Moonlight Arcade

What it is

A wall-tablet idea machine. Tap it once and it hands a kid a single thing to make or do — draw this monster, build this out of Lego, invent a character, do this movement — and then it goes quiet and dark.

The whole point is to get a kid off the screen and into making something real. It dispenses one idea, then makes itself boring on purpose. It's a vending machine you walk away from, not a game you stay in.

What it will never do

These are promises, not settings — they're built into how it works:

• Never sells anything. No ads, no affiliate links, no product recommendations, no shop — ever. It will never earn a cent from what a family buys, and never point a child toward a purchase.
• Never charges a child to play. Free, always — no paywall, no subscription, no "unlock."
• Never collects data or tracks a child. No accounts, no logins; nothing a child makes or does is stored on anyone's server. It stays on the device, or on the paper in the child's hand.
• Never measures a child. No scores, no "progress," no completion, no dashboards for anyone. A drawing is celebrated as it is, never turned into a data point.
• Never pressures a child. No streaks, no badges, no notifications, no reminders. It waits quietly and only ever responds to a tap. It invites; it never nags.
• Never sends a child's creations anywhere unless a grown-up deliberately saves one — and even then, never to a shared or public place.

It's a gift

• Moonlight Arcade is free, and it will never be sold or turned into a business that treats a child as a customer.
• If it's ever supported by anyone, that support pays only for the time it takes to keep it free and good — never by selling you something, never by charging a child, never by watching what a child does.

The child is the point. Nobody is the product.

How to know it's working

Not by a number on a screen — there isn't one, on purpose. It's working when the tablet is dark and the room is busy: a kid on the floor drawing, building, acting out a story. That's the only measure that matters, and you see it with your own eyes.

⌂ back to the arcade