Skip to content

Featured case study

Ziggy Games

An arcade built for one kid

A custom arcade made around one boy: Pam the pug asleep by the machines, his team's pennant over the high scores, his favorite player's initials at the top of the board and a secret code that makes it snow inside.

Plan an Arcade World Visit ziggy.games
The Ziggy.games marquee, ringed with bulbs, above the line Free games you play in your browser and a red ticker that reads Pam is asleep
Client
Ziggy, our founder's son, and his family
The ask
A cinematic 1980s arcade, built from Ziggy's own world
Delivered
A 3D arcade for tablets and laptops, a drawn one for phones, and the four sports games on this site
Live at
ziggy.games, a public site the family chose

The brief

Ziggy Games started with a single game our team made for Ziggy, our founder's son: a game starring Ziggy and Pam, the family's black pug. It lived on a simple page, and it worked.

In the fall of 2026 the brief got bigger: turn the site into a cinematic 1980s arcade with the original Ziggy.games logo, where every game is a machine you walk up to, with real animation and nothing that feels generic, and fill it with games made from Ziggy's own world.

From then on the family asked for each game and play-tested it at home, and our team built it.

Neon signs in the dark arcade, a red and blue lightning bolt and the word Classics, with lake-effect snow falling in front of them
Inside the arcade, with the family's secret on: type their team cheer or the Konami code and lake-effect snow falls past the signs.

The details that make it his

Close-ups from the arcade and its games, as they look in a desktop browser.

Ziggy dribbling under the lights as Pam the pug bounds ahead, drawn by the games' own code
Pam, in every game Here she chases Ziggy down the field. She's in every game: on her leash at the Soccer Kids sideline, one on one against Ziggy in the Sports Arena, and asleep on a dog bed beside the arcade's machines.
A Let's Go Buffalo pennant on the arcade wall
A wall for his team This is a Buffalo family, so a Let's Go Buffalo pennant hangs on the arcade wall, over the high scores.
The lit Ziggy.games marquee, ringed with bulbs, in the dark arcade room
An arcade with his name on it The marquee carries the original Ziggy.games logo, lit with real bulbs, over a row of machines that each open a game.

Your kid's version

Their pet, their team, their in-jokes. Every custom game starts with details like these, and the Player Builder is where you tell us yours.

Build your player

The sports games inside

Our four sports games run inside the arcade, and Ziggy is on the field in every one of them.

Soccer Kids, side camera: Ziggy winds up a shot at the edge of Red's box as Noor, Priya and Leo close in and Kai runs in support

Soccer Kids

Ziggy plays for Blue, spiky hair and all, with a lightning bolt where his number would be. Pam watches from the sideline on her leash, and the families under the tents hold signs for the kids.

 Hockey Kids, side camera: Kai chases the loose puck as Maya, Noor, Priya and Leo converge on the light gray blacktop

Hockey Kids

The same eight kids on the park blacktop with sticks. Ziggy is on the Blue four, and the game teaches the rule every floor hockey kid learns the hard way: stay out of the crease.

 Pickle Kids mid-rally: Ziggy returns from the baseline with Maya at the kitchen line and Leo and Priya across the net

Pickle Kids

Ziggy and Maya against Leo and Priya, with the score called out the way grown-up players say it.

 Ziggy and Pam Sports Arena from the side camera: Ziggy dribbles toward midfield with Pam at his heels, 0-0 with 1:49 left, under the sponsor boards and a packed crowd

Ziggy & Pam Sports Arena

The first sports game in the arcade: Ziggy against Pam, head to head. Pam is quicker and dribbles closer, Ziggy has the bigger kick, and either one can win.

Built for the family iPad, in short rounds

On a laptop or an iPad, the arcade is a 3D room: click or tap a machine to walk up to it, then again to play. The family plays on an iPad, so the 3D room stays on tablets even though it's the heavier choice. That was the family's call, and it stuck.

On a phone, the room becomes a drawn arcade with a screenshot card for every game. Every game has a way back, and you come back to the machine you left.

All of it was made in short rounds. The family plays a build and tells us what to add next, and the next build brings it. Each game reused the last one's working parts, so every round went into what the family noticed.

The arcade at a glance

Tablets and laptops
A 3D room. Walk up to a machine, then tap again to play.
Phones
A drawn arcade with a card for every game and a ticker of in-jokes.
Every game
A way back to the machine you left.
Records
Settings and best scores stay on the family's own device.

The result

Measured from the build notes, game by game.

  • 4Paper Kid sports games in the arcade, with Ziggy on the field in every one
  • 18play-test rounds across the four, each one played on the family iPad
  • 14 of 14Easy games in Pickle Kids won by a test bot that swings like a new player

How the arcade grew

  1. First Ziggy & Pam Sports Arena The first sports game. Its camera, kids, ball and sound became the kit the next three were built from.
  2. Second Soccer Kids Six play-test rounds added Learn mode, simpler controls and fairer levels.
  3. Third Hockey Kids Built on the Soccer Kids engine, then tuned until control is on the player nearest the puck 93% of the time.
  4. Fourth Pickle Kids Real side-out scoring and a timing ring for new players, after four play-test rounds.

What this means for your kid

Ziggy Games is the biggest version of what we do. The same kinds of details go into a single Player Edition, just fewer of them.

A note on privacy

Everything in the games is drawn. We never put a child's photo in a game, and you decide which real places appear and whether they're named.

  • Their look: hair, skin, glasses, freckles and favorite cleats
  • Their name and number, called out by an announcer
  • Their team, their colors and their friends on the roster
  • Their pet, as a sidekick, a fan or a rival

Start with one game and grow it into a world, or start with the world. Either way it begins with your player.

Build your player Talk to us first
Message us Build your player