Catch the Frog
A free game where a frog sits on a lily pad and hops to another one. Tap it and it hops. Leave it alone and it hops anyway, so nothing here can really be missed.
- Free
- No ads
- No account
- No download
- Works offline
- Single player
How do you play?
- Pick a level - Easy, medium or hard. Pad count and hop speed both change.
- Find the frog - It is sitting on one of the pads, waiting.
- Tap it - One tap. It hops to a different pad, never the same one.
- Finish the round - Six to ten catches depending on the level, then you move up.
About this game
A frog on a pad. Tap it, and it hops somewhere else. That is the whole game.
What holds it together is that failing is not available. A frog nobody touched hops on its own, so what looks like a miss is simply the next hop. A three-year-old does not experience one moment of frustration here, because there is no state in this game where something bad happens. A round ends after six to ten catches depending on the level, and every catch moves you toward it.
There is a number here we did not know until we measured it. The frog's sitting time shrinks with every hop, down to a floor it never goes below. On easy you get 2.94 seconds to aim at the first hop and 2.49 at the last one of the round, while the floor of 1.74 seconds arrives only after fourteen hops. The round ends after six. Which means that on easy and on medium, a child never once meets the fastest frog the level is capable of producing. Only hard gets there, at the eighth hop out of ten.
That floor is a safety limit rather than a taste one. A frog sitting for less time than a child needs to see it, decide, and land a finger does not make the game hard. It makes the round impossible to finish, and leaves a small child tapping at a screen with no way out of it.
Two small rules keep the thing coherent. The frog never hops onto the pad it is already on, because a child who watched something happen and saw nothing change concludes the game is stuck. And there is exactly one frog, always. The levels change how many pads there are: four, five or six.
What does it teach?
Visual tracking
The eye has to find a target that moved somewhere new, which is exactly the exercise.
Finger accuracy
Seeing where it went is not the same as getting there. Two different skills.
Persistence without punishment
Every hop is a fresh chance, so a child keeps trying without anybody needing to encourage them.
Anticipation
After a few hops you start guessing where it will go, which is where strategy begins.
Tips
Watch the empty pads
It will not return to the pad it is on, so the next hop is always one of the others. That shrinks the search.
Rest your hand in the middle
A finger waiting at the centre reaches any pad faster than one left where the last catch happened.
Do not rush the opening
The first hops of a round are deliberately slow. Use them to learn where the pads are.
Only hard reaches full speed
It is the one level where the frog hits its maximum inside a single round, and that happens at the eighth hop.
What age is it for?
2 to 3
Easy. Four pads and nearly three seconds per hop, with no pressure at all.
4 to 5
Easy alone, then medium once that starts feeling slow.
6 and up
Hard. Six pads and a frog that genuinely reaches its top speed.
Parents
There is nothing here that can be lost, so this is one you can hand over and walk away from.
Accessibility
One tap, no dragging and no holding. The frog is larger than 2cm square on any screen and the pads are spaced far enough apart that an imprecise tap still lands on the right one. The frog differs from the pad in shape rather than only in colour. There is no clock, no countdown and nothing that flashes, and even the fastest level leaves more than a second to aim. The whole game plays in silence without losing any information.
Playing together
Guess the pad
Point at where you think it will land before tapping. Nobody is right very often.
Take turns catching
One catch each. Same round, two pairs of eyes.
Count the pads
With a young child, count the lily pads before starting. Four, five or six depending on the level.
One eye closed
A silly challenge that changes the game completely and makes everyone laugh.
Common questions
Is the frog game free?
Completely. Nothing to pay and no purchases inside the game. Every game on the site is open from the first second.
Do I need to download or sign up?
No to both. It runs in the browser with no download and no account, and we do not ask for an email.
What happens if my child does not catch it in time?
It hops by itself and play continues. No score drops and there are no lives, so a miss is simply the next hop.
Does it get too fast for a small child?
There is a floor the frog never speeds past, and even the fastest level leaves more than a second to aim. On easy and medium the round actually ends before the frog reaches its full speed at all.
Are there ads?
None. No banners and no video between levels.
Does it work offline?
Yes. After one visit the game is stored on the device and runs on a plane.
How many catches finish a round?
Six on easy, eight on medium and ten on hard. After that you move up a level and the next round starts slightly faster.
Can it hop onto the same pad twice in a row?
Never. A child who watched a hop and saw nothing change on screen concludes the game is stuck, so that rule is enforced in code rather than left to luck.
What age is this for?
From about two on easy. There is no reading anywhere and the only requirement is touching something that moves.
Does it collect data about my child?
No. There is no signup and no name. No session recording and no behavioural advertising. We count how many times a game was opened, with nothing attached that identifies who opened it.