Games she can win outright
Confidence in a kitten is built out of completed hunts, so start with games where success is guaranteed. Work a feather wand slowly along the floor and around a chair leg so she can stalk, freeze, wiggle and pounce — and actually catch it. When she does, let her keep it for a few seconds: pin it, kick it, carry it a step or two before you take it back. That moment of possession is the lesson. A crinkle ball is the second staple because it moves only when she bats it, which puts her entirely in charge of the pace. A third winner is a trail of three or four treats tucked under cups or behind cushions, turning the room into a treasure hunt where every search pays. Keep the 'prey' moving away from her rather than towards her face, and keep your own hands out of the game so she never learns that fingers are fair targets.
Let her set the pace of every session
A kitten grows braver in games she can stop. Play on the floor at her level, in the room she already knows best, and read her body instead of the clock. A low crouch, ears forward and a tail tip twitching mean she is in the hunt; backing away, ears flattening or slipping under the sofa means the session is over, whatever your plans were. Never pull her out from furniture to play, and never follow her with the toy once she has left. Short sessions suit her best — a few minutes, two or three times a day, always ending on a catch while she is still keen. Predictability helps too: play at roughly the same times, start with the same crouch-and-scurry wand routine, and her confidence will grow inside a game whose rules she understands.
Add one small challenge at a time
Once the basics are hers, stretch her gently. A cardboard box with kitten-sized holes cut in the sides and a ball rustling inside asks her to investigate rather than chase. A paper bag with the handles removed and a treat at the back rewards the kitten who dares to walk in. Trail the wand up one low step, then onto a cushion, so heights arrive as a series of small conquests rather than one big leap. Introduce every new object switched off and standing still; let her approach, sniff and retreat as often as she needs before it moves or makes a sound. What you are building is a kitten whose first response to novelty is curiosity, and that only happens when novelty has never once ambushed her.
Reading the progress — and the limits
Confidence has a recognisable look: tail up, new objects inspected within minutes, a quick shake-and-recover after a household noise, and a kitten who chooses to come out and watch visitors instead of vanishing. Hiding is normal in the first days in a new home, and shy kittens simply need the sequence above run more slowly. But a kitten who hides all day, refuses food for a full day, or flattens and panics at every approach is not a kitten who needs more games — she needs a vet to rule out pain or illness first. Once she is cleared, return to the winnable games and rebuild. Keeping those sessions on the household rota takes seconds once play is set up as a shared duty in KinsLe's Care Teams, and it stops her practice depending on one person's memory.