Hi all. Full disclosure up front: I'm the developer, and I built this for my own 14-year-old.
The problem: macOS Screen Time famously fails to limit Roblox. It's not a Mac App Store app, and the Play button on the website launches the player through a custom protocol, so app limits don't stick (there are long threads about this here and on Apple's forums). Roblox's own parental controls hand the screen-time setting over to the child at age 13, and they only cover the one linked account. A fresh, unlinked account escapes them entirely.
What PlayCap does: it's a device-level time limiter. A small system daemon counts minutes only while the game is actually being played (CPU activity, not just a process sitting in the tray), warns at 10/5/1 minutes, then quits the game at the limit. It doesn't care which Roblox account is logged in.
- Daily limits (weekday/weekend), allowed-hours window, one-click "+30 min today"
- Works for any app by process name (Minecraft etc.)
- Parent-gated: every change requires the macOS admin password; the kid runs a Standard account
- English/Japanese, no telemetry, no network access, MIT licensed
Source and build instructions are free on GitHub: https://github.com/paddler/playcap
There's also a prebuilt package with an illustrated setup guide for people who don't want to compile anything ($9.99): https://nabe16.gumroad.com/l/playcap
Privacy policy and terms are in the repo. Happy to answer questions, especially from other parents fighting this exact battle.
The problem: macOS Screen Time famously fails to limit Roblox. It's not a Mac App Store app, and the Play button on the website launches the player through a custom protocol, so app limits don't stick (there are long threads about this here and on Apple's forums). Roblox's own parental controls hand the screen-time setting over to the child at age 13, and they only cover the one linked account. A fresh, unlinked account escapes them entirely.
What PlayCap does: it's a device-level time limiter. A small system daemon counts minutes only while the game is actually being played (CPU activity, not just a process sitting in the tray), warns at 10/5/1 minutes, then quits the game at the limit. It doesn't care which Roblox account is logged in.
- Daily limits (weekday/weekend), allowed-hours window, one-click "+30 min today"
- Works for any app by process name (Minecraft etc.)
- Parent-gated: every change requires the macOS admin password; the kid runs a Standard account
- English/Japanese, no telemetry, no network access, MIT licensed
Source and build instructions are free on GitHub: https://github.com/paddler/playcap
There's also a prebuilt package with an illustrated setup guide for people who don't want to compile anything ($9.99): https://nabe16.gumroad.com/l/playcap
Privacy policy and terms are in the repo. Happy to answer questions, especially from other parents fighting this exact battle.