Academics
HidePals
Hide-and-seek for ages 6–8: hide a little figure (and three sneaky decoys!) in a room, then follow the warm/cold heat trail to find it — 🔥 hot means close, 🧊 freezing means far. Play by yourself or take turns on one device. On-device; nothing that names you leaves your device.
▶ 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.
Mentored by Prowl
#7c3aed Characters who teach
Meet the cast
HidePals has a tiny friendly crew who make hide-and-seek something a six-year-old can hold: Prowl the kitten follows the warm/cold heat trail to find the hidden figure; Snuggle the mole hides the real figure somewhere clever for the seeker; Mimi the mockingbird makes sneaky look-alike decoys that fool the eye but give off no heat; and Toasty the firefly IS the heat trail, glowing warmer the closer you are and never, ever telling a lie. Each friend shows ONE gentle idea about hide-and-seek; everything is spoken, and there is no way to lose.
Prowl
Follow the heat - Prowl the kitten, the seeker who does not guess: each spot gives a warm/cold ping, and warmer means closer, so Prowl chases the warm - warm, hot, boiling - all the way to found
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Snuggle
Hide it cleverly - Snuggle the mole, who hides the real figure by thinking like the seeker: not too easy, not impossible, tucked somewhere clever so finding it is a fun, fair challenge
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Mimi
Decoys fool the eye, not the trail - Mimi the mockingbird, who sets out three sneaky look-alike decoys: they trick your eyes, but only the REAL figure gives off heat, so the trail still finds it
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Toasty
The trail never lies - Toasty the firefly, the warm/cold heat trail itself, who glows warmer every step you get closer and colder every step you get farther, and is never colder when you are nearer
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Browse all chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Learning goal
Hide-and-seek for ages 6–8: hide a little figure (and three sneaky decoys!) in a room, then follow the warm/cold heat trail to find it — 🔥 hot means close, 🧊 freezing means far. Play by yourself or take turns on one device. On-device; nothing that names you leaves your device.
Mentored by Prowl — no data leaves the device.
How HidePals 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