Age suitability
Wild Willows is rated 9+ on the App Store. Nothing in it is frightening, violent, or commercial — the rating is really about how much reading the game asks for, and there is a setting that changes that.
Updated 15 August 2026 · [email protected]
Apple reviewed Wild Willows and issued it a 9+. The gap between that number and how the game actually plays is almost entirely a reading gap.
Wild Willows teaches real ecology, and it does that in words. Every animal carries a real-world fact. There is a weather & seasons guide that explains why a superbloom happens and what a food web is. Crafting, habitat requirements and species notes all come with explanations.
By default that writing sits at roughly a 7th-grade reading level. A confident 9-year-old reads it comfortably; a 5-year-old does not.
There is no combat, no enemies, no timers, and no way to fail. Animals are observed and welcomed home — never hunted, harmed, captured, or lost. Nothing dies.
No ads, no purchases inside the game, no chat, no accounts, and no personal information. On content alone, Wild Willows would sit comfortably at 4+.
The short version for a parent: if your child can read, they can play this. If the reading is the problem, turn on Simpler wording in Settings and the entire game — interface, animal notes, ecology writing — rewrites itself in plainer language. Nothing is hidden or removed.
Settings → Accessibility → Simpler wording. It can be switched on and off at any time, mid-game, and it applies to the whole game rather than just menus.
US reading grade
US reading grade
Take the exact numbers lightly. Readability formulas count syllables and sentence length and know nothing about whether a word is common. The single scores are rough; the gap between the two wordings is the honest part, because it holds the vocabulary and the subject matter fixed.
Simpler wording also pairs with the rest of the reading settings: four text sizes, five interface fonts (including a plain, high-legibility one), a high-contrast theme, and dark mode. All of them live on one Settings screen and all can be changed mid-game.
The game is fully playable offline, and a device kept off the network sends nothing at all. When it is online, it sends the developer gameplay counters — play time, items crafted, animals returned — along with the platform, the settings in use, a random save ID, and the caretaker name typed on the save. That name is the one thing in it a person wrote, so the game offers a random one; nothing else personal is sent, and nothing is shown to or shared with other players.
An optional feedback form in Settings sends a message privately to the developer. It is the only free-text input that leaves the device, and including an email address is optional. Full details are in the privacy policy.
Being online never puts you in touch with other players. The connection runs only between the game and my own server — there is nobody else on the other end of it, and no chat, friend requests or profiles anywhere in the game.
Wild Willows has no mechanisms that pressure play.
No timers, no daily-login streaks to lose, no crops that wither while you're at school. A world you leave is exactly where you left it.
The full game is a one-time purchase. There is nothing to spend money on inside it, and no advertising.
No chat, no friend requests, no profiles, no user-generated content. Nobody can contact your child through this game.
Questions about anything on this page? Email [email protected] — it goes straight to the developer. If you're a teacher, there are two free classroom kits — ecosystems for grades 5–8 and intro to APIs for grades 9–12 — on the teachers page.
No. Wild Willows is sold on the Mac App Store and on itch.io, and only Apple has issued it a rating: 9+. It has not been submitted to the ESRB or to PEGI, so this page doesn't claim a rating from either — the content descriptions above are the honest version of the same information.
Yes, with a hand nearby or with Simpler wording turned on. Nothing in the game is unsuitable for a younger player — the only barrier is the amount of text, and Simpler wording, the four text sizes and the five interface fonts all exist to lower it.
No, not in content. The free demo at play.wildwillows.app is the same game with less of it — same art, same tone, same absence of ads, purchases and chat.
No. The game is fully playable offline, with no account and no sign-in required.
Gameplay counters, the platform, the settings in use, a random save ID and the caretaker name you typed — plus an optional feedback message if you choose to send one. No accounts, no email unless you ask for a reply, no advertising identifiers, no location. The privacy policy lists exactly what and why.
Email [email protected], or use the support page. Feedback from Settings inside the game reaches the same inbox.
The free browser demo needs no download and no sign-in. It's the fastest way to judge whether it suits your reader.