LeapTale
Chinese Checkers (Sternhalma) — race your ten pegs across the six-point star to the far point, hopping over any peg in long jump-chains. Play the real 121-hole board against a graded computer or a friend. Plan the ladder, and leap.
▶ Play it nowBuilt for sittings of about 20 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. On-device AI personalizes the mentor's responses to your kid's progress — never connecting to a server, never collecting data.
Mentored by Cairn
#2e8b57 Characters who teach
Meet the cast
Each character in LeapTale is one idea in Chinese checkers: chaining jumps, blocking a crossing, holding the center, the long jump, timing, and the endgame. Cairn, the coach, marks the route and lets your child find the way.
Bounder
The Ladder-Chainer — links several hops into ONE long move, always finding the longest efficient multi-hop route across the star (jump-chain / laddering)
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Gate
The Junction-Holder — parks a peg on a key crossing so a rival's chain breaks; the one defensive idea in a game with no captures (blocking)
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Kern
The Centre-Keeper — occupies the central hexagon where the most jump-lines cross, keeping the most options open (centre control)
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Overleap
The Long-Jumper — reaches the gapped, longer hop the ordinary jump can't, clearing distance in a single leap (the long / gapped jump)
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Sidra
The Lane-Opener — plays the classic sideways-developing first moves that open the fastest lanes out of the home point (the opening)
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Caboose
The Straggler-Minder — never strands the last peg, because you only win when ALL ten reach home and the last one is hardest (leave no peg behind)
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Pacer
The Race-Counter — counts who reaches home first and spends every single move advancing, never idling (tempo / parity)
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Snugg
The Back-Filler — tucks pegs into the BACK of the target point first so incoming pegs are never blocked by ones already home (home-fill order)
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Trellis
The Bridge-Layer — places a peg NOW to enable a long chain LATER, setting up the ladder several turns ahead (deferred planning)
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Coattail
The Line-Rider — hops over ANYONE's pegs, yours or the opponent's, riding a rival's line as free stepping-stones (the shared ladder / opportunism)
Read chapter →
Cairn
The Pathfinding Coach — a warm trail-guide who marks the route like a stack of trail-stones and asks the learner to find the way, never walking it for them
Browse all chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Learning goal
Chinese Checkers (Sternhalma) — race your ten pegs across the six-point star to the far point, hopping over any peg in long jump-chains. Play the real 121-hole board against a graded computer or a friend. Plan the ladder, and leap.
On-device AI mentor
FoundationModels-powered hints, feedback, and adaptive difficulty — all running locally.
Mentored by Cairn — on-device AI, no data leaves the device.
How LeapTale 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
LeapTale 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
LeapTale 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