Nick Bowen

Apex Academy

Quest's school-day series for grades 3 to 5: a seven-episode mystery played in teams.

Role
Creative Director, writer, storyboard artist, logo designer, voice director
Audience
Grades 3 to 5
Formats
Animated story, physical game kits, digital game

The challenge

Quest’s growing lineup was getting hard to tell apart, and we needed to expand into the school day.

The solution

A rebrand that sets each Quest offering apart, launching with a new season designed for the school day.

The impact

One of the first Quest lines piloted in the school day, in 290+ classes in 2026.

Welcome to Apex AcademyThe Apex Academy trailer. Written, storyboarded and directed by Nick Bowen.

The challenge

A new first season for the school day

Next to the bigger budgets behind Glitch and Element, Collapse was starting to look rusty. With Starforce a hit, Quest needed a clear way to tell its two brands apart and to expand from summer into the school day.

The solution

A new brand

Quest needed to be restructured into two product lines: Apex Academy for grades 3–5 and Starforce for K–2. For Apex Academy, I brought the team mascots kids loved in Glitch and Element to the first season, and built a mystery around a question kids really care about: Who am I? The game materials were also adapted to better suit the time constraints and requirements of the school day.

Building Apex Academy
Apex Academy logo
Read sample

The script

A sample from the Apex Academy script: the Prehistoric Jungle.

Logo exploration

Pencil sketches of the mascot and the A and X letterforms
Pencil sketch
Nine typeface tests of the word APEX
Type tests
Early Apex Academy logo, light and dark versions
Early version
Apex Academy logo variations side by side
Variations
Final Apex Academy logo with its one-color version
Final
Apex Academy Season 1 poster: the cast in front of the academy tower
Apex Academy boxes, chest and books

I established the look of Quest and Apex Academy: the logos, the art style and the box design. Another designer built these packaging layouts in that look, and I art directed and approved them.

I wrote the script, designed the logo, storyboarded every episode, art directed the season and directed the voice cast.

Cast
Apex Academy character sheet: SAM/DITTO, Anton, Quinn, Tommy, Jesse, Lulu and Maya, with expressions
Concept art
Grayscale thumbnails of the town of Apex
More grayscale town thumbnails
The town of Apex, finished painting
Grayscale campus thumbnails
Campus fields thumbnails
The academy tower and campus
City street thumbnails
A city street, color sketch
A city street at night
A sleep pod marked RCI
DITTO, the robot's angry face
SAM, the robot's kind face
The training field from above
A road through the town
The RCI vault room
Season art
The empty town of Apex
The obstacle course walls
DITTO throws a disc on the obstacle course
DITTO's angry face
Lulu holding a grabber tool
DITTO walks the line of students
DITTO's face fills the screen
Tommy runs the tire course
DITTO with Jesse and Quinn by the garden wall
Quinn cheers in the garden
A smiling face on a glowing screen
The kids at a row of phone lockers
Quinn by the phone lockers
The empty cafeteria
Three students asleep in pods marked RCI
A sealed vault door with a red warning light
Setting up the story
Where the story begins

Watch more Apex Academy videos 

Game design on screen
Explore screen with the cast trio
Lesson screen
Team select screen
Launch session splash
Echodisc, Episode 3Teams practice on the physical board, then take on the computer. Gameplay, sped up.
The security panel, Episode 5Panel operators flip switches, cut wires and enter the password while guide readers call out answers from the printed override manual. Gameplay, sped up.

Explore mode, a lesson, team selection and the launch splash.

The physical game
Curriculum guide cover
Gameplay overview cover
Student journal cover
Student journal spread
Sticker book cover
Explore mode materials
Repair the Water Purifier challenge setup sheet
Episode 2 grid boards
Episode 2 puzzle parts
Episode 3 game board with corner blockers
Episode 4 stacking story pieces
Episode 6 map boards
Episode 6 map tokens
Episode 7 vault keypad boards

The impact

Piloted in the school day
6,741students reporting
8.5/10average facilitator rating
94%of facilitators would play again

I'm sweating, I've never been this nervous about paper before.

Student, playing Apex Academy

Alright everyone, we're almost done!Teacher

I don't wanna be almost done!Student

It opened up lots of conversations about working as a group and making decisions as a team. Collaboration increased and students learned to be more kind to one another while still being determined to win.

Facilitator, Jurupa

Summer 2026, across QUEST programs including Apex Academy, in California, Texas and New York.

AI-assistedApex Academy is the first Quest release to use AI, and only for some of the artwork, never the animation. Base art was painted over by the artist, then overpainted by me where it needed it.How I use AI