Not My Egg!

What the game “Not My Egg!” is about

“Not My Egg!” is an arcade game for children focused on attention and endurance, inspired by the story about the cuckoo from “The Book About Birds, Part 1” by the LittleBookBirdAndWiseOwl project. In nature, some species of cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other birds – and this real behavior became the basis for a short, lively online game.

How the game works

At the bottom of the screen there are nests with sample eggs; eggs fall from above. From time to time, a cuckoo’s egg appears – and it must not be placed anywhere. In that moment, the best action is no action at all. The game has three levels that gradually change the pace and increase complexity. The task is to keep attention for as long as possible, correctly matching eggs to nests and avoiding mistakes.

The game is controlled using the ◀ ▶ keys on a computer and on-screen buttons on mobile devices. When an egg is placed into the correct nest, the score increases by 1. When an egg is placed into the wrong nest, or when a cuckoo’s egg ends up in any nest, one life is lost (shown as three small eggs in the statistics area).

Why the game “Not My Egg!” is useful

This is a developmental game for children that trains not only reaction speed, but also the ability to sustain attention as the tempo increases.

The game supports the development of:

• attention and concentration – as it requires tracking both the falling egg and the nests at the same time;
• observation and visual discrimination – the eggs look very similar to one another, just like in nature, encouraging the ability to notice subtle differences;
• hand–eye coordination – a single key or button press moves the egg one step toward the next nest, and decisions must be made quickly;
• impulse control – sometimes the correct choice is to do nothing at all, especially when a cuckoo’s egg appears. This skill is closely connected to self-regulation;
• endurance and playing “against one’s own record” – the score accumulates, creating a natural desire to improve a previous result.

“Not My Egg!” is an attention and matching game inspired by the real behavior of cuckoos. It is part of the LittleBookBirdAndWiseOwl world, where book and game work together: reading, playing, and returning to the stories gradually help to notice more – both in the text and in the details of nature.