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 leaves your device.
#7c3aed Distributed-narrative cast
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 (hero) - 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 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 Prowl — on-device AI, 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
- ✅ No ads, no in-app purchases — you pay once
- ✅ COPPA compliant under the 2026 FTC amendments
- ✅ Parental controls + session limits + content filters built in
HidePals 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
HidePals 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