Long Island, NY – What started as a father and sons coding project to develop a game back in 2018 evolved into a product with hard work, long nights, and Allah’s guidance!
Hakim Jenkins, a corporate sector software developer and father of three boys, all born and raised in Queens, NY, came home from work one day back in 2018 with an awesome idea to develop a game. “My director at the time had just launched a mobile game developed in his spare time with the Unity cross-platform Game Engine. After downloading his game, I was inspired to make a game with my sons,” says Hakim.
The father-sons team started by following some basic Unity Game Development tutorials on YouTube to get familiar with the mechanics of how a 3D game is built. After gaining some experience with the Unity Game Engine Software – the same Engine that very popular Mobile games such as Subway Surfers and Temple Run were created in, it was time to figure out what game we wanted to create. With a very supportive family and being members of Masjid Abdul-Muhsi Khalifah in Brooklyn, NY, which is often referred to as “the Family Masjid”, the team decided to build a mobile action 3D runner game featuring members of their own family and community.
“Having completed a Master of Science in Computer Science from NYU-Poly with years of coding experience, I realized the actual coding part of developing a game wasn’t that hard with a basic coding foundation and the plethora of online help resources. On the flip side, the particle physics of such a game, unexpected issues, and the difficulty of manipulating a 3D game world were the tricky parts,” says Hakim. After spending months studying and completing a tutorial on how to make a 3D platform Unity game, the team knew that building a functional game of their own would be a quest. At the same time, such a quest to create an App could have an amazing upside if they could do it, so project QuestUp™ had begun.
One of the exciting parts about building a 3D action game was that the team could feature themselves, their Community, and Islamic life in it. Most games on the market consumed by our children don’t feature Black characters, Muslim characters, or our Muslim women, especially in a dignified way. The team knew that this project was a great opportunity to create a new image. They were also inspired by the privilege of this development project to “Make a good showing in education, science, business, and culture because G-d has told us to make good use of whatever I have made available to you for the Hereafter,” as Imam W. Deen Mohammed (ra) often reminded us.
QuestUp: Mental Math Adventure is a Hyper Casual 3D mobile action game of reflexes and mental math problems. The mechanics of the game are simple. They only require the player to run and dodge obstacles for each level as their character attempts to solve as many mental math problems as possible before the time runs out. The game also has three modes of math problem levels, from Beginner to Advanced, allowing all players to improve their mental math skills based on their individual math ability while having fun. Inspired by martial arts video games, the team added a health bar system to allow the player to take a fixed amount of damage before a loss. The players can gain invincibility power-ups for watching rewarded video ads and earn extra points for collecting gems. The game gives each player the option to sign in to Apple or Google’s official Leaderboards to post their scores and achievements. This is a great way for friends to compete, track their game progress, and level up in their action and math rankings.
Being married for 17 years, Hakim’s wife, Dr. Fatimah Dawan, a Physical Therapist became the main character of the game. In the storyline of the game, Dr. Fatimah joins Hakim – a leading Artificial Intelligence Engineer, to create an aerial math track tournament Arena of the future for athletic training and a new era of Math Olympic competition. Together, they network with CEO Eurila (the third character based on real-life community member Eurila Cave – Owner-Operator at Cali York Photography) in addition to Professor Timika (the fourth character based on real-life community member Timika Young BA, MS – CEO/Founder of Timika’s Tutorial Services Inc.). Together, the game’s storyline not only has the cast finance the billion dollar project but compete as the core cast of characters through each mental math action level of the game.
Much of the game’s development was accomplished during the 2020-2023 pandemic years. While homeschooling their children, the game’s development was incorporated into Hakim and Dr. Fatimah’s technology curriculum. Fahiem, the oldest son, aged 11 at the time, took the lead by designing and coding many of the scenes of the game with his father’s guidance. Fahiem’s younger brother Idris, along with their cousin Jahdari, worked on a lot of the artwork for the game in addition to coding simple features and providing valuable design recommendations that improved the look and feel of the game. Idris, along with their little brother Luqman, took on an important role testing new features of the game and finding defects that were introduced over time as the game’s code base expanded. Cousin Jahdari also became the second core character of the game, featuring his real-life karate skills after the team’s initial prototype of the game was released in 2022. “Building a game feels really good, and I hope the game continues to grow and get better,” says Idris Jenkins.
Once version 2 of QuestUp™, rebranded as “QuestUp: Mental Math Adventure,” was complete, along with a website and all the business, legal, and marketing-related artifacts required to launch a Mobile App, the team resubmitted their App for approval from Google Play and the App Store in March of 2025. Since the approval process for an App can take several days or more if no rejections are issued, the team was praying to get the game approved and ready for distribution in both stores before the Summer of 2025. Fortunately, both platforms approved the app, allowing the team to start promoting the latest math adventure edition aimed at positively impacting education and the lives of students worldwide. As of the Summer of 2025, the App has received approximately 1,000 downloads across 40 countries and has received positive feedback from many parents and children on the value and impact the App is having for families in the United States and abroad.
Another feature of the game that was important to the team was a learning video thought feature that exposes the players to a brief daily life lesson for their character from the main menu. The life lessons focus on areas of health, education, motivation, and technology from an Islamic perspective. The game was also granted admission into Google’s Teacher Approved program for children after a review by teachers and specialists in May of 2024 and 2025. The Google Play App review performed by teachers and specialists approved the App for math learning, engaging challenges, thoughtful designs for children, and critical thinking. With acceptance into the program, a “Teacher Approved” badge is displayed on the game’s Google Play Store page! “My mother (Sister Sharon Jenkins), who returned to Allah during the pandemic, was a New York City school teacher who dedicated her life to the education of her family and community. As mom watched me and her grandchildren develop this App before she made her transition, this Teacher Approved award complements what Allah blessed us to achieve, and we are very thankful for her special role in our lives,” Hakim says.
“QuestUp: Mental Math Adventure” is available for free download from both the App Store for iOS device users and Google Play for Android device users. The team founded and produced the game under FILJ Family Dev Studios, LLC, and would like to express much thanks to all the QuestUp™ beta testers who evaluated the game for months and provided valuable feedback leading up to the April 2024 Eid al-Fitr launch and the following April 2025 Mental Math Adventure launch. The team would also like to acknowledge their amazing family members who supported them through the many nights and weekends of game development. The team plans to continue enhancing the game over time with new features, artificial intelligence, inspiration, and challenges with the spirit of Al-Islam and the Community they proudly represent. They also hope to continue to inspire youth from our communities to work towards completing their goals with patience and perseverance.
Please download “QuestUp: Mental Math Adventure”, leave a positive review on the game’s store pages, and visit QuestUpGame.com for game information and future updates.
Download QuestUp™ in Google Play for Android | • | Download Questup™ in App Store for Apple
