Academics
FlipPals
The first competitive word game a six-year-old can win. Spell a little word to flank a row and flip it to your side - a flip-and-claim board where reading IS the move. Kip the flying fish leads; Dabble the duck reminds you that you can always take it back next turn. For ages 6-8.
▶ Play it nowBuilt for sittings of about 15 minutes on the screen. That is our design budget, not a measurement.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, asks, and patiently scaffolds learning.
#2E86C1 Characters who teach
Meet the cast
FlipPals is a pond-surface crew who turn a word game into a flip-and-claim board: spell a word and flip the row to your side. Kip the flying fish is the hero; Dabble the dabbling duck hosts, keeping it low-stakes - you can always take a row back next turn.
Kip
The custodial flip - a flying fish who lands on the OTHER side of every word; flanking a row and turning it IS the core move
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Strider
Read-the-line - a pond skater who reads the straight three-in-a-row aloud; reading the line IS finding a flippable run
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Tass
The exposed middle / parity - a kingfisher who guards the risky vowels in the middle; watching the exposed middle IS thinking a move ahead
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Dabble
Anti-shame host / reversibility - a dabbling duck who normalizes losing a row: you can always take it back next turn
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Browse all chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Learning goal
The first competitive word game a six-year-old can win. Spell a little word to flank a row and flip it to your side - a flip-and-claim board where reading IS the move. Kip the flying fish leads; Dabble the duck reminds you that you can always take it back next turn. For ages 6-8.
How FlipPals handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ Free — no ads, no in-app purchases
- ✅ No personal information collected from children — in line with COPPA (updated by the 2026 FTC amendments)
- ✅ No chat with strangers — play-together rooms use a short code and preset emotes, never typed messages
FlipPals 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
FlipPals 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