Play is just too important to be left to kids
Play prepares us for the real world, brings us closer together, and teaches lessons nothing else quite can. In short: play is serious business.
At Tic Tac Joe Games, we're about that quiet pause – the extra few seconds before you make your next move – where strategy, imagination and a bit of friendly chaos come together into moments that stay with you.
Who is Tic Tac Joe?
It started with a bedtime argument.
One night, while trying to get his five-year-old, Joey, to sleep, Yoni asked what he'd like to do the next day. Joey's answer: "Let's play four-dimensional noughts and crosses."
Yoni, being a reasonable adult, explained that four-dimensional noughts and crosses didn't exist. Joey, being five, disagreed. Firmly. Several times.
Then Libby (8), the family peacemaker, stepped in: "Well … what if there was?"
Twenty minutes later, nobody was asleep – but they had the rules for a brand new game. They 3D-printed a board, played it with friends and family, and kept hearing the same thing: "I'd buy this."
So here we are. Named in Joey's honour: Tic Tac Joe Games.
(A few months later, the kids came back with another idea: could noughts and crosses become a card game? That became Takeover Express. Apparently, bedtime is very productive.)
Meet Yoni
Hey. I'm Yoni – dad, game-maker, and paediatrician specialising in children's behaviour and development.
I'll be upfront: you shouldn't buy these games because a doctor designed them. Play the games you love, with the people you love – because they’re fun, full stop.
But I will say this: in my work, I get to witness the lengths families go to for each other. I see the spark and cheekiness that makes childhood so special – and I see what's missing when that spark isn't there. What I've learned, again and again, is that people are often much closer to connection than they realise.
Games are one of the shortest distances between people. That's why my family want to make them.