Tip Tap lets toddlers tap the keys and move the mouse while something gentle happens on screen, with soft colours and quiet sounds. Three little games, a grown-up menu, and a gentle goodbye at the end.
Each key makes something soft and lovely happen. A key always does the same thing, so little ones can slowly learn what their fingers do.
Every key floats a soft shape onto the sky with a quiet tone: a circle, star, heart, rounded square, triangle or cloud. The same key always makes the same shape, colour and note, so “this key makes the blue star” becomes something to discover. In a timed game the sun rises, crosses the sky and sets as the time runs out, and then the moon comes up.
The keyboard becomes a soft xylophone. Keys on the left play low notes and keys on the right high ones, like a real one, and every note sends a ripple up from its chime bar. All the notes come from one gentle five-note scale, so whatever they play sounds pleasant.
A quiet night sky. Every key lights a soft star near where the key sits, with a high, gentle note, and the star twinkles slowly for a while before it fades. No letters, just starlight.
Many games for children are built to keep them playing. Tip Tap is built to do the opposite.
Muted pastels, slow floaty movement and quiet, rounded sounds. Nothing flashes, shakes or bursts.
No points, levels, unlocks or surprises, so there is never a reason to keep going for longer.
A gentle tap is the nicest way to play. A key held down plays once, and lots of keys at once give no more than two soft taps, so two can play together.
Each key always does the same thing, on every computer, so it can be learnt.
As the time runs out, everything slows and grows quieter, and the session ends with a calm “All done! Goodbye.” under the moon.
The volume is capped, and more tapping never makes anything louder, faster or busier.
Choose Shapes, Tunes or Stars and how long to play: 1, 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes, or no limit. When the time is up, the game winds down and says goodbye, and stays there until you come back to the menu.
Tip Tap fills every screen and keeps system shortcuts away from little hands, so they can’t close it, switch apps or reach the desktop by accident.
Hold Ctrl + Shift + Q for three seconds to come back to the menu. In the menu every button needs three clicks in a row, so stray clicks and taps do nothing.
With two monitors the games stretch across both, and Tunes becomes one long xylophone.
No accounts and no ads. Tip Tap works without the internet.
Toddlers and young children who love tapping on a keyboard, and the grown-ups who would rather they did it somewhere safe and calm.
Not by tapping, mashing or clicking. A few key combinations belong to the computer itself and can’t be blocked by any app, such as Ctrl + Alt + Delete on Windows, but they take a deliberate effort.
Hold Ctrl + Shift + Q for three seconds. On a Mac too, it is the Ctrl key, not ⌘. A small ring in the corner fills while you hold. In the menu, the same hold quits Tip Tap, or click Quit three times.
Yes. Tip Tap covers every screen, so there is nothing behind it to click, and the games spread across them.
For macOS, Windows and Linux.