An Interview with Nikki Koole, Creator of Mipolai

By Chad Djibiti, for The Smell of Thought

Nikki Koole builds weird digital things for small people with even weirder imaginations. A former artist, current father, and low-key rebel against everything ad-driven and soulless, Nikki runs Mipolai — a growing collection of handmade apps for kids. Apps without ads. Without tracking. Without synthetic sugar coatings. Just playful, handcrafted, slightly surreal joy.

We sat down with him (digitally, on a small wooden chair) to talk about fatherhood, Mipos, attention spans, and what it’s like trying to build beautiful things in a sea of algorithmic sludge.

🎙️ What is Mipolai, in your own words?

“Mipolai is making things for children that are actually, well… how do you say it… like you treat a child as if it’s an adult human being that just happens to be younger. Don’t treat them like idiots. Don’t try to trick them into emptying their parents’ credit cards or whatever. Just make things you would have liked when you were young yourself.”

“Also — and maybe this is weird coming from an app developer — I want to inspire kids to throw away the iPad and go draw. Or do hobby work. I know, it sounds backwards, but if I’m being really honest… it’s not the greatest thing to be staring into a glowing glass rectangle all day, is it? Not for a child. Not for an adult either.”

“Oh, and the name. Mipolai — that’s funny too. When I was like three or four, I had a little mate named Nikolai. I couldn’t pronounce it, so I called him Mipolai. My name is Nikki, and I couldn’t pronounce that either — I was Nitti. So we were Nitti and Mipolai. That memory just jumped out of the attic of my brain when I was trying to name this thing.”

🎙️ Where did the Mipos come from? Who are they really?

“Technically? They’re a consequence of my procrastination.”

“I’m the kind of developer who always ends up building tools and systems before doing the actual thing. I needed some characters. I tried drawing full characters from scratch — hated all of them. So I figured, I’ll just make an app for that. Something where I can mix and match body parts until something weird and wonderful falls out.”

“That became the puppet maker. It’s all hand-drawn and kind of messy on purpose — the opposite of the clean, shiny vector stuff that clogs the App Store. One thing led to another, and suddenly I had this whole group of... I don’t even know what they are. Somewhere between monsters, animals, and humans. I called them Mipos. It just sounded right. ‘Mi–po.’ Simple. Sticky.”

“They’re all different colors, they look kinda funky, and I’m pretty sure they smell weird too. I should think more about that. There’s something in it.”

🎙️ You’ve said you’d like kids to throw the iPad away after playing with your apps. Isn’t that a little contradictory… coming from an app developer?

“Yeah. But that’s kind of the point.”

“The whole idea of making apps came from watching my own children interact with iPads. And YouTube. And everything else that’s part of this digital swamp we’re raising them in. I just started to get a really bad feeling about the direction it’s all going.”

“We have these amazing devices — glass rectangles full of potential. They could be sketchbooks, toyboxes, soundboards. Instead, they’ve become pipelines for hyper-commercial tricksters trying to capture your kids’ eyeballs for as many hours a day as possible. It’s not good. It’s not honest. And it’s definitely not healthy.”

“I do hope a lot of kids play with the things I make. I’d love that. But not for four hours a day. That’s just… sick. It should be fun. Then done. Then go make something for real.”

🎙️ Do your kids help out with Mipolai? What’s it like building things “with” them around?

“Yeah, they do! I’ve got two boys — Herman (he’s 10) and Theo (7). Herman is an amazing tester. He’s got these super fast little fingers — he’ll swipe, tap, do five things at once and then boom, the app crashes. And I’m like: okay, well... now I’ve got to fix that bug.”

“Theo’s been making music with me lately. Before that, we’d mess around making little experimental games together. There’s actually a rollercoaster game in the works that started with his pencil drawings and obsession with theme parks. But that’s a secret for now.”

“I try to involve them as much as possible, but I don’t want to ask them, you know? It should come naturally. If they want to help, they jump in. And when they do, it’s kind of magic.”

🎙️ What do Mipos actually smell like? Be honest.

“Haha. Well... a mix of sweat, fur, and dirt. Pencil shavings. Static electricity. Indian ink and old hairs. I never really thought about it before, but yeah — they’d definitely smell kinda weird.”

🎙️ What do you hope a child feels after playing with one of your apps?

“I hope that they’ll put the iPad away, grab a nice empty piece of paper, and start building their own world — half in their imagination, half on the page. And then… I hope they feel love for their own creation.”

“And hey, if they remember it fondly one day — I’ll call that a win.”

Interview by Chad Djibiti for The Smell of Thought Typed on a very old keyboard with jam between the keys.