The leaving card is signed. The cake is cut. Now give your mum a retirement game she’ll actually remember. Your mum has kept every wonky drawing you ever made. Time to upgrade: make her the hero of an actual video game.
Our pick: story climber with the Retirement theme. Your mum dodges alarm clocks and emails, grabs golf balls and pints, and the game finishes with a high five ending carrying your own message. Every line is pre-written and funny out of the box, and you can change any of it.
Idea 1
A gentle, heartfelt climb through the years. Bring tissues for the ending.
Sample lines
Idea 2
One tap to play, so your mum can pick it up in seconds and then spend an hour trying to beat it.
Sample lines
Idea 3
For when your mum deserves a full hero’s journey: coins, power-ups and a boss fight.
Sample lines
Make Mum the hero and put the rest of the family along the way as cheering (or chore-dodging) cameos.
Pick a game style and the Retirement theme in the app, play it free with demo characters, then upload a photo of your mum to turn her into a cartoon character. Name the game, pick a link like yourname.become.games and send it. It takes about five minutes.
Yes. Put the QR code on a screen or card and everyone can play from their phones. The leaderboard keeps the competition going.
Yes. She just taps the link. There’s nothing to install or sign up for, and the flappy game uses a single tap. You can also print the QR code in a card so she can scan it with her phone camera.
Yes. The story climber has up to 12 milestones, each with a year and caption.
Making, playing and publishing games is free. To turn your own photos into characters you need a plan: £3.49 a month (2 characters in month one) or £19.99 a year (10 characters up front). Plans also unlock custom game links. Cancel any time.
Free to build and play. Turn your people into characters when you’re happy with it.