For grown-ups

What Transportation Craft is, how it keeps little ones safe, and how to set it up just right.

Safe and calm

Transportation Craft is a block-building game in the spirit of Minecraft, made for (and named by) a three-year-old. It keeps the building, the exploring and the vehicles, and leaves out everything that could upset a little one:

  • No monsters, spiders or dinosaurs, no night, and nothing that chases you.
  • No falling danger, and you can't get hurt.
  • Soft sounds, a calm recorded voice, and a volume slider.
  • No ads, no purchases, no links out of the game while playing.
  • No chat. Playing with friends, everyone sees each other's player with a name over it, and everything they build, including the words they write on signs and billboards (so play with people you know).

Settings

The cog at the top of the game opens Options:

  • Sound: the volume of everything, and a mute button (the speaker button at the top mutes too).
  • Voice: who reads the words aloud. Bella's recordings sound the same everywhere, or pick one of the device's own voices.
  • Quiz to get in: before getting into a car, a plane, the train or the rocket, an easy sum or a word with a missing letter. Turn it on or off, and pick how many answers to choose from (fewer is easier).
  • How far you can see: Close is lighter on an older tablet and its battery.

Changing the quiz asks for the grown-ups' password first: it's grown-ups. It's there to keep little fingers from turning the quiz off, not as real security.

Saving and accounts

The island saves itself as you play, in the browser you play in: close the tab and it's there next time, just as it was. Making a New island starts again from scratch, so it asks twice.

A free account (for grown-ups) keeps islands online too: up to 30 of them. Then a new island doesn't replace the old one (pick between them with My islands on the start screen), and they're there on every tablet and computer you sign in on. The island you're playing when you sign up goes into the account. If the same island is played on two devices at once, both versions are kept, as two islands, so nothing's lost.

Make a free account

You can also keep a copy of an island as a file: Options, then Save a copy.

Privacy

Playing on your own without an account, nothing about you or your child leaves the browser: the island and the settings are kept there.

Playing with friends, the game server you join gets the name you type, where your player is and what they're wearing, and everything built and written on the shared island, to show it to the others there. It keeps the shared island, and where each player was, for next time.

With an account, we keep:

  • your email address, to sign in with;
  • your password, scrambled (hashed) so nobody can read it, not even us;
  • the name shown in the game, which you choose (a first name or a nickname is best);
  • your islands, and when they were last played.

There's one cookie, to keep you signed in, and no tracking, analytics or advertising. Accounts are for grown-ups: please don't let children make their own. You can delete your account, and everything in it, at any time from your account page.

Playing with friends

Press Play with friends on the start screen, type a name, and press Join. Everyone plays on one island and the same solar system, kept on a server: building and digging, doors, water and lava, the cars, the animals, the planes, the train and the rocket are all shared. Your own island stays just as it was, for coming home to.

Up to eight players can be on an island at once. Everyone in a game sees everyone else's name and what they build, so it's best played with friends and family you know.

Host a game at home

On a computer with Node.js, in the game's folder:

npm install
npm run host

It shows the address for tablets and computers on the same Wi-Fi, like http://192.168.1.20:3000: open it there and press Play with friends. The island is kept in server-data/, and is there again next time. To play an island you built on your own, save a copy of it from Options and start the server with npm run server -- --import and the file.

Tablets and batteries

  • It runs in the browser on iPads, Android tablets, laptops and desktops. A recent browser works best.
  • On an iPad, add it to the Home Screen (Share, then Add to Home Screen) for a full-screen game a little one can open with a tap.
  • For long play on a battery, set how far you can see to Close in Options.
  • With a keyboard and mouse it plays like other block games; on a tablet, there are big buttons to tap. The ? button in the game shows them all.