I got tired of games treating my kids like targets
Like every parent, I handed my phone over on long car journeys. And like every parent, I watched what came back: adverts every ninety seconds, adverts for games that don't exist, "limited time offers" engineered to make a seven-year-old beg, and lives that run out just when it gets fun — unless somebody pays.
Here's the thing though: the games themselves are brilliant. Simple, one-thumb, beat-your-own-score games have delighted kids (and, be honest, adults) for forty years. The games were never the problem. The business model was.
So I made the container I wished existed. Twenty of the most-loved mini game ideas, rebuilt from scratch with original characters, inside one app with the old-fashioned deal: you buy it once, and then it's yours.
— Dave, dad and maker of Sticker Book Arcade
The promise, in plain English
- No adverts of any kind — no ad code even exists in the app
- No purchases after the £2.99 — no coins, gems or unlocks
- No "coming soon" teasers — everything shown is playable
- No streaks, timers, lives or nagging notifications
- No chat, no links out, no data collection
- Just the games — and a family scoreboard