Poyo Jelly devlog #1: a game made for little hands

Poyo Jelly (Gelée Poyo in French) is our next game, and our first one made for children aged 4 to 9. The Poyos are the squishy jellies of the Candy Kingdom: soft, wobbly, and very happy to be squeezed. The game is in closed testing on Google Play.

Ten ways to play, zero rules to learn

Squish, the wardrobe, decorate, the parade, treats, bath time, the magic cauldron, the Jelly book, Squishy World and Chatter: there is no timer, no score to beat and no game over. Children touch, squish and make things up. There are 31 Poyos to discover — including four glow jellies that light up in the dark.

You can squish one on the game's site: press, pull, let go.

The rules we set ourselves

A game for young children starts with what it does not do:

• no advertising, no advertising identifier, no in-app purchase;
• no account, no sign-up, no field where a child could type their name;
• no chat, no contact with other players;
• the settings sit in a parent area that opens with a 2-second long press — and the only link that leaves the game is in there;
• in Chatter, the Poyo answers in a funny voice: speech recognition runs on the device only, nothing is recorded or sent.

The only data that leaves the phone is anonymous usage statistics and crash reports, which a parent can switch off. The privacy policy describes the game exactly as the code does — and when that audit turned up something we were not happy with, it went to the to-do list rather than under the rug.

Next

The game will be published on Google Play first, then on the App Store. Until then, the game site is live in French and English.