There are a lot of ways to start a game project.
Mine started because my daughter wanted a turtle game that didn’t exist.
My daughter especially missed Cranky and kept talking about how she wished there were a game where she could take care of him in a safe place. My son missed him too. I went looking to see what was out there, and what I found was… not much. Certainly nothing that felt like what she was imagining.
So I told her I’d will it into existence.
That was the beginning of Cranky’s Game.
Cranky was not just “a turtle we had once.” He became part of the family almost immediately. We’ve had plenty of animals in our house over the years — toads, frogs, geckos, lizards, anoles, snakes, and of course a dog — but Cranky was different. He had an unusual amount of personality for a turtle, was incredibly gentle with the kids, and somehow always felt present. We have hours of videos of our kids playing with him, taking care of him, and just hanging out with him.
And for our family, that mattered.
The last several years brought a lot of change for us. Between COVID, work, and multiple moves, the kids had been through more disruption than I ever wanted for them. In the middle of all of that, Cranky showed up at just the right time. He was calm. He was gentle. He was steady. He became a small but very real source of comfort and joy for the kids.
When my daughter started asking for a turtle game where she could care for Cranky, I realized she wasn’t just asking for entertainment. She was asking for a way to hold onto something she loved.
At first, I didn’t even fully know what the game would become. I just started by building the way the kids would interact with Cranky. One thing I knew early was that a pond had to be part of it. From there, the world started to grow. I asked my daughter what kinds of places she thought Cranky should visit, and she gave me the first four. From there, the sanctuary expanded.
What I wanted was simple: a game that was interactive and fun, but not scary.
I didn’t want violence. I didn’t want constant pressure. I definitely didn’t want the kind of design where kids are pushed into daily logins, endless urgency, or feeling like they need to spend money just to make the game more enjoyable. A lot of games seem designed to keep kids wound up, always chasing the next thing. I wanted the opposite.
I wanted wonder. I wanted happiness. I wanted something kids could enjoy when they wanted to interact with it, and something they could put down at any time without being punished for it.
That’s really the heart of Cranky’s Game. The sanctuary was never meant to be only for the turtles. It was meant to be a sanctuary for the kids playing, too.
That idea shaped more than just the look and feel of the game. It shaped the social side too. One of the things that always stood out to me about other kids’ games was how little thought seemed to go into helping parents actually stay connected to the experience.
Kids are pushed toward games because “everyone else is playing it,” but those same games often come with an upfront cost, a subscription, or a system that seems designed to make the experience less fun unless you keep paying.
I wanted to try something different.
I also wanted a game where parents had a real way to stay connected to the broader community around their kids. Too often, kids’ online experiences happen in isolation. I thought there should be a better way for families to know one another and stay part of the social fabric of what their children are doing online.
Cranky’s Game is built around the idea that kids should be able to have fun social experiences, but in a way that keeps parents involved too. Not because everything has to feel tense or over-controlled, but because healthy communities usually work better when families can actually connect with other families. The internet has done a pretty good job of pulling people apart and trapping everyone in their own little screen-shaped bubbles. If a game can help nudge people back together — even if that starts online — I think that’s worth building.
And honestly, this project became something meaningful for me too.
Years ago, I did website work, graphic design, and some coding, but nothing remotely on this scale. Cranky’s Game has gone far beyond what my own personal coding skills would have allowed me to build alone. It has taken a lot of iteration, a lot of imagination, and a lot of help. But it has also given me the chance to bring Cranky back to life in a new way — not just for my kids, but hopefully for other kids too.
That has been a surprisingly calm place for me as well.
So that’s Cranky’s Game in its simplest form: a turtle, a sanctuary, a family story, and an attempt to build something gentler than what kids are usually handed online.
My sweet angel asked for a game where she could care for Cranky again.
This is my answer.