How we make Little Roos
Little Roos is made by Rupert Chesman, a filmmaker and educator in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. It's free, with no ads, no sign-ups and nothing collected, and every fact in it has a source you can check.
Who makes it
Rupert designs the games, writes the words and checks everything before it goes up. Little Roos Toys is a registered business name of Film Me Pty Ltd, ABN 57 612 132 395. You can find more about Rupert at rupertchesman.com.
Why it's free
So that any child can play, whatever their family can pay and whatever device they have. There is no paid tier and nothing to unlock. There is no advertising, and no third-party code runs on the site at all. The privacy page says exactly what's kept, which is only ever on your own device.
How the games are made
- One skill at a time. Every game practises skills tied to the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 and the Australian Curriculum v9, and each game's page names them and links to the official wording.
- No way to fail. A wrong tap is never counted against a child. Games step up after rounds that go well and quietly step back after hard ones.
- From two to eight. Tiny Steps and Big Steps make the same site right for a toddler and for a seven-year-old.
- Off the screen too. Every game, story and thing to make ends with something to do away from the screen.
- Australian animals only. A cast of 41 Australian animals, the same everywhere.
How facts are checked
Every fact a child hears, in the 3D body tours and on the animal cards, comes from a source a grown-up can read, mostly children's health and government health services, hospitals, museums, encyclopaedias and science textbooks. Each tour's guide lists its sources next to the facts. If a fact can't be sourced, it isn't used. Tours are written for five- to eight-year-olds, so some things are simplified, and each guide says which.
How AI is used
Much of Little Roos is built with the help of AI tools, including Anthropic's Claude for writing code and running the checks. Ruby Roo, the voice of the games, is an AI voice made with ElevenLabs; every line is checked by speech recognition, and the ones it mishears are listened to by a person. Talk's voices are made with ElevenLabs too. People decide what goes on the site, and every game, page and fact is checked before it's published.
Everyone can play
Every page is built to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA, and checked automatically each time the site is built. Every game can be played by touch, keyboard, switch or pointer, with calm motion, bigger pieces and a left-handed layout. Ways to play sets them up.
What's next
Watching children play, with families and in classrooms, and a review by an early childhood educator. What they find will be listed here.
Found a mistake?
Please tell us at roo@littleroos.com.au. A wrong fact is fixed before anything else.
Updated