Feelings — show how you feel, without words
Feelings is a little toy for children who can't read yet, roughly three to six years old. In the middle of the screen sits a round, soft little friend. Around it float six big bubbles, each with a face: yellow joy, blue sadness, red anger, purple fear, green disgust and orange surprise. There is nothing to read anywhere, not even on the buttons: everything is understood by looking and touching.
How to play
Touch a bubble, or drag it onto the little friend: it swallows the bubble, the colour floods through its body and its whole face changes. Then keep your finger pressed on it, or rub it, and the feeling grows under your finger: it puffs up, the colour gets stronger, the face exaggerates. A little anger is a bit pink; a huge anger is bright red, with smoke and trembling. Great joy makes it hop around in confetti, great sadness brings big tears and a small rain cloud. You can also grab it and pull it like slime: it stretches toward your finger, and the bubble you pull toward gives the feeling. Pull a little toward yellow and it smiles, pull all the way and it bursts with joy; pull toward blue and it gets sadder the further you stretch. The little dots under its feet light up one by one to show how strong the feeling is. Already feeling something? Pull toward another bubble and the new feeling slowly mixes in with the one that is there: half yellow, half blue, smiling through its tears, or half red, half purple, cross and scared at once. Stretch all the way to the bubble and the new feeling takes over; touch a bubble to switch straight away. Already two? Pull toward a third and it swirls in too. The whole world reacts: joy grows flowers and a rainbow, sadness brings rain clouds, anger a red storm with lightning, fear turns the lights out and little eyes blink in the dark. And every mix makes it do something of its own, the way real mixed feelings do: cross and grossed out, it blows a big raspberry with green steam coming out of its ears; happy and cross, it grows little devil horns and giggles; sad and cross, it sulks under its very own storm cloud; scared and sad, it shrinks and fireflies come to keep it company; sad and surprised, its ice cream falls on the ground… Nobody tells you which ones to try: find them by playing. Each one you find appears as a little picture at the top, and touching it plays it again. When you let go, it snaps back like jelly and the feeling stays exactly where you left it. To come back to calm, stroke it slowly, shake the phone, or touch the round calm face at the bottom: it slowly settles back to its quiet, creamy self.
Why it's satisfying
Everything answers the finger at once: the jelly body wobbles and dents, each step of the feeling plays a soft note and a small vibration on phones that allow it, and every emotion has its own sounds and its own little show. It is a game, not a lesson: no questions, no advice, no right answer. A child can simply show how big a feeling is.
About
Feelings is part of Alcy, fifty-three free contemplative micro-games in your browser. Nothing a child does here is saved or sent anywhere. For more calm: Breath, Bubble Pop, Sheep.