About us
Our mission
We help kids grow up as creators of technology, not just users of it. Every game starts with a kid's idea, and turning that idea into something real teaches the skills they'll need: STEM thinking, working with AI, clear prompting and understanding automation.
Kids today will work alongside AI their whole lives. We think the best way to get ready is to build with it early, safely and with a grown-up close by, and to learn that the most important part is still their own imagination and judgment.
What kids learn here
- AI literacy
Thinking about AI
What AI is, what it's good at, where it gets things wrong, and why a person stays in charge of it.
Kids type
/report the helper made the wrong game - Language
Prompting
Turning a fuzzy idea into clear instructions, then checking the result and asking again.
Kids type
make the goat jump higher and add lava rocks - Computer science
Automation
How computers follow steps exactly, and how rules, loops and events make a game run by itself.
Kids type
every 10 seconds, drop more stars - Engineering
Engineering habits
Build, test, find the bug, fix it, try again. One small change at a time.
Kids type
/fixbug the score doesn't reset - Art and design
Design and creativity
Inventing characters, worlds and rules, and making something fun for other people to play.
Kids type
make the hero a dragon
How we do it
- The Family Plan. Kids describe a game in their own words and a kid-safe AI helper builds it with them. They learn to prompt, test and improve, and parents see every idea they type. See the Family Plan
- The free arcade. Short games that each started as a kid's idea, free to play with no ads and no sign-up. Kids' best games can join it. Play the arcade
- Free lessons for schools and groups. Printable plans for ages 3 to 12 on AI thinking, ideation, prompt writing and game design, and every one works without devices. For schools
- Guides for parents. Plain-language help with talking to kids about AI, explaining automation and the tech skills that matter. All parent guides
What we promise
- No ad networks, ever
- No selling or sharing data
- No chat and no strangers
- A real person reviews every game before it's published
How we handle information is in our privacy notice and the Family Plan's kids' privacy notice.
Who we are
Kids Game Arcade started at home. It's built by SOEngineered LLC, operated by Scott O'Connor, a dad with an extensive software engineering background who now works in engineering management. Scott has built public web apps, mobile applications and classic native applications, including apps for kids at Playrific, and has worked with schools, public libraries and museums on kiosks and other educational technology that bridges learning and play.
At home, Scott's kids kept putting in feature requests. A game where a goat climbs a mountain. A turkey that flies. A dragon, but make it purple. A level where the floor is lava, and also the ceiling. Every request came with a deadline of "right now", and none of them came with a budget.
Somewhere around the hundredth "can you make it so…", the requests changed. They stopped asking Scott to build their games and started asking how to build them themselves. As any engineering manager will tell you, that's the best thing a team can ever ask.
That's what this is for: a safe place where kids turn their ideas into real games, learn how the technology works by using it, and share what they make.
Questions, ideas, or a game your kid dreamed up? Send us a message.