An independent studio
Small, careful apps,
made for our own family first.
We plant one idea at a time, tend it until it's ready, and only then let it out into the world. Every app here started as something we built for our own kids — then polished until it was good enough for yours.
CouchPortal
Minecraft on PlayStation and Xbox lets you join a handful of servers someone else chose, and gives you no way to type in an address. CouchPortal puts the server you pick in front of your console, then gets out of the way — the console connects straight to it, so the phone adds no lag.
Built because the apps that already did this were failing at the one thing that matters, and their reviews are a wall of connections that did not work and never said why.
On the App Store →
PathBloom
A voxel exploration game that turns everyday walks into real-world discovery. Your city starts gray; every street you walk for the first time blooms into flowers, grass, and trees.
Built because our boys love walking and love beating each other at everything — so we gamified the family walk.
On the App Store →
SHSAT Prep: Practice Tests
Diagnostic-first prep for NYC's Specialized High Schools Admissions Test. 1,232 questions — every one reviewed and signed off by a person — with worked explanations, a study plan built around your test date, and a full-length Adaptive Practice Test.
Built because the founder took the SHSAT himself, got into Stuyvesant, and built the prep tool he wishes he'd had — with his own sons as the first and toughest beta testers.
On the App Store →
SSAT Prep: Middle & Upper
Practice for the SSAT played by the real test's rules: five answer choices, a quarter-point deduction for a wrong answer, and every section on its own clock. 1,419 questions, each with a worked answer rather than an answer key, and both levels in one app.
Built because the family behind the SHSAT app lives in New England now, where the SSAT is the test that matters — so the same machinery got pointed at it, and the same refusal to invent a score came along.
On the App Store →
TACHS Prep: Practice Tests
Practice for the TACHS — the entrance test for Catholic high schools in New York City and on Long Island — in the test's own shape: six timed subtests, each on its own clock, no penalty for a wrong answer, and the three Ability subtests of figure puzzles drawn on screen. 1,420 questions, each with a worked answer rather than an answer key.
Built because the Ability puzzles are the part of the test no textbook rehearses well — they are far easier to learn drawn than described — and a test sat once, in one November, deserves better than a book written for a different exam.
Coming to the App Store →
Preparing for the SHSAT?
The test changes this fall — it becomes computer-adaptive for the first time. We keep a set of plain-English guides for NYC families, updated as the DOE announces details:
Why "Simple Tree"?
Because that's how we work. One seed, planted deliberately. Watered. Pruned. No sprawling feature lists, no accounts you didn't ask for, no data quietly leaving your phone. When an app is ready, it ships; more are in the ground.