Kinskii Helps Loved Ones Connect Through Long-distance Playtime

Technology plays a big role in helping distanced families connect via internet communication.

Technology plays a big role in helping distanced families connect via internet communication. We see traveling and working parents, those serving in the military, and living 0n different continents using video chat services to talk to each other. But it’s harder to engage with very young children, who might prefer to play with their parent, and Kinskii aims to help make that happen.

Kinskii is a new communication platform that combines gaming with long-distance chatting. The game’s theory is that since many children ages 2-7 have very low attention spans and may find traditional video chat uninteresting, Kinskii can provide a number of games to provide a more meaningful, engaging time between adults and the children in their lives. The service plans to offer its own selection of educational games aimed at kids looking to play games with their long-distance family. Each will incorporate some aspect commonly taught to children, such as simple geometry, numbers, and colors.

The app is mainly intended to be a subscription service with monthly payments and additional physical components. Subscribers receive a Kinskii box with a selection of goodies: Snapshots that the users took while playing, figurines of in-game characters, stickers, story cards about the Kinskii monsters, and suggestions for physical activities, like cookie molds with recipes. (The developers mainly have the kids in mind with the physical additions.)

Parents, game designers, artists, and an education expert compose the team behind Kinskii . Many of them have experienced the weight that distance puts on their connections with children.

“I moved to Texas from Taiwan when I was little and communication was a huge problem,” cites the bio for Helen Tien, co-founder and marketing director. “I remembered always wanting to play with my grandparents, aunts and uncles and especially my dad but that just wasn’t possible. Now, I am a proud aunt to two adorable kiddos. I don’t want them to have to go through the same struggles as I did with a family that was thousands of miles apart.”

Kinskii is currently campaigning for support on Kickstarter. One of the major needs is bigger bandwith to support the service, with higher tiered pledges including gifts like t-shirts and figures. The product’s websitealso includes more information.

Does Kinskii look like something you would use to connect with a younger, long-distance family member? Let us know in the comments below!