How we decide what makes a Sketchpad Arcade game
October 8, 2026
Sketchpad Arcade is run by a dad of four, and the first question about any game is whether we would be happy with our own kids playing it. That turns into a short list of rules, and every game on the site has to pass all of them.
The rules
Family-friendly, always. No violence beyond a cartoon bonk, nothing scary, and nothing you would not want on the screen with a six-year-old next to you.
No gambling mechanics. No loot boxes, no spinning wheels, no fake currencies you buy with real money. Progress is earned by playing.
Nothing to install and nobody to sign up. Every game runs in the browser, and your scores and progress are saved on your own device, not on our servers.
Original work. We happily borrow mechanics, because a bubble shooter is a bubble shooter, but every character, drawing and word list on the site is ours. We never use another game's name, art or text.
Drawn by hand. The whole site is meant to look like a page from a kid's sketchbook, so every game's art is pencil on paper, with dark outlines and coloured-pencil inside.
How a game gets here
New games start on a private preview where we play them, usually with the kids, for a few days. Most get changes, some get sent back, and the ones that stick around get their own pencil cover before they go live. The games you see in the New This Week row are the survivors.
If you think something on the site breaks one of these rules, tell us from the contact page. We would rather hear about it than not.