Critter Billiards

About this game

Critter Billiards is a 3D billiards game for young children. The balls are critters with friendly faces (a frog, a chick, a piglet, a bear cub, a kitten, a ladybird, a whale, an owl, a bee and a mouse), and the white ball sends them into the pockets.

A shot is aimed and played in one movement: pull the white ball back like a slingshot and let go. How far it is pulled sets the power, so every shot needs both a direction and a strength. A dotted aiming line shows where the white ball will meet the first critter and where that critter will go; older children can switch to a short line that shows only the start of the path. There is also a power bar with buttons that turn the cue a little at a time, and on a computer the keyboard works too.

The Adventure has 15 small tables in three worlds: the Green Meadow, the Blue Sea and Candy Land. Some ask for every critter in a pocket, some for stars collected by rolling the white ball over them, some for a critter stopped gently inside its little house; on others some pockets have lids, or springy mushrooms stand in the way. Each table gives up to three stars for finishing in few shots. Nothing is ever lost, and every table can be tried again.

Two can play on one phone, tablet or computer, taking turns, each with an animal of their choice (a bunny, a fox, a panda, a penguin, a lion cub or a unicorn). Whoever pots a critter keeps it and shoots again; the one with more critters at the end wins. A match has 6 or 9 critters. A child can also play a match against a friendly robot, which misses more often when it is ahead.

Two devices can play together as well: one opens a game and shows a QR code and a six-digit code, the other joins with its camera or by typing the code. Only the shots travel between the devices: there is no chat and no names.

The game is in ten languages. Stars are saved in the browser; there is no account, no adverts and nothing to buy.