Making a game starring your kids: a parent's guide (safety first)

Kids love seeing themselves in things. Their name iced on a cake, their drawing on the fridge, and best of all, themselves as a cartoon, flapping through a sky full of birthday balloons while their little brother heckles from the sidelines. It’s a lovely gift. It’s also your child’s face, so it’s completely fair to want to know exactly what happens to it before you press anything.

So this guide does the sensible part first: who’s allowed to make the game, what happens to the photos, who can see it, and how to share it without it ending up somewhere you didn’t intend. Then the fun part: ideas by age, birthday parties, letting the kids write the jokes, and a family battle in which the children are, accurately, the final boss.

Who makes the game: the grown-up does the account

The rules here are short and simple.

• Under-13s can’t make an account. You must be 13 or over to sign up, so a parent or guardian makes the game for younger children. They can (and should) sit next to you and choose everything.
• Only the parent or guardian, or someone with their permission. You can only upload a photo of a child if you’re their parent or guardian, or have their parent’s or guardian’s permission. Grandparents, aunties, godparents and family friends: ask first. “Can I turn the kids into cartoons for Grandad’s birthday?” is a ten-second text.
• The same goes for other people’s children. Cousins, best mates, the whole football team: their parent says yes, or they aren’t in it.
• Pick a photo of only the people who should be in it. If a friend’s child is in the background of the perfect picture, choose a different picture.
• No famous faces. Celebrities, footballers and other public figures can’t be characters, however much your child would love their hero as a cameo.

The good news is you can try everything before a single photo goes anywhere. Building and previewing games is free with demo characters, with no sign-up and no card, so the kids can test-drive game styles while you decide.

Ask them first (especially the older ones)

Permission from a parent is the rule. Asking the child is the kind thing to do. A toddler can’t really weigh in, but a seven-year-old can, an eleven-year-old definitely should, and a teenager’s answer is final.

A few ways to make asking easy:

• Show them a demo game first. It’s much easier to say yes to something you’ve seen than to “a game with your face in it”.
• Offer choices, not a yes or no. Hero, cameo or final boss? Most children will negotiate for hero.
• Let them choose how they’re shown. They pick the photo, the nickname and the look.
• Take no gracefully. If they’d rather not, the dog can star instead (pets make excellent characters), or you can put the grown-ups in and let the kids play.

What happens to the photos, and who can see the game

This is the part most parents want spelled out, so here it is plainly.

• The photo is deleted. You upload a photo and say who’s who, and in a minute or two we draw each person as a cartoon in a standing pose and an action pose, facing both ways. The original photo is deleted as soon as the characters are made. We keep the cartoon, not the photo.
• The game is unlisted. Only people with the link can play. It isn’t listed anywhere and isn’t indexed by search engines.
• No trackers, no cookies. Playing the game doesn’t follow anyone around the internet.
• Always family mode. Characters made from photos of children are always in family mode, so the jokes stay clean. Cheeky mode exists for adults making games about other adults, and it’s simply not available when children are in the game. Our guide to cheeky mode vs family mode explains the difference.
• You can delete it. Any game, any time.

The full details are in our privacy policy and the acceptable use policy. For the photo itself, a clear, everyday picture works best, and there are more tips in photo tips for cartoon characters. One extra suggestion for children: pick a photo without a school badge or anything else that says where they go to school.

Names, leaderboards and who to share with

Every published game gets its own permanent link (a long random address that’s free and doesn’t give anything away) and its own leaderboard. With a plan you can also give a game a custom link, like yourname.become.games, which is where a bit of care helps. A few habits keep things tidy:

• First names or nicknames in the title and any custom link. “Super Millie” is great. Her full name, school and town are not needed, in the title or the web address.
• Nicknames on the leaderboard. Players type a name when they post a score. Suggest the kids use nicknames (“Captain Crumbs”, “Speedy Gran”) rather than full names, and the same goes for anyone else playing. Leaderboard nicknames follow the same content rules as everything else on the site.
• Share with people you’d invite round for tea. The family group chat, grandparents, godparents, close friends. Unlisted means anyone with the link can play, and links can be forwarded, so treat it a bit like a spare key.
• Keep it off public social media. Posting the link publicly undoes the point of it being unlisted.
• Change your mind whenever you like. Editing is free and instant even after sharing, and the link stays the same. If you’d rather it didn’t exist at all, delete it.

Pro tip: Before you share, read every line of the game out loud as if your child’s teacher were listening. If anything makes you wince, edit it. It takes seconds and nobody with the link will ever know.

For the practical side of links, QR codes and reveals, see how to share your game.

Game ideas by age

What works for a three-year-old (who will mostly lick the tablet) is very different from what works for a twelve-year-old (who will find your high score and destroy it). Here’s a rough guide.

Age	Who it’s really for	Best game style	Win level	Try this
Toddlers (up to 4)	Proud grandparents, aunties and godparents	Flappy flyer	5 points, the lowest setting	The toddler flapping through balloons to a group hug
5 to 8	The child, with a bit of help	Flappy flyer or platformer	Their age (flappy) or a low coin target	A birthday game with the win level set to their age
9 to 12	The child and their siblings	Platformer or arena battle	The default, or harder	Kids write the jokes and a parent is the end boss
Teens (13 and over)	Only if they’re up for it	Arena battle or story climber	High, for leaderboard bragging	An exam survival game, or a climber for an 18th

Toddlers: games for the proud grandparents

Little ones won’t really play (random tapping counts), so the game is mostly for the adults who adore them. A flappy flyer in the birthday look with the cake smash ending is hard to beat. Or try a story climber with milestones from their short but eventful life: the year they were born, first steps, first word, first trip to the seaside. Grandparents will be climbing it on the bus.

5 to 8: they can play it themselves

This is the sweet spot. The flappy flyer is one tap, and the platformer has big on-screen touch controls on phones and levels that are always beatable. Put siblings in together and let them pick each other on the character select screen. The endless runner works well too: their character runs on their own, so the only jobs are tapping to jump and sliding under the low stuff, and you can set the finish as short as 200 metres so they reach whoever is waiting at the end. Got siblings who race everywhere anyway? The kart racer puts the whole family in tiny karts that drive themselves, so the only jobs are hopping hazards and grabbing item boxes; set it to one or two laps for little ones. There’s a ready-made starting point in our birthday game for kids.

9 to 12: let them co-direct

Hand over the decisions. They choose the game style, the look, the ending and, crucially, the jokes (see below). The arena battle has auto-aim for beginners and twin-stick controls for show-offs, and the Halloween look with wobbly cartoon zombies is a big hit at this age.

Teenagers: ask, then ask again

Teenagers are 13 or over, so they can make their own account, and they may well prefer to make a game about you. If they are happy to star, a graduation game for kids with exam papers to dodge and coffee to collect makes a decent end-of-exams treat, and a story climber is a lovely way to mark an 18th. There are more ideas in milestone birthday ideas.

Birthday party ideas

A game starring the birthday child gives a party something to gather round, and a leaderboard gives it a competition.

1. Set the win level to their age. It’s a flappy flyer tradition: 7 points for a seventh birthday. After the win it keeps going in endless mode, so the high score race carries on.
2. Make the birthday child the hero and their siblings cameos, with Mum or Dad as the final boss in the platformer.
3. Run a leaderboard tournament. Guests play on a tablet or a parent’s phone, and the top score at cake time wins a prize. Guests playing is fine. Putting guests in the game needs their parents’ permission.
4. Do a big reveal. Show the game on a tablet just before the candles, or print a QR code on a sign by the cake.
5. Think twice about party bags. A QR code in every party bag sends the link to every family in the class. If you’d like that, consider a separate party-only game: characters you’ve made can be reused in other games, building one takes a couple of minutes, and you can delete it after the party.

The funny birthday surprise ideas guide has plenty more for the day itself.

Let the kids write the jokes

Every game comes with funny lines already written for it: the intro, little quips during play, game-over roasts and the ending message. You can change any of it, and this is where children shine. Nobody roasts a parent quite like their own child.

Some kid-style lines to get them going:

• “Game over. Dad has fallen asleep on the sofa again.”
• “You crashed into a balloon. This is why we can’t have nice things.”
• “Achievement unlocked: ate all the cake. Shared none.”
• “That wasn’t a power-up. That was the dog.”
• “Mum says she’s not competitive. Mum has played this 46 times.”

A couple of house rules help. Keep it kind (laughing with, not at), and remember the content rules apply: very mild words like “fart” and “bum” are fine, which in practice means at least half of the jokes will be about farts. Let them write the ending message themselves, spelling and all, within reason.

First day at school (and other firsts)

Big firsts make lovely games, especially for relatives who can’t be there in person.

• A first day at school climber. A story climber with milestones from birth to book bag: born, first steps, first word, first holiday, first day at nursery, first day at school. The family waits at the top with an ending message like “We’re so proud of you. Have the best first day.”
• A send-off for the summer holidays. A flappy flyer in the summer look, dodging seagulls and collecting ice creams, to play the night before the new term.
• Other firsts worth a game. The first lost tooth, the first swimming badge, the first time they rode a bike without stabilisers, or the last day of primary school.

Send it to the grandparents on the morning itself. It makes the photo by the front door feel like part of a bigger story.

A family arena battle with the kids as the boss

This is the one that causes the most noise in the house. In the arena battle, the player fights through waves of themed bots, and the boss on the final wave is one of your cast. Make one of the children the boss and the grown-ups the heroes. It’s the most realistic game ever made.

• The set-up. Mum and Dad are playable, and one of the kids appears as the final-wave boss. Pick the Christmas look for naughty elves and snowballs, or Halloween for zombies.
• The win level. Three rounds by default, and you can pick anything from 1 to 5. Keep it at 1 or 2 if the youngest is playing.
• Take turns being the boss. Make one version per child. Characters are reused, so each extra game takes a couple of minutes, and nobody can claim it’s unfair.
• Settle it on the leaderboard. The whole family plays, the scores go up, and the dinner table debate begins.

Pro tip: Let the child who plays the boss write the game-over roasts in their own words. Being flattened by your eight-year-old and then told “Too slow, old man” is worth the price of admission on its own.

Before you send it: a quick checklist

Run through this once and you’re done:

1. You’re the parent or guardian, or you have their permission.
2. Any child old enough to have an opinion has said yes.
3. The title, any custom link and the leaderboard names use first names or nicknames.
4. You’ve read every line out loud and you’re happy with it.
5. The win level is low enough for the youngest player to see the ending.
6. You’re sharing with family and friends you trust, not posting it publicly.
7. You know you can edit, re-theme or delete it any time.

That’s the sensible bit covered. The rest is just making something your kids will be proud to star in. If the grandparents are on the guest list, our ideas for keeping in touch with grandparents pair nicely with this. When you’re ready, see how it works or check the plans and pricing.