Kid friendly AGS game recommendations?

Started by milkanannan, Thu 03/09/2020 08:14:05

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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

#1
(Please feel free to shamelessly post your own game if it fits the above description! :grin:)

Slasher

#2
You could try Let's cook....lots of recopies to cook and safety tips and you can print out certificates of your achievements  (nod)

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!  :grin:

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

#6
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.  (nod)

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...  :-[
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

heltenjon

Quote from: Cassiebsg on Thu 03/09/2020 17:38:57
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

Quote from: heltenjon on Thu 03/09/2020 17:55:36
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. (laugh) 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

Quote from: Racoon on Thu 03/09/2020 20:49:29
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

#17
Quote from: milkanannan on Fri 04/09/2020 04:15:30
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

Quote from: Ponch on Fri 04/09/2020 04:19:11
Came here to suggest Apple Farm but its already been recommended. So how about RAM Ghost?

Great game!  :~(

milkanannan

Quote from: Racoon on Thu 03/09/2020 20:49:29
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!

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