STEM
PathPals
Drag the steps, run them, and guide your friend along the path — then fix it when it goes wrong — early coding with Roami the fox, for ages 5–8.
▶ 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.
#3AAE9E Characters who teach
Meet the cast
PathPals lets the youngest learners build a little sequence of steps, run it, and guide a friend along a path — then fix it when a step is wrong. Roami the fox is the hero; the cast are Roami's friends, each holding one piece of an algorithm. Reading-free, spoken, and a mistake is just a friendly 'let's try again.'
Roami
Plan + debug — a fox who plans a path then fixes it when a step goes wrong; planning-and-fixing IS computational thinking
Read chapter →
Steppa
Single-step sequencing — a heron who takes exactly one step per command; one command, one move
Read chapter →
Twirl
Directionality — an owl who turns left or right to face a new way
Read chapter →
Loopy
Repetition / loops — a cricket who repeats a step-group; the repeat IS a loop
Read chapter →
Browse all chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Learning goal
Drag the steps, run them, and guide your friend along the path — then fix it when it goes wrong — early coding with Roami the fox, for ages 5–8.
How PathPals 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
PathPals 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
PathPals 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