Calm Machines
A Lion's North venture: quiet, repetitive, ad-free games for children who love machines. Founded by a father for his autistic son.
Vacuum
The first title. A vacuum, a floor, and as long as you want. Nothing is chasing you and nothing ends.
Commitments
- No ads of any kind.
- No paywalls and no in-app purchases.
- No loot boxes and no reward traps.
- No accounts and no logins.
- No data collected from children.
How these games are designed
I build a predictable loop that repeats, and I make the return itself the reward, so nothing depends on novelty arriving. There are no timers, no scores, and no failure states, which means there is nothing to lose and no reason to brace. The machine sounds are real recordings captured low, and the volume is set by whoever is playing. Interaction is one finger with no dexterity floor, so a small hand or a tired hand plays the same game as anyone else. Progression is customization, because choosing a color is agency without pressure. No ads, no popups, no notifications, no accounts.
Coming next
Street sweepers, tornados, whirlpools, diggers, leaf blowers, and lawnmowers. An Android version is forthcoming.
Plainly stated
These are play, not therapeutic intervention. No clinical claims are made, no outcome claims are made, and no claim is made about benefit to any diagnosis.
This work sits alongside Apple platform game development on the Lion’s North side.