The Golden Door: Gilded Age America

The Golden Door: Extended Edition is a deeply immersive immigration simulation that places students inside the lived experiences of immigrants arriving in the United States between 1890 and 1920. Rather than presenting immigration as a single story, the game allows students to experience multiple pathways shaped by race, class, nationality, gender, and law.

Students choose from four historically grounded identities: an Italian peasant arriving through Ellis Island, a Chinese “Paper Son” detained at Angel Island, an Irish widow fleeing famine and tenement life, or a Lithuanian laborer escaping conscription and industrial exploitation. Each path is built from original narrative writing, primary-source-informed scenarios, and embedded historical vocabulary that students can explore through a searchable in-game database.



The game blends rich storytelling with arcade-style mini-games that represent real systems immigrants faced, including ocean crossings, medical inspections, interrogations, factory labor, tenement survival, voter intimidation, and union organizing. Every choice carries consequences. Some paths lead to survival and stability. Others end in deportation, imprisonment, injury, or death.

You will receive a game guide with teacher's guide, a student worksheet, and a link to the online game for sharing with your students. If you are a teacher and are worried about the game being blocked by your school's server, contact us; there are two easy ways to make the game available besides the direct link.

Once license per educator.