Tiny Twigs Studio

An independent games studio

Kind, fair games for kids

We make gentle games that children love to come back to, and that grown-ups can trust. No ads, nothing random for sale, and the grown-ups hold the settings.

Meet our games For families

Our games

Maatjie Arena

Five round, smiling Maatjie pets in yellow, blue, green, grey and red standing together on a sunny fairground stage.

Maatjie Arena

Hatch it. Raise it. Cheer it on!

Hatch an egg and raise a cute pet as it grows up over a few days. Feed it, play mini-games, dress it up and choose its room. Then add friends with a private code and join friendly, turn-based pet battles, where clever play matters more than time spent.

"Maatjie" is Afrikaans for "little buddy".

  • Free to play
  • Plays in a web browser
  • Android app on the way
  • No chat
  • Coming soon

Maatjie Arena is getting ready for its first players. Its website, with a guide for grown-ups and its privacy policy, opens when the game does.

  • A pet at home in its room, with its care meters.
  • The wardrobe, where a pet tries on outfits.
  • A friendly turn-based battle between two pets.

More games will grow here. Every one of them will follow the same rules as Maatjie Arena.

How we make games

Our promises to families

  • No ads in our games

    Children play without adverts interrupting them, and there's never a "watch an ad for a reward".

  • Nothing random for sale

    No loot boxes and no paid surprises. Anything with a price shows exactly what you get before you buy it.

  • Never pay-to-win

    Things to buy are only for looks. Winning comes from caring for your pet and playing cleverly, never from spending.

  • No pressure

    No countdown timers and no limited-time deals, ever. Nothing with a price disappears to rush you.

  • Safe with friends

    No chat. Friends join with a private code, nicknames are filtered and can be reported, and battles with strangers stay anonymous.

  • Grown-ups in charge

    Grown-up settings sit behind a grown-up check. Online status stays off unless a grown-up turns it on.

More for parents and carers

About the studio

Every big tree starts as a tiny twig

Tiny Twigs Studio is a small, independent games studio in South Africa. We make games for children that are gentle, fair and full of little surprises to discover, and we put grown-ups in charge of the parts that matter, like friends and online status.

Our games are drawn in one soft, rounded style, with no scary monsters and no sharp edges. Every result is worked out on our own server, so nobody can cheat their way to the top.

Say hello

Questions, ideas, press or business: we'd love to hear from you. For help with a game, or to ask about a player's data, write to us too, and tell us which game it's about.

[email protected] Press kit