About

a small game about a big habit

Curious Kea is made by Matt, a parent in Aotearoa New Zealand, with a lot of help from two children aged six and eight who test every expedition before it goes out and are not shy about what is boring. It is written and drawn by hand, in a notebook first, and then made to work in a browser.

Why

Children are told a great many things and are very rarely shown how anyone knows them. The habit this game practises is small and portable: what do I think, where did that come from, how sure am I, how would I check, and what would change my mind. It is the same habit whether the question is what made a footprint or whether the thing you just read is true. Seven-year-olds are naturals at it, given a story to do it in.

Why a kea, and why a rock

The kea is a mountain parrot from the South Island: clever, curious, destructive in a friendly way, and famous for taking things apart to see what they are. It also hides a flash of orange under its wing that you only see when it flies. That flash is the game's one colour: it appears at the moment the crew works something out.

Rock is a boulder that has been in its valley for a very long time and keeps records of everything it has seen. Only what it has seen. It is not an oracle; it is a witness with limits, and it says so. Kea has the theories; Rock has the records; the child in the middle gets to decide. How Rock came to be under the wrong mountain is a mystery the crew took five expeditions to solve.

Where it is up to

Seven expeditions in four packs, with more on the shelf. Everything is free to play in the browser, works offline once loaded, and collects nothing. Every expedition has a card for grown-ups. It is early: if something is confusing, wrong, or too long, that is useful to hear.

Start at the top; each one stands on its own too.

Get in touch

Write to [email protected]. A person reads it. His name is Matt.