Ronron, a cat of your own

Ronron is a cat. Not a game that looks like a cat: a cat, who gets hungry when he hasn't eaten, sleeps when he's tired, sulks when he's been left alone too long, and comes to rub against the screen when he's well looked after.

It was written for a six-year-old who wanted a cat and couldn't have one. Everything in the app follows from that one sentence.

WHAT YOU DO

• Feed him, give him water, clean his litter, brush him, play with him.
• Stroke him with a finger — head, back, cheeks, belly — and feel the purr in your hand: the phone vibrates in time with the cat's breathing.
• Watch him live. He washes, stretches, chases a ball, climbs his tree, rolls on the rug, and stares at you for a long time saying nothing.
• Adopt him: on first launch you choose a kitten or a cat, its color, its eyes, its ears — and a dice rolls hundreds of random cats until you find yours.
• Place him in your real bedroom, in augmented reality, on supported devices.

A CAT WHO REMEMBERS

Ronron keeps count of what you do with him, day after day, over four weeks. A cat fed absent-mindedly and a cat you play with for an hour have the same gauges at noon — and they are not the same cat. Yours grows more trusting, more affectionate, more playful, or more distant, according to what you give him. A week away costs something; a week of care shows.

MADE FOR CHILDREN, AND FOR THEIR PARENTS

• No advertising of any kind.
• No purchases, no payments, no in-game currency.
• No account, no sign-up, no password.
• No Internet connection required: the game works fully offline.
• Nothing is sent anywhere. There is no server, no analytics, no usage tracking.
• No social features: the child meets no one, receives no messages, and can follow no links.
• A parents' panel behind a code: quiet hours, notifications, volume, microphone, reset.
• No streaks, no daily-reward mechanics that punish absence. A cat doesn't need you back every hour.
• When the app is closed, the cat may send a little note if he's hungry or wants to play: at most once a day, never at night, and a switch in the parents' panel turns it off. These notifications are worked out on the phone: nothing is sent anywhere.

SOUND AND VOICE

The cat has nineteen meows, a real purr, and quiet music you can turn off. You can also talk to him: the microphone is optional, it switches off in settings, and speech recognition runs on the phone with no network. Nothing is recorded.

For families running a language model at home, an advanced setting lets the cat understand whole sentences. It is empty by default, it is filled in from the parents' panel, and without it nothing leaves the device.

WHAT IT ISN'T

Ronron is not trying to keep a child busy for as long as possible. There are no levels, no leaderboards, no chest to open tomorrow. There is an animal, who is looked after, and who remembers.