The Game Recommendation For Your Kids thread

cheesycrouton wrote:

Small tangent: Before they play any first-person pc game, I ALWAYS remap WASD to ESDF. I want them to have proper human typing skills. They don't even know that WASD exists. =)

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cheesycrouton wrote:
Fastmav347 wrote:

you guys must have super gaming kids, I can't even picture my 4 year old playing a game, my two girls 6 and 8 are finally getting the hang of some of the simple games now.

It just comes down to expectations. Most games, the 3yo simply holds down the "A" button. He's just starting to realize when we hand him a controller with no batteries and he's not actually doing anything. I do get a kick out of helping them through difficult platforming parts. =) Like jrralls said, kids are all different. Some games they might not like at all. The most fun we have is when we can all play at the same time. Doesn't matter if it's co-op or versus.

Small tangent: Before they play any first-person pc game, I ALWAYS remap WASD to ESDF. I want them to have proper human typing skills. They don't even know that WASD exists. =)

Wait, do people play WASD not with pinkey through middle finger? That is how I always played as it was how I typed. Leaves index finger to get RFVTGB if needed.

Hobear wrote:

Wait, do people play WASD not with pinkey through middle finger? That is how I always played as it was how I typed. Leaves index finger to get RFVTGB if needed.

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Hobear wrote:
cheesycrouton wrote:
Fastmav347 wrote:

you guys must have super gaming kids, I can't even picture my 4 year old playing a game, my two girls 6 and 8 are finally getting the hang of some of the simple games now.

It just comes down to expectations. Most games, the 3yo simply holds down the "A" button. He's just starting to realize when we hand him a controller with no batteries and he's not actually doing anything. I do get a kick out of helping them through difficult platforming parts. =) Like jrralls said, kids are all different. Some games they might not like at all. The most fun we have is when we can all play at the same time. Doesn't matter if it's co-op or versus.

Small tangent: Before they play any first-person pc game, I ALWAYS remap WASD to ESDF. I want them to have proper human typing skills. They don't even know that WASD exists. =)

Wait, do people play WASD not with pinkey through middle finger? That is how I always played as it was how I typed. Leaves index finger to get RFVTGB if needed.

Nope, that's the crux of the conflict. Since you have to shift your hand to the left to use WASD (and ring, middle, and index finger) some players prefer ESDF, which keeps your hand on the proper keys for touch-typing.

However, I think you've bridged the gap between WASD & ESDF players. Well done! [slow clap]

cheesycrouton wrote:
Hobear wrote:
cheesycrouton wrote:
Fastmav347 wrote:

you guys must have super gaming kids, I can't even picture my 4 year old playing a game, my two girls 6 and 8 are finally getting the hang of some of the simple games now.

It just comes down to expectations. Most games, the 3yo simply holds down the "A" button. He's just starting to realize when we hand him a controller with no batteries and he's not actually doing anything. I do get a kick out of helping them through difficult platforming parts. =) Like jrralls said, kids are all different. Some games they might not like at all. The most fun we have is when we can all play at the same time. Doesn't matter if it's co-op or versus.

Small tangent: Before they play any first-person pc game, I ALWAYS remap WASD to ESDF. I want them to have proper human typing skills. They don't even know that WASD exists. =)

Wait, do people play WASD not with pinkey through middle finger? That is how I always played as it was how I typed. Leaves index finger to get RFVTGB if needed.

Nope, that's the crux of the conflict. Since you have to shift your hand to the left to use WASD (and ring, middle, and index finger) some players prefer ESDF, which keeps your hand on the proper keys for touch-typing.

However, I think you've bridged the gap between WASD & ESDF players. Well done! [slow clap]

Where do I pick up my award?

As an ESDF player, I cannot imagine pinky through ring fingers. That’s wild. The advantage of ESDF outside of staying on home keys is the extra left side real estate is creates. My pinky does a lot. The downside is I can never ask people what the key binds are.

I was a typist first, so ESDF all the way!

Antichulius wrote:

As an ESDF player, I cannot imagine pinky through ring fingers. That’s wild. The advantage of ESDF outside of staying on home keys is the extra left side real estate is creates. My pinky does a lot. The downside is I can never ask people what the key binds are.

I was a typist first, so ESDF all the way!

I don't think my fingers even bend the right way to use pinky-middle for movement. Maybe I could get used to it but it feels super awkward and weak. Anyway I use the pinky too, for ctrl and shift in FPS games at least. (Plus as an old Emacs guy I'm used to needing a finger free for escape-meta-alt-control-shift. )

My son Tripp is five years old. He is just learning how to read.

I’m going to turn on voice to text now and let him talk

Tripp, “I am Tripp. I like Pokémon because it’s super cool and I really like cool charcters and all the Pokémon balls.”

Trip can read on his own a little bit, and much better when his daddy help him.

Which Pokémon game would be best for him to play, and practice his reading?

jrralls wrote:

Tripp, “I am Tripp. I like Pokémon because it’s super cool and I really like cool charcters and all the Pokémon balls.”

Which Pokémon game would be best for him to play, and practice his reading?

That is so cute! Have you considered waiting for the ones that are coming to Switch in November? If you're thinking of playing together to help Tripp with his reading then the Switch ones have a couch co-op mode. Plus they're designed for players who have come to the franchise through Pokémon Go so, in theory, they should be less complicated than other main series entries.

Of the 3DS ones I'd recommend avoiding Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. They're remakes of older games and navigating the world map would probably be a little harder/frustrating for a young child. Really, they were probably designed with older fans in mind. Apart from that I'd say any of the newer ones would be good. Sun/Moon are nice and upbeat, and there's a little bit less of an emphasis on battling than previous entries. I haven't played Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon but they were very popular when they came out.

(Part of me wants to say that he should start with Red and Blue like I did... but that's probably not the way you wanna go!)

I hope you find one that Tripp enjoys!

I'm really blown away by what my 6 year old is playing. I kept setting him up with classic arcade games, games like bit-trip runner which had easy controls etc. He seemed somewhat interested, but would get bored/frustrated pretty quickly. One day he saw me playing Planet Coaster, and we spent an afternoon with him telling me what roller coaster to put where, where I was playing the game and he was playing supervisor.

Since then he had been bugging me to install Planet Coaster on his machine, an old desktop I knew wouldn't be able to run it. So I installed Parkitect, and Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 and 3. He likes Parkitect and Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 the best because of the Isometric views are easier for him to control. I guess it's his Minecraft, because he just has so much fun building and designing coasters, because it's his "thing" now after us recently going to Cedar Point, and all he talks about is coasters.

I had to help him out a few times, where he did things like build the coaster backwards (put the lift hill and the chain at the end of the coaster, not at the start) and he occasionally gets frustrated with putting paths down, but he is super into it, playing it a ton and it would never have been something I would have considered introducing him to if he hadn't seen me play it and asked to play it.

Moral of the story, play games in front of your kids, if they seem interested, give it a shot, even if you think it is way over their head. They may surprise you.

Managed to get some *4 player Overcooked in with my wife, 4 year old and 2 year old on an unpowered controller (hence the *) and it was good fun. Not sure we will get past level 5 or 6 for a loooong time hah.

Just noticed this on Steam, Viki Spotter Space Mission, on sale %75 off until September 4th. Going to pick it up and see how it goes. Looks like a good 'introduction to mouse controls' kind of game. I'll post in here about it once we play it (dont hold your breath).

Also, Donut County looks like it could be a kids game contender, added to my wishlist for when it goes on sale...

Are there any retro games, thinking about the Oregon Trail, that people think would hold up for a kid in 2018?

My kids love the PuttPutt series of games from the early '90s. Not quite Oregon Trail classic, but still fun for them. Picked them up on Steam and they play them on their computer. Since the Steam versions are just the roms running on ScummVM I installed ScummVM on their android tablet and they play them there too

troubleshot wrote:

Also, Donut County looks like it could be a kids game contender, added to my wishlist for when it goes on sale...

There are a couple of puzzle levels and boss fights that might be too difficult for the kids, but most of the levels are pretty accessible.

Anyone have a good recommendation for a good chess program for a six-year-old?

My wife wants to brag and say that he’s a really advanced six-year-old.

If you can get it to run on a modern machine Majestic Chess is quite good for beginners. It has a "story" mode that teaches beginners how to play.
https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/hoy...

I need some recommendations for educational style games on Nintendo DS that would be good for kids between 6-9, we currently have couple of the brain age games, but I was wondering if there are others.

Flagging another 'introduction to gaming' game, the Australian made title Paperbark has come to steam (was iOS only previously I think) and I'm watching my daughter play it right now, it's gorgeous and easy with no fail states, just exploration (and item collecting if you want). Great aesthetic and sound design, very evocative of the Australian bush.

Full game runs about an hour to 90 minutes but with little items to find and being so pretty, could have a fair bit of replayability for little ones.
We played it with my touch screen laptop hooked up to the TV, doesn't seem to have controller support and is designed for touch screen but a mouse works fine and could be a reasonable introduction to using a mouse though the cursor is a bit small for first time users to follow.

Anyone know much about dance/rythm games? Wondering what game/platform would be most accessible to a young audience, daughter 5 and 2.5...

troubleshot wrote:

Anyone know much about dance/rythm games? Wondering what game/platform would be most accessible to a young audience, daughter 5 and 2.5...

I've got one of the Just Dance games (on Switch) cued up for my daughter's 5th birthday next month. Demo available on the eShop - we played the one dance in the demo and she liked it, albeit that it's a chance to jump around in front of the telly more than it is about perfecting her moves.

DDR is going to be waaaay too demanding for that age, I reckon. Dance Central if you've got a Kinect lying around is probably a safe bet.

Thanks Jonman, either way I'm going to need to buy hardware as I have no consoles. I feel like the Switch would have the best options for titles I currently don't own and family friendly titles, will have a look at how the switch monitors player movement/dance.

troubleshot wrote:

Thanks Jonman, either way I'm going to need to buy hardware as I have no consoles. I feel like the Switch would have the best options for titles I currently don't own and family friendly titles, will have a look at how the switch monitors player movement/dance.

I'll save you the bother - you hold a joycon in one hand.

It's super not accurate, but "good enough", from the demo.

Bought Hidden Paws Mystery for my 5 year old on steam (US$5) and its a good step up in hidden object games where you need to find all of the cats and balls of yarn in the level, has a nice aesthetic with chests and doors to open and pottery to smash if you want. Entirely mouse controlled using 'left-click and move' to move the camera orthogonally, scroll wheel to zoom and 'right-click and move' to control rotating the camera, definitely requires some previous experience using a mouse on screen as the rotation is required to find some of the better hidden kitties. It's cute and good.

Wondering if anyone else is interested in working on a brief primer for the front page of this thread (pending OP Jonman's approval of course). I'm thinking something along the line of a list of recommended games within age brackets and also include some relevant/required skills to play and details like whether it has fail states. Some links to advice on what constitutes healthy amounts of screen time too perhaps..?

My 7 year old daughter just played through Donut County, she's not super good at games and the ps4 controller is a bit too big for her, but she managed most of the game herself, only had to help on one puzzle and the final boss fight.

troubleshot wrote:

Wondering if anyone else is interested in working on a brief primer for the front page of this thread (pending OP Jonman's approval of course). I'm thinking something along the line of a list of recommended games within age brackets and also include some relevant/required skills to play and details like whether it has fail states. Some links to advice on what constitutes healthy amounts of screen time too perhaps..?

I'm happy to update the OP with whatever folk think is useful.

I’m considering setting up Civ 1 on my son’s PC (he is six) where he starts with 1000000 gold or whatever so it wouldn’t be too hard for him. Anyone ever set up cheats for kids so games won’t be too hard for them while they learn how to play? Does it work?

jrralls wrote:

I’m considering setting up Civ 1 on my son’s PC (he is six) where he starts with 1000000 gold or whatever so it wouldn’t be too hard for him. Anyone ever set up cheats for kids so games won’t be too hard for them while they learn how to play? Does it work?

While I'm not sure if it is a "cheat" my 7 year old loves playing Cities Skylines, or Roller Coaster Tycoon, or Sid Meier's Railroads in Sandbox mode where he can just play with building what he wants without worrying about the economy of things

jrralls wrote:

I’m considering setting up Civ 1 on my son’s PC (he is six) where he starts with 1000000 gold or whatever so it wouldn’t be too hard for him. Anyone ever set up cheats for kids so games won’t be too hard for them while they learn how to play? Does it work?

I built no-death Mario maker boards for my daughter when she was 4. She enjoyed it and learned the basics, but never wanted move beyond and then got bored and moved on. Now that she’s nearly 6, she may be less concerned about dying, but I’ve not brought it back yet.

jrralls wrote:

I’m considering setting up Civ 1 on my son’s PC (he is six) where he starts with 1000000 gold or whatever so it wouldn’t be too hard for him. Anyone ever set up cheats for kids so games won’t be too hard for them while they learn how to play? Does it work?

Not quite the same but I love games that have kid helper modes to make it easier for the child to learn while still providing the failure/learning loop. Mario Kart on Switch has a mode where it helps them steer a little so they don’t drive off cliffs. Mario Odyssey has a mode that prevents them from drowning and lets them heal by standing still but still requires them to learn the mechanics and make their way through the game, albeit in a less punishing way.

I actually find Mario to be a great way to teach kids to try again when they fail because the penalty for failing is small and the payoff is fun (with periods of frustration). Worked great with my daughter. Just starting to try it with my son.