Academics
CratePals
A crate lab for ages 6–8: open a crate whose chances are printed right on the lid, watch your pile grow toward those odds, and see how rarely the rare prize really comes. Then make your own crate and guess the odds. Opens are free forever — nothing to buy, nothing runs out. On-device; nothing leaves your device.
#b45309 Distributed-narrative cast
Meet the cast
CratePals has a tiny friendly crew who make chance honest: Cratey the hamster shows a crate's odds right on the lid, Oddo the owl reads how likely each prize is before you open, Pipkin the mouse's growing pile drifts toward those odds the more you open, and Rara the magpie learns that rare means seldom - not better. Each friend shows ONE gentle idea about chance; everything is spoken, and there is no way to lose.
Cratey
Honest odds on the lid (hero) - Cratey the hamster, the stall-keeper whose every crate shows its chances painted plainly on the top, out in the open, so you always know before you open
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Oddo
Read the chance first - Oddo the owl, who reads how likely each prize is before you open: lots of dots means likely, a lonely dot means it hardly ever comes
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Pipkin
The pile finds the odds - Pipkin the mouse, whose growing sorted pile starts jumbled but, the more you open, settles to match the chances on the lid (the law of large numbers)
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Rara
Rare means seldom, not better - Rara the magpie, who chases the shiny 'rare' crate, learns it comes only once in a long while, and that the sure everyday prize is just as good
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Browse all chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Learning goal
A crate lab for ages 6–8: open a crate whose chances are printed right on the lid, watch your pile grow toward those odds, and see how rarely the rare prize really comes. Then make your own crate and guess the odds. Opens are free forever — nothing to buy, nothing runs out. On-device; nothing leaves your device.
Question kits
16 curriculum-aligned kits × 25 questions = 400 questions per app, mapped to recognized standards.
On-device AI mentor
FoundationModels-powered hints, feedback, and adaptive difficulty — all running locally.
Mentored by Cratey — on-device AI, no data leaves the device.
How CratePals handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ No ads, no in-app purchases — you pay once
- ✅ COPPA compliant under the 2026 FTC amendments
- ✅ Parental controls + session limits + content filters built in
CratePals runs on ForgeKit — the open-source Swift Package Manager framework that powers every Spark & Anvil app. ForgeKit ensures consistent accessibility, COPPA compliance, and design language across the portfolio, so your kid's progress and preferences feel coherent across every app they touch.
Coming to the App Store
CratePals is in active development. Email us to hear when it ships — no marketing, no spam, just a one-shot launch announcement.
Email me at launch