The Mimimi manual

Introduction

Welcome to Mimimi! This manual is for grown-ups and children to read together. Each part is short, so you can skip straight to the bit you need.

Mimimi is a cozy pet game for children aged about 4 to 7. A tiny cloud drifts into your home and decides to stay: that is Mimimi, your new friend. You feed it, wash it, tuck it in and play together, and over a few days it grows from a baby into a grown-up friend.

There is a lot to discover, but nothing to worry about:

• No rush. There are no timers and no fail screens. If you are away for a while, your friend is happy to see you again.
• No reading needed. The games use pictures, shapes and numbers, so children who can't read yet can play on their own.
• No ads, no accounts. Mimimi plays offline and keeps everything on your device.

Tip for grown-ups: the first few minutes are best shared. Sit together, adopt a friend, give it a name and try the four big buttons at the bottom.

Getting started

Adopt your friend

When you open Mimimi for the first time, a tiny cloud drifts into your home and doesn't want to leave. It's only a baby. Type a name for your new friend (it is called Mimimi unless you choose another name) and tap Adopt.

Mimimi has floppy ears, a soft tuft on top and a little tail. If your child would rather have a different friend, a grown-up can choose Pip, a leafy little sprout, or Luma, a bird-like friend with wings, under Friend in the grown-ups sheet. The name, the needs and the stars stay the same; only the look and personality change.

The home and the buttons

Your friend starts in its own cozy room. Things you can do right away:

• Cuddle: touch and hold your friend. A quick tap makes it hop.
• Pet and tickle: stroke slowly to pet, wiggle a finger on its tummy to tickle.
• Walk: tap the floor and your friend walks there.
• Look around: two fingers turn the view.

Along the bottom are the big care buttons: Feed, Play, Wash and Sleep. At the top you'll see your friend's name card, the needs bar and your stars.

Come back every day for the daily gift.

Getting around

Tap the round Go outside button to open the place picker, then tap a picture: the living room, the playground, the garden, the Study Room or the lake. Go home brings you back to your friend's room. You can also reach the living room through the door in the bedroom.

Stars and the star shop

Stars are earned by playing: caring for your friend, the daily gift, games, selling at the market, the Study Room and more. Tap the star counter to open the star shop for beds, balls, lamps, plants, wall decorations, seeds and clothes.

Buying takes two taps: the first tap tries the item, the second buys it. Stars can never be bought with money.

Settings

Open the toy box and hold the Grown-ups · hold strip at the bottom for half a second. Settings has:

• Sound and Music volume;
• Song, to pick a tune (or play them all), and the music style: music box or band;
• Festivities, to choose Halloween or Christmas decorations, or turn them off;
• Soft colours, a gentler, pastel look for sensitive eyes.

The grown-ups sheet

At the end of Settings is the Grown-ups button. Hold it for 3 seconds to open the grown-ups sheet. It is made for parents, and it holds:

• Language, Friend and Home;
• phone and sound options: vibration, reduced motion, battery saver, 3D resolution;
• the microphone games: Talk-back and Calling;
• Pet age, your child's birthday and the Study Room settings;
• Mimimi Full and Restore purchase;
• Start over, plus the version, privacy policy and support email.

Core pet care

Needs

Your friend has five needs: food, energy, fun, love and bath. Tap the needs bar at the top to see them all. The mood follows whichever need is lowest, so a quick cuddle or a snack usually cheers it up.

Nothing bad happens if a need runs low. Your friend never gets sick and never runs away.

Feeding

Tap Feed to open the food picker. You'll find shop food, vegetables from the garden and a Made by me row with dishes you've cooked yourself. Each friend has a favourite (Mimimi loves carrots), and a favourite always fits, even when your friend is full.

Bath time

Friends get a little messy as they play: first dusty, then muddy, then a bit stinky. Tap Wash and wiggle the brush over your friend until the bar fills up. There is no timer, and you can stop any time. A friend who is already squeaky clean will politely say no.

Sleep and night visits

Tap Sleep to tuck your friend into bed (a very tired friend goes to bed on its own). While it sleeps, Go outside offers night visits: peek at the garden, the playground, the Study Room or the lake by moonlight. Night visits are just for looking: listen for frogs, spot the fireflies and, in winter, the northern lights. When your friend wakes up, a button tells you.

In Mimimi the day always runs from 7 in the morning to 7 in the evening, wherever you live.

Talk-back and calling (microphone)

Two optional games use the microphone. A grown-up switches them on in the grown-ups sheet.

• Talk-back: hold the microphone button and say something (up to 6 seconds). Your friend repeats it in a funny squeaky voice. Tap your friend for an encore.
• Calling: first, teach your friend its name in the grown-ups sheet by saying it three times. Then hold the microphone button and say the name, or clap twice, or pat twice. Your friend trots over and looks up at you.

The sound is listened to on the device, only while the button is held. It is never recorded, saved or sent anywhere. Everything else in Mimimi works without the microphone.

Growing up

Your friend starts as a baby. After about a day it becomes young, and two days after that it is grown up, each time with a little celebration. Growing up never goes backwards, and nothing can die. Tap the name card any time to see how your friend is growing.

Tip for grown-ups: if your child would rather keep a baby (or a young friend) for longer, use Pet age in the grown-ups sheet.

Farming

The Grow Garden

Tap Go outside and choose the garden. Tap a bed and your friend does the next job: dig, plant, water, weed or harvest.

1. Plant: tap an empty bed and pick a seed.
2. Water: drag the floating watering can over the beds. Dry soil just pauses growing; plants never die.
3. Harvest: when a plant is ripe, drag it up and out. Big pumpkins have to be rolled to the basket!

Everything you pick goes into the basket. From there you can feed your friend, cook, or sell at the market for stars. Plants keep growing in real time, even while the app is closed.

More of the garden

As you play, more opens up. You can buy more beds and new seeds with stars, and then:

• The coop: the hens lay eggs. Tap the coop to collect them, and tap the feeder for a chance of a golden egg.
• Visitors: a squirrel, a hedgehog and your friend's friends stop by the gate with picture orders. Fill them for stars.
• The market stall: a little shop game.
• The fair: once a month, enter your biggest vegetable and win a ribbon.
• Helpers: a sprinkler and a harvest helper save little hands some work, and the hens can be let out to eat the weeds.
• The Field: a big sunny field behind a gate, with large beds, a giant pumpkin, an apple tree to shake and a beehive full of honey.
• The greenhouse: grows cucumbers, chillies, grapes and lemons, and keeps going at full speed in winter, when the outdoor beds grow more slowly.

The starter garden is part of the free game. The bigger garden comes with Mimimi Full (see Mimimi Full).

Fishing

The Fishing Lake

Tap Go outside and choose the lake.

1. Tap the rowboat and your friend hops in.
2. Touch the water to aim, and let go to cast.
3. When a ! appears, tap: something is biting!
4. Hold anywhere to reel in. If a big fish tugs hard, let go for a moment, then keep reeling.

A miss is never a failure: the fish just waves goodbye. Choose your bait from the bait tin. Dough never runs out, and you can find corn and worms in the garden.

Thirty fish to find

There are 30 fish in the lake, from everyday friends to rare and legendary ones. Some only come out at night, at dawn, in the rain, in the snow or during festivals. A shimmering shadow in the water means something special is near. You might also pull up a boot, a rubber duck or a bottle with a note inside.

In winter the lake freezes over and you fish through a hole in the ice.

After the catch

Each catch gets its own card. Put the fish in the basket (to cook or sell), in the tank, or let it go. The tank in the living room holds up to six fish: tap the glass to say hello and shake in some food.

Every new fish also earns a sticker in the sticker book (in the toy box), where you collect all sorts of things from all over the game. A full page brings a present.

The lake is part of Mimimi Full. In the free game you can take a peek.

Cooking

You can open the kitchen from the Cook card in the food picker, from the basket, or from Play & explore in the toy box.

1. Drag up to three ingredients into the bowl. The pantry jars (milk, flour, honey, water and rice) never run out.
2. Stir three circles with your finger.
3. Choose how to cook it: bake, boil, blend or toss.
4. Give the dish to your friend.

Every new recipe you discover earns stars, and your first dish earns a chef's hat. Got the mix "wrong"? That makes a Surprise stew, and your friend loves it anyway. Dishes you've made appear in the Made by me row of the food picker.

Recipes with eggs, garden-shop vegetables, Field and greenhouse produce or fish come with Mimimi Full.

Drawing and play

Drawing

Open Draw from Play & explore in the toy box, or tap a picture frame on the wall. Paint with nine colours, a rainbow brush, three brush sizes and fun stamps. There is an eraser and an undo button. Tap the ✓ when you are done: your friend signs it with a paw print and hangs it on the wall. Older drawings are kept in a little gallery.

Songs and music

Mimimi has 25 tunes, including Halloween and Christmas songs. Tap the music box to pick one, or choose a song and a style (music box or band) in Settings.

Games

Tap Play to choose a game:

• Bubbles: pop the bubbles.
• Fruit match: line up three fruits in a row and beat your best score.

The playground

Whoosh down the slide, tap the swing to push it higher, watch your friend build a castle in the sandbox (and tap to knock it down), have a picnic and kick the ball around. Outside you can also tap a cloud for rain and a rainbow, jump in puddles, sail a paper boat, spin the pinwheel for wind and fly a kite. From December to February it snows instead.

The living room

Go through the door in the bedroom, or pick the living room in Go outside.

• Sofa: tap to climb on and bounce; your friend likes to nap there.
• Pillow fort: drag the pillows onto the glowing shapes to build walls and a roof.
• Fireplace: tap it, drag in a log, and your friend warms its paws.
• Drums: play a beat on the six pads. Your friend dances, then plays your beat back.
• Aquarium: the home of your lake fish.
• Trophy shelf: tap a trophy to see what it was for.

A friend comes to visit once a day: listen for the doorbell.

Parties, birthdays and festivals

• Once a month, on the day you adopted it, your friend has a birthday party. Tap the cake and then the candles (or blow, if the microphone is on).
• A grown-up can add your child's birthday (month and day) in the grown-ups sheet. On the day, the pets bring a drawing, stars and a crown.
• Halloween (24 October to 1 November) and Christmas (1 to 24 December) come with decorations, songs, recipes and clothes. In December an advent calendar opens a new door every day, and each door hangs an ornament on the playground tree.

Study Room

The Study Room is a quiet, wordless place to learn. Your child is the teacher: your friend sits down with a book, asks a question with a little ?, and your child shows the answer.

Tap an object to start a short lesson of five tasks:

Mistakes belong to the pet. If an answer isn't right, your friend tries it out, then you count it together, and then the right answer glows. Nothing turns red and nobody fails.

For grown-ups: in the grown-ups sheet you can set your child's age (4 to 7; the tasks adapt within it), how many lessons a day (three by default), and see what your child learns, with short notes on the skills behind each game.

The abacus and the toy shelf are free. The other eight objects come with Mimimi Full.

Clothing and customization

Dress-up

Open the wardrobe from the mirror in your friend's home, from Dress up in Play & explore, or from the Clothes tab in the star shop.

• Choose from hats, glasses, scarves and ties and coats.
• Tap once to try something on, and tap again to buy it with stars.
• The dice button makes a surprise outfit.
• Clothes come off for bath time and bedtime, and go back on afterwards.

Coats are all-over patterns for your friend. The three basic coats (Plain, Spots and Stripes) are always free, and more coats (stars, hearts, rainbows and more) can be bought with stars. Some coats and clothes are gifts from festivals and parties. Once you own a coat, you can switch to it any time.

Homes

There are three homes: Sage Nook, Clover Conservatory and Mooncloud Loft. A grown-up can move your friend to a different home in the grown-ups sheet, under Home. You can also decorate with beds, lamps, plants and wall decorations from the star shop.

The patterned coats, the rest of the clothes, and Clover Conservatory and Mooncloud Loft come with Mimimi Full.

Mimimi Full (for grown-ups)

This part is for grown-ups.

Mimimi on Google Play is free to download. The free game is an honest, complete taste, and it never nags.

Free, for good:

• your friend (all three to choose from) and all of its care: feeding, washing, sleep, cuddles, growing up, talk-back and calling;
• Sage Nook, the living room and the playground;
• a starter garden patch;
• two Study Room objects: the abacus and the toy shelf;
• the three basic coats (Plain, Spots, Stripes) and part of the wardrobe;
• drawing, Bubbles, Fruit match, the songs, the sticker book, festivals and the star shop.

Mimimi Full is a single, optional, one-time purchase that opens:

1. The Fishing Lake, with ice fishing, the aquarium fish and fish recipes;
2. The big garden: more beds and seeds, the hens, visitors, the market stall, the fair, the helpers, the Field and the greenhouse;
3. The whole Study Room: eight more learning games, including telling the time;
4. The big wardrobe: the patterned coats and the rest of the clothes;
5. Two more homes, and every place we add later.

How it works:

• Your child never sees a price or a buy button. Locked places simply wear a ribbon. Tapping one shows a short, wordless peek.
• The offer is only for grown-ups: it opens after the 3-second Grown-ups hold (in the grown-ups sheet, or the small button after a peek) and a short reading check (a number written in words). Google Play then asks for its own confirmation, and Family Link approval if your child's account is supervised.
• There are no subscriptions, no ads and no in-app currency for money. Stars are always earned by playing.
• Nothing a child has played with is taken away later.

Restore purchase: on a new phone, or after reinstalling, open the grown-ups sheet and tap Restore purchase. Use the same Google account you bought with.

FAQ and troubleshooting

There is no sound.

Check the phone's volume and silent mode first. Then open Settings (toy box, hold the strip at the bottom) and check the Sound and Music sliders.

The microphone doesn't work.

The microphone is only used by Talk-back and Calling, and only after a grown-up switches them on in the grown-ups sheet. If you said no to the permission, the switch stays off. To allow it later, go to your phone's settings, find Mimimi under Apps, then Permissions, and allow the microphone.

My pet is asleep. Can we still play?

Yes. While your friend sleeps, Go outside offers night visits to peek at the garden, the playground, the Study Room and the lake. A button tells you when your friend wakes up.

Is our progress saved?

Yes, automatically, on your device. Plants, eggs and growing up carry on in real time while the app is closed. Uninstalling the app deletes the save. Start over in the grown-ups sheet (with a 3-second hold) starts again with a new friend.

We got a new phone.

Your friend lives on the device, and we have no copy of it, so a new phone starts with a new friend. Mimimi Full comes back with Restore purchase in the grown-ups sheet, using the same Google account.

How do I change the language?

Mimimi follows your phone's language (English or Estonian). To change it, open the grown-ups sheet and tap English or Eesti under Language. The change is instant.

The game feels slow on our phone.

In the grown-ups sheet, try Battery saver or a lower 3D resolution. Reduced motion calms down the bigger animations.

My child wants the baby back.

Growing up is real and doesn't go backwards, but Pet age in the grown-ups sheet lets you show your friend as a baby, young or grown up.

What does the Back button do?

It closes whatever is open on top, one thing at a time. With nothing open, it leaves the app.

Contact and support

Something not working, an idea from your child, or a question we didn't answer here? Write to us at support@idlerobot.dev. We are a tiny studio and we read every message.

It helps if you tell us your phone model and what happened just before the problem. Mimimi's version number is at the bottom of the grown-ups sheet.

• Privacy policy: idlerobot.dev/mimimi/privacy
• More about Mimimi: idlerobot.dev/mimimi