Kid friendly AGS game recommendations?

[milkanannan]

Just a thread to aggregate some of the AGS titles for varying age groups. Please feel free to suggest something. (Bonus for games with voice tracks!)

I'm going to shortlist some of the findings in this initial post for the other parents out there:

Games for very young children (mostly just click around the screen)
Apple Farm https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1475-apple-farm/
Mr Bear Teaches English https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2369-mr-bear-teaches-english/
Play Xylophone https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2419-play-xylophone/

Games for roughly 5-year-olds+ with speech tracks or very little/age appropriate reading
Number Rescue https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2024-number-rescue/
Doors https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2437-doors/

Games for roughly 5-year-olds+ with lots of reading (i.e. need to play through entirely with mum/dad)
How the cat saved Christmas https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2316-cornelius-cat-in-how-the-cat-saved-christmas/
The Uncontrollable Pest https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1963-cornelius-cat-in-the-uncontrollable-pest/
Let's Cook! https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1990-let-s-cook-with-koala/
Mess Goblins https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1881-mess-goblins/
Toffee Trouble in Creamville https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2047-toffee-trouble-in-creamville/
Be Your Own Hero https://byo-hero.itch.io/byo-hero

Kid friendly platformers
The Decorcist https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1887-the-decorcist/

[milkanannan]

(Please feel free to shamelessly post your own game if it fits the above description! )

[Slasher]

You could try Let's cook....lots of recopies to cook and safety tips and you can print out certificates of your achievements 

Voted best non-adventure game of 2015...

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1990-let-s-cook-with-koala/

[heltenjon]

How about Three little pigs or Kitten Catastrophy? I'd say BYO-Hero, but ToeKnee hasn't released it yet (perhaps waiting for my kids to give the Beta another go first).

Are you looking for short games or longer ones?

[milkanannan]

Awesome thanks for the suggestions, guys. Keep em coming! 

Helten - honestly either is fine, but we prefer voice acted titles as my son is only 5 and it’s gets tiring reading scripts aloud. (Also lets me pop off for a minute to help my wife with dinner or whatever while he continues playing.)

[heltenjon]

Perhaps some of these:

Space Cat vs the virus (Perhaps the controls are too tricky on this one)
Play Xylophone
Mr Bear teaches English
Number Rescue

[Cassiebsg]

My kid loved Escape the barn when he was about that age, almost no text either. 

EdIT: Fixed the link. Thanks for the heads up CW. 

Edit2: Seems like the board adds the http:// by it self if I use "" to encapsulate the link...  Maybe I remember wrong, but I seem to remember the "" being needed before. or maybe I'm confusing with html... 

[heltenjon]

My kid loved Escape the barn when he was about that age, almost no text either. 

Good suggestion! Come to think of it, probably most of Cat's games are suitable for kids. My kids played that one with hidden apples, but I think they were younger then.

[Crimson Wizard]

Cassiebsg, please fix the game link in your post, it seems containing extra leading "http:"

I recall some of the early Ben304 game, two I liked most were "Awakener" and "Shifter's Box". "Awakener" is an example of a perfect one-room game in my opinion:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1208-awakener/
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1137-shifter-s-box-outside-in/

[BarbWire]

Why not give THE DECORCIST a go. Plenty of child friendly monsters
that will raise a smile. It is Platform/Adventure and only takes place
over two screens, though there is plenty to do. When it came out in 2015
people seemed to love it. Some slight help may be needed in the later
stages.

No voice acting, but very little reading, as far as I remember.   

[Racoon]

I recommend Mess Goblins fom Dropped Monocle Games. Even if your kid might need some help solving the puzzles, it has very child friendly themes

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1881-mess-goblins/

[cat]

Come to think of it, probably most of Cat's games are suitable for kids. My kids played that one with hidden apples, but I think they were younger then.

Thanks for mentioning my games, Cassiebsg and heltenjon! However, not all my games are suitable for kids.

The games you mentioned, https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1540-escape-the-barn/ and https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1475-apple-farm/ do not require any reading.

No voice acting but still very suitable for children: Toffee Trouble in Creamville (https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2047-toffee-trouble-in-creamville/) or any of the Cornelius Cat games. And there is also Sheep Quest and Head over Heels.

[heltenjon]

And if your kid likes dinosaurs, there's Day of the dimetrodon by Blondbraid.

[CaptainD]

I made this for my kids, somewhat educational but also fun hopefully!  Fully voiced.

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2024-number-rescue/

[milkanannan]

Thank you all for your suggestions! Few quick thoughts that might be helpful to other parents looking to shortlist some titles. We tried:

Let's Cook - Great game with a great concept, but very heavy on the reading. I can tell you as a parent that that game + a voice track on an iPad would make the developer some very nice $$$ return!

Kitten - We tried to find Kitten Catastrophe and Space Cat vs the Virus, but neither were available. 'Kitten' is a very difficult sidescroller. The first level involves tearing up items in a house, which was fun, but probably too difficult for kids under about 10 or so.

Play Xylophone - Was very fun for a few minutes!

Mr Bear teaches English - Very nice game! Probably more appropriate for a 3YO, but a very nicely put together program.

Number Rescue - Definitely the highlight of the batch we played! CaptainD, mate you've got all these layers to you that none of us know about. I had no idea this game even existed! You should do a followup series with these characters. It's a really good concept!

We'll try some of the other suggestions later today (weekends here are Friday-Saturday).

[milkanannan]

I recommend Mess Goblins fom Dropped Monocle Games. Even if your kid might need some help solving the puzzles, it has very child friendly themes

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1881-mess-goblins/

Thanks! We'll give it a try. Btw I think I was telling you in another thread that my son and I LOVED Doors. Nice, simple concept that gets right to the gaming without too much (any?) pretext. Was a great find!

[Ponch]

Came here to suggest Apple Farm but its already been recommended. So how about RAM Ghost?

[heltenjon]

Kitten - We tried to find Kitten Catastrophe and Space Cat vs the Virus, but neither were available. 'Kitten' is a very difficult sidescroller. The first level involves tearing up items in a house, which was fun, but probably too difficult for kids under about 10 or so.

Kitten Catastrophy (Not Catastrophe) is mentioned in a thread on this site, but the download link in the thread seems to be broken. It doesn't look like it's been added to the database. You can find it here: https://www.softpaz.com/games/download-kitten-catastrophy-game-22369.htm

Space Cat is on this site: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2432-space-cat-vs-virus/

Kitten Catastrophy is made by animated child's drawings, which I find very charming. Space Cat is a shooting game with point and click controls, where the Cat from Play Xylophone is fighting Covid-lookalikes.

[Mandle]

Came here to suggest Apple Farm but its already been recommended. So how about RAM Ghost?

Great game! 

[milkanannan]

I recommend Mess Goblins fom Dropped Monocle Games. Even if your kid might need some help solving the puzzles, it has very child friendly themes

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1881-mess-goblins/

This was excellent! We eventually got stuck, but lots of exploring/picking up things. The pint-sized protagonist is a nice spin you don't see often. Thank you for the recommendation!

[milkanannan]

Come to think of it, probably most of Cat's games are suitable for kids. My kids played that one with hidden apples, but I think they were younger then.

Thanks for mentioning my games, Cassiebsg and heltenjon! However, not all my games are suitable for kids.

The games you mentioned, https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1540-escape-the-barn/ and https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1475-apple-farm/ do not require any reading.

No voice acting but still very suitable for children: Toffee Trouble in Creamville (https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2047-toffee-trouble-in-creamville/) or any of the Cornelius Cat games. And there is also Sheep Quest and Head over Heels.

Thanks! We tried Apple Farm, which was very fun. Will give the others in your list a try soon.

[ToeKnee]

How about Three little pigs or Kitten Catastrophy? I'd say BYO-Hero, but ToeKnee hasn't released it yet (perhaps waiting for my kids to give the Beta another go first).

AT last - It is OUT NOW HeltenJon!!
The FULL and FREE Point-and-click Adventure game for Parents and kids!

See the AGS Post here:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58435.msg636626678#msg636626678

See the Game HomePage (including DOWNLOAD and full INSTALLER) here:
https://byo-hero.itch.io/byo-hero

See the Intro Video here:

[heltenjon]

How about Three little pigs or Kitten Catastrophy? I'd say BYO-Hero, but ToeKnee hasn't released it yet (perhaps waiting for my kids to give the Beta another go first).

AT last - It is OUT NOW HeltenJon!!
The FULL and FREE Point-and-click Adventure game for Parents and kids!

Ok, then I say BYO-Hero! I've been test driving this game with my kids aged 6-11, and they really liked this.

[milkanannan]

Why not give THE DECORCIST a go. Plenty of child friendly monsters
that will raise a smile. It is Platform/Adventure and only takes place
over two screens, though there is plenty to do. When it came out in 2015
people seemed to love it. Some slight help may be needed in the later
stages.

No voice acting, but very little reading, as far as I remember.   

Thanks, we gave this a try on the weekend. It is indeed a lot of fun, but I find AGS platforms all suffer from a certain clunkiness I can't quite put my finger on. Anyway, my son is too young to notice, so it was a good time nonetheless!

[milkanannan]

How about Three little pigs or Kitten Catastrophy? I'd say BYO-Hero, but ToeKnee hasn't released it yet (perhaps waiting for my kids to give the Beta another go first).

AT last - It is OUT NOW HeltenJon!!
The FULL and FREE Point-and-click Adventure game for Parents and kids!

See the AGS Post here:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58435.msg636626678#msg636626678

See the Game HomePage (including DOWNLOAD and full INSTALLER) here:
https://byo-hero.itch.io/byo-hero

See the Intro Video here:

Looks good - do you by chance have a ZIP file available for the game? I can't run exe files on my work PC.

[milkanannan]

Came here to suggest Apple Farm but its already been recommended. So how about RAM Ghost?

Thank you for the suggestion. I can't seem to get RAM Ghost to run. I'm getting some graphics resolution error.

[milkanannan]

Come to think of it, probably most of Cat's games are suitable for kids. My kids played that one with hidden apples, but I think they were younger then.

Thanks for mentioning my games, Cassiebsg and heltenjon! However, not all my games are suitable for kids.

The games you mentioned, https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1540-escape-the-barn/ and https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1475-apple-farm/ do not require any reading.

No voice acting but still very suitable for children: Toffee Trouble in Creamville (https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2047-toffee-trouble-in-creamville/) or any of the Cornelius Cat games. And there is also Sheep Quest and Head over Heels.

LOVED Toffee Trouble! Very nice game! We'll try the other titles a little later this week. Thanks for the recommendations!

[BarbWire]

Hi Milkanannan

I am so glad to hear that you, and your young son, enjoyed
playing THE DECORCIST.

If you don't mind me asking, did you actually complete the game
and reap the award of a most prestigious gold or silver trophy? 

[Creamy]

Some other recommandations:

Kuma Story

Every game by Pilchard

Two games by Matt Frith:
The Surprisingly Short Adventure of Leopold Kettle
The Shortest Journey


"Awakener" and "Shifter's Box" by Ben304 have been mentionned. I'd add Man Boy vs Doctor Sock and !

[arj0n]

AT last - It is OUT NOW HeltenJon!!
The FULL and FREE Point-and-click Adventure game for Parents and kids!

See the AGS Post here:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58435.msg636626678#msg636626678

See the Game HomePage (including DOWNLOAD and full INSTALLER) here:
https://byo-hero.itch.io/byo-hero

Looks good - do you by chance have a ZIP file available for the game? I can't run exe files on my work PC.

Here's the zipped version [139mb]

[CaptainD]

Number Rescue - Definitely the highlight of the batch we played! CaptainD, mate you've got all these layers to you that none of us know about. I had no idea this game even existed! You should do a followup series with these characters. It's a really good concept!

Thank you!  That really means a lot to me.  Yeah it was sort of supposed to be the start of a series but as with so many ideas I just ran out of time... maybe one day...

[milkanannan]

Hi Milkanannan

I am so glad to hear that you, and your young son, enjoyed
playing THE DECORCIST.

If you don't mind me asking, did you actually complete the game
and reap the award of a most prestigious gold or silver trophy? 

No, actually. My son is pretty young, so the fun was really going up and down the ladders and ducking into the little cubby holes when we finally figured out we could do that. We died every time, but the goal for us kind of became trying to stay alive as long as possible.

Is that your game?

[milkanannan]

AT last - It is OUT NOW HeltenJon!!
The FULL and FREE Point-and-click Adventure game for Parents and kids!

See the AGS Post here:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58435.msg636626678#msg636626678

See the Game HomePage (including DOWNLOAD and full INSTALLER) here:
https://byo-hero.itch.io/byo-hero

Looks good - do you by chance have a ZIP file available for the game? I can't run exe files on my work PC.

Here's the zipped version [139mb]

Sweet! Thanks~

[milkanannan]

Some other recommandations:

Kuma Story

Every game by Pilchard

Two games by Matt Frith:
The Surprisingly Short Adventure of Leopold Kettle
The Shortest Journey


"Awakener" and "Shifter's Box" by Ben304 have been mentionned. I'd add Man Boy vs Doctor Sock and !

Amazing~ thanks! Chalk these up for this coming weekend...

[milkanannan]

Number Rescue - Definitely the highlight of the batch we played! CaptainD, mate you've got all these layers to you that none of us know about. I had no idea this game even existed! You should do a followup series with these characters. It's a really good concept!

Thank you!  That really means a lot to me.  Yeah it was sort of supposed to be the start of a series but as with so many ideas I just ran out of time... maybe one day...

Yeah, the ending left us thinking there was more to come. You should maybe think about building the next instalment with your kids as a bit of a lesson in coding for them. I'm trying to do similar things with my son at scratch.mit.edu (he's a bit young to understand AGS just yet).

[BarbWire]

Hi Milkanannan

So you had more fun playing 'The Decorcist' as a survival game, and why not.
As long as your son had a good time that's all that matters.

If you do ever give it another go, and manage to get into the next screen, there
is a witch, with her black cat, flying on her broomstick. I think your son would
laugh at this.

No, it's not my game. I don't possess the know how. My role was game tester.
It was produced by Retrojay. He also did 'The Lost Prince of Lorden.'

[mkennedy]

Zniw Adventure looks like it should be suitable when it comes out.
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50635.0

[ToeKnee]

Looks good - do you by chance have a ZIP file available for the game? I can't run exe files on my work PC.

I have uploaded the latest game version as a ZIP to ITCH.IO Milkannan...
It is a DEVLOG Here: https://byo-hero.itch.io/byo-hero/devlog/180763/zip-copy-of-the-game-version-20200923hs-files

[milkanannan]

If you do ever give it another go, and manage to get into the next screen, there
is a witch, with her black cat, flying on her broomstick. I think your son would
laugh at this.

Haha OK will definitely give it another go and see if we can get there!

[milkanannan]

Looks good - do you by chance have a ZIP file available for the game? I can't run exe files on my work PC.

I have uploaded the latest game version as a ZIP to ITCH.IO Milkannan...
It is a DEVLOG Here: https://byo-hero.itch.io/byo-hero/devlog/180763/zip-copy-of-the-game-version-20200923hs-files

Cheers ToeKnee~ we're trying to keep the gaming to the weekend (too many screens inside/outside school right now). Looking forward to playing your game in a few days!

[milkanannan]

Zniw Adventure looks like it should be suitable when it comes out.
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50635.0

Oh yeah 100% my son is going to love this thanks for the heads up!

[cat]

LOVED Toffee Trouble! Very nice game! We'll try the other titles a little later this week. Thanks for the recommendations!

Thanks! This makes me very happy  (the other games are a bit shorter, don't be disappointed!)

[milkanannan]

(double post)

[milkanannan]

(the other games are a bit shorter, don't be disappointed!)

Oh man you're in trouble. Nothing more unforgiving than the scrutiny of a five year old (kidding)

[heltenjon]

In the mood for halloween, this Mandle gem works fine as a single player for kids:Trick or treat simulator.

While the game/activity is rigged for multiplayer of sorts (sending files to each other), my kids had fun using the Continue button to play both the owner of the house and the trick-or-treater. It's made somewhat like the dress up games some kids like, so I guess you know if this is something for your child or not.

[CaptainD]

I forgot the very first game I made with AGS, "Spot the Difference", is very kid friendly!
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1977-spot-the-difference/