Field notes

Short notes from the studio on how we make games for kids: what worked, what did not, and why.

Hockey Kids from the overhead camera: five kids crowd Red's crease with the puck loose

Soccer Kids Learn mode on the other team's goal kick: the coach card says to get behind the blue line and find somebody to cover, and rings mark who to cover

2 minute read

Teaching soccer restarts with a coach who waits

Throw-ins, goal kicks and corners confuse almost every new player. Here is how Learn mode in Soccer Kids teaches them, one restart at a time.

Pickle Kids at the first serve of a game: the call under the score reads Ziggy serves, 0-0-2, with KITCHEN stenciled each side of the net

3 minute read

How pickleball scoring works

Three numbers, two servers and a game that starts at 0-0-2. A plain guide to doubles scoring for parents, and how Pickle Kids shows the score while your kid plays.

Soccer Kids from the overhead camera, the whole field the way a coach sees it, with Blue and Red four on four

2 minute read

Using Soccer Kids with a young team

Soccer Kids is free, and its Learn mode teaches the restarts that new players find confusing. Here is how a coach can use it before the first practice.

Ziggy dribbling a soccer ball under the lights as Pam, his family's black pug, bounds ahead, drawn by the games' own code

2 minute read

What goes into a game built for one kid

Ziggy Games is full of details only his family would notice. Here is how we find those details, and how we keep them safe.

Pickle Kids on a phone held sideways, with a thumb stick and the Hit button

1 minute read

Why our games run in a browser

No app store, nothing to install, and the iPad you already have. Here is why every Paper Kid game is a web page.

Put your kid in the game

Design your kid as a paper kid and see the game plan we'd build around them. It takes about two minutes.

Build your player Talk to us first