Kids Game Zone 🎮

A little offline learning arcade for the kids (around 3rd–4th grade): seven colorful single-page web games, plus one home page that links them all together. Everything runs on the home wifi from a single computer — the kids just open a link on their phones.

No frameworks, no build step, no internet needed: each game is one self-contained Python file that embeds its own HTML/CSS/JS and serves it with the standard-library http.server. Zero dependencies beyond Python 3.

🎮 The games

Open the Game Zone launcher and pick one — it links to every game:

http://<this-computer's-LAN-IP>:33275

File	Game	Port	What it practices
home.py	🎮 Game Zone (launcher)	33275	One link to all the games
mathstars.py	⭐ Math Stars	33276	Times tables, +/−/×/÷ flashcards
reading.py	📖 Story Time	33277	Reading comprehension
clockgame.py	⏰ Clock Stars	33278	Telling time (set the hands / read the clock)
mathquest.py	🧠 Math Quest	33279	Add/subtract word problems (friendly numbers)
geogame.py	🌍 Geo Stars	33280	50 US states (tappable map!) & 7 continents
sciencegame.py	🔬 Science Stars	33281	166-question science quiz
fractionsgame.py	🏭 Fractions Factory	33282	Fractions with pies & bars

✨ Shared features

• Phone-first design — rounded cards, big tap targets, playful colors & emoji.
• "Who's playing?" picker with a per-kid 🏆 high score (saved in the browser's localStorage).
• 3 hearts / 3 tries per question, confetti on a win, gentle hints on a miss.
• Each game has its own theme color and is pinned to a fixed port, so the links on the kids' phones never change.
• The launcher builds each link from the browser's current hostname, so it works from any phone on the wifi with no hardcoded IP.

🚀 Quick start

You only need Python 3 (3.8+). No pip install, no Node, nothing else.

git clone https://github.com/shortstack/kids-game-zone.git
cd kids-game-zone
./run_all.sh

run_all.sh starts all seven games and the launcher, then prints the link to open. Press Ctrl+C to stop everything.

Want just one game? Run its file directly — each one prints the LAN URL to open:

python3 mathstars.py     # Math Stars        -> :33276
python3 fractionsgame.py # Fractions Factory -> :33282

Every game binds to 0.0.0.0, so any phone/tablet on the same wifi can reach it at http://<this-computer's-ip>:<port>.

Find this computer's LAN IP:

hostname -I | awk '{print $1}'      # e.g. 192.168.1.61

Then on the kids' devices, open http://<that-ip>:33275 for the launcher.

🔧 Deploy as an always-on box (auto-start at boot)

For a machine that should always have the games running, install them as systemd user services — no sudo, and with lingering enabled they start at boot even before anyone logs in:

./install-services.sh

That script writes one unit per game to ~/.config/systemd/user/, enables and starts them, and turns on lingering. Afterwards:

systemctl --user status  fractionsgame.service   # check a game
systemctl --user restart fractionsgame.service   # after editing a game
systemctl --user restart homepage.service        # after adding a new tile

There is one service per game (mathgame, readinggame, clockgame, mathquest, geogame, sciencegame, fractionsgame) plus homepage for the launcher.

Firewall: if the host has a firewall, allow the game ports on the LAN, e.g. with ufw:

sudo ufw allow 33275:33282/tcp

📝 Notes

• The US states map in Geo Stars uses public-domain SVG path data (the classic 959×593 blank US map), embedded directly so the game needs no network.
• Adding a new game: copy the pattern, use the next port (33283), give it a systemd unit (or add it to install-services.sh), and add a tile to the GAMES array in home.py.

📄 License

MIT — see LICENSE. Made with love for the kids. 💛