For parents
A parent's guide to Hoops & Hues
Hoops & Hues is a small, hand-illustrated family of basketball browser games for kids aged roughly 4–10, made by one artist. This page is the grown-up briefing: what the games collect (very little), what they quietly teach, and how to pick the right one for your child.
The short version
- Every game is free, runs in the browser, and needs no download, account or password.
- Progress, artwork and best scores are saved on your own device — nothing follows your child around the internet.
- Leaderboards store only a nickname and a score. Games even suggest a silly basketball nickname so kids never need to type a real name.
- Analytics are minimal, aggregated and consent-based; declining the cookie banner changes nothing about the games.
- Every game plays in English, Spanish and French, on phones, tablets and desktops alike.
Which game for which kid?
| Game | Sweet spot | What it practices |
|---|---|---|
| Coloring | 4+, no time pressure at all | Color recognition, fine motor control, creative confidence |
| Match Madness | 5+, short rounds | Short-term memory, focus, turn-taking patience |
| Flip Squad | 5+, gentle pace | Visual comparison, part–whole thinking, deduction |
| Pick & Roll | 6+, sit-down puzzle | Spatial reasoning, shape recognition, planning |
| AirBall | 7+, quick reflex runs | Timing, hand–eye coordination, handling small setbacks |
Every game ships with a relaxed Rookie division tuned for younger players — fewer pieces, sneak peeks, no penalties — so a five-year-old and a nine-year-old can play the same game and both feel like MVPs.
Privacy, in plain words
No game asks for an email address, a real name, a photo or a location. There are no chat features and no way for strangers to contact your child. The one shared surface is the leaderboard, which shows chosen nicknames and scores only — and nicknames pass a family-safe filter on our servers before they are saved. Our privacy policycovers the details, and each game's own site repeats them.
About screen time
Rounds are deliberately short: a Match Madness rookie game takes about two minutes, a puzzle ten, an AirBall run often less than one. There are no energy systems, no daily-streak guilt mechanics, no notifications — nothing engineered to keep kids playing longer than they want to. When the round ends, it ends; the fun off-screen continues in the printable coloring book if you want it to.
Questions parents actually ask
Do the games show advertising?
Not today. If family-friendly, non-personalized ads are introduced in the future, they will follow the strictest child-directed rules: no behavioral profiling, no personalized targeting, and clear consent controls for grown-ups.
Can my child play without me setting anything up?
Yes. There is nothing to install, no account to create and no settings screen to get lost in — opening a game in the browser is the whole setup. The only optional input in any game is a leaderboard nickname.
How do you make money if everything is free?
The project is funded by our printable basketball coloring book on Etsy. You will see it mentioned once per game — that single, clearly-labelled link is what keeps the games free.