For parents

What your child is doing in BitKoi

Your child looks after koi in a pond, breeds them, and builds a garden around them. Nothing in the game fights, gets hurt or dies, even if nobody feeds the koi for a while.

Talking to other people

There is no chat. Players cannot send messages to each other, and there is no way for a stranger to contact your child through the game.

Koi names are picked by the game. Your child can rename a pond; that name is saved only in this browser, so only people using the same browser can see it.

A koi's page has a button that copies a link to that koi. The link holds only the koi itself, nothing about your child, and it is only shared if your child pastes it somewhere.

Money

The browser version has no real-money purchases. Credits are earned in the game and spent in the game. The market's other sellers are simulated by the game; no real person is buying or selling.

When the iPhone and Android apps launch, any purchase will go through Apple or Google and sit behind a parent check. We will never sell better odds of a rare koi.

No ads

BitKoi has no ads. Not in the browser, and not in the phone apps when they launch. There are no ad networks or tracking tools in the game.

The site loads no third-party scripts, fonts or trackers: everything comes from bitkoi.com. We do not collect your child's name, email or location.

Where the save lives

Right now there are no accounts. The save is stored in this browser on this device and is never sent anywhere. Anyone using the same browser can open it, and clearing the browser's site data deletes it.

In the pond, the photo button saves a picture to your device, and the record button (in browsers that support it) saves a short video. Neither posts anything anywhere.

Time

Koi grow when they are fed, and eggs take about a minute to hatch. There are no daily chores: koi wait in the pond while your child is away. A koi can breed until it is 60 days old, counted in real days.

Questions

The field guide explains how to play in plain words, if you want to play alongside your child.