock Challenge, which builds locks and trails of locks and nothing else.
