demagogue on 13/8/2019 at 04:01
Gone Home & What Remains of Edith Finch is made for teens/tweens.
Minecraft has fan-made adventure maps, and a lot of them are basically walking sims geared towards a younger crowd. They're fun, but you have to do some digging to find good ones and you have to install them.
McTaffer on 13/8/2019 at 05:50
Quote Posted by Gryzemuis
I've only played a few minutes of Journey. Just to check it out. I want to play the game some time later. It seemed like a nice, friendly, bright game. A bit mysterious. Maybe I am completely wrong. Did others play it, and finish it ? I have no idea what the game is about. Would it be suitable for children ?
Of course it's not first-person, there might not be NPCs to interact with, and it might lack other qualities that Heywood is asking for. :) But from the first few minutes that I played, I got the impression that it might be a nice game for kids.
I've only finished it once, but I'd call it pretty kid friendly generally. It's not particularly long though, and designed to be played in one shot (it's about 2-3 hours). There are no real NPCs to speak of, but in a certain area another player will spontaneously show up. There's no way of communicating other than movement and a single cryptic symbol that you're randomly assigned, and you don't even find out their username until the very end. Flower (another game by the same developer which has already been mentioned) is also broadly similar in that it's definitely kid friendly, but it's not very gamey.
Antichamber might be worth considering, but it's got many of the same pitfalls as other games mentioned here in that its puzzles can be quite dense, with the additional pitfall that the game is designed to be an incomprehensible surreal labyrinth. It has no violence of any kind, however. You can't even die- the worst thing that can happen is you get lost. In comparison (or by really any scale), Portal and Portal 2 would be a decent option just out of sheer accessibility.
While it's not first person, A Hat in Time has a decent amount of exploration in a
mostly kid friendly setting. There are some adult jokes here and there, but by and large I'd say that they'd fly over kids heads unnoticed. There's also one specific level (anyone who's played it knows what I'm talking about) which is decidedly more intense than the others, because it just turns into straight up survival horror. It's only a single level, though, and it is kind of optional.
Also, though it may go without saying in this particular forum, the original Thief games wouldn't actually be all that bad of a starting point, with some parental discretion depending on how old the kids actually are. I was allowed to start playing them when I was 9 or 10 and I turned out alright. I'd watched my Dad play them when I was much younger as well. A few of the horror levels might be a little intense, but I got through them at that age. There's a few FMs that are exploration only out there, but if you have a little Dromed know-how, you could probably make custom versions of most of the levels enemy free and just let the kids rip through them unopposed.
The Rollercoaster Tycoon games are neither first person nor exploration based, but I had a great time with them when I was getting into gaming at a young age. Planet Coaster is a more contemporary re-imagining which would work equally well. I also spent many hours in both Stronghold Crusader and Dungeon Keeper 2 at a fairly young age (I think maybe 7 or 8).
Also, while this suggestion may sound silly, I did play Serious Sam in co-op with my Dad fairly young. It was my first FPS, and the relative simplicity in combination with its Hippie Mode (which turns all the gore into flowers and fruit) was just the right combination. It's also got some platforming and pseudo-exploration, and very little in the way of language or mature themes. In fact, I think Serious Sam is kind of the embodiment of
immature themes. The Second Encounter has at least two fart jokes that I can think of offhand.
Sulphur on 13/8/2019 at 06:56
Supraland sounds right up their street. I haven't played it, but every review I've read makes it out to be rather good. There is some fighting, but it's nothing you wouldn't see in a Saturday morning cartoon (cartoonish skeletons, etc.). If you're concerned about the amount of fighting, there's a pie chart at the end of this trailer (yes, really).
[video=youtube;72n73HN29n0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72n73HN29n0[/video]
Or if you really want pacifist puzzling, there's... hang on, let me rummage around the backlog - here we go:
The Witness (possibly too difficult?)
Rime (not first person, also tweeest ending)
Flower (Epic store only, also a bit... flowery)
Journey/Abzu (not first person, also fairly short, *Journey is an Epic store exclusive)
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles (not first person; also features a lot of building and crafting stuff)
FAR: Lone Sails (2.5D, but absolutely beautiful in a stark apocalyptic way, also possibly the best music in an indie game in ages)
Out of the lot, Yonder's the one I'd say most fits your criteria - except it's third person.
I'd also throw Quern and Aporia: Beyond the Valley out there, but they're very Myst-inspired and thus the puzzling may be too difficult depending on how old your kids are. If you feel that's not a problem, Obduction would also possibly beguile or bore them (or more probably, quantum superposit itself for the duration) accordingly.
Oh yeah, also props to qolelis for mentioning Eastshade. It's a beautiful, easy-going game about finding things to paint photograph. It fits all of your criteria to a tee. Yes, it's a bit uncanny in its talking animals universe, but since when did any of us grow up with stories and art that weren't at least a bit weird?
qolelis on 13/8/2019 at 11:27
Quote Posted by qolelis
Shape of the WorldNot a real world setting, though, and instead very stylised (flat-shaded).
Quote Posted by qolelis
Aporia: Beyond The ValleyI just replayed it a bit and had forgotten how linear it is, not a lot of side-exploration and no creative climbing allowed at all -- which I think is a shame, because the environments really make you want to wander off before moving forward, so for exploration there are better games. No NPCs to speak of. Still beautiful, though.
Marecki on 13/8/2019 at 11:29
Amazing no-one has mentioned Dear Esther here yet. Between the visuals, the ambient sound and the slow pace of the story I find it extremely meditative... and it does offer quite a lot of exploration potential, if only to find yet another bit of rock markings.
That's all I've got as far as first-person games are concerned but I'll mention some more titles because they are IMHO definitely worth having a look at:
- I would highly recommend Beyond Eyes. Absolutely beautiful, the core gameplay concept has been very nicely executed and while it is a bit sad at times, I have ultimately found it uplifting;
- A Bird Story is pretty good too if you don't mind the retro graphics, although this one is more of an interactive story than an exploration game;
- Somewhat surprisingly, I would say FEZ is in fact a pretty good exploration game - my son has been playing in this fashion and he really enjoys it. If you play it to finish rather than to find all the secrets the puzzles aren't that difficult and you can concentrate on taking the world in;
- Finally, do keep Night in the Woods in mind because it is absolutely great. You might want to leave it for a bit later though, as there are some disturbing bits there.
Judith on 13/8/2019 at 12:37
Noone mentioned it because it's not really for kids (they'll probably find it's literary bits pretentious).
Marecki on 13/8/2019 at 22:06
Quote Posted by Judith
Noone mentioned it because it's not really for kids
Nor is
Firewatch, or
Gone Home for that matter.
Judith on 13/8/2019 at 22:28
Gone Home actually is more for teens, Firewatch is a quite dark towards the end. Dear Esther is kind of the most obvious choice, at least video games history-wise, and that's why it wasn't mentioned. Sure, it was important at the time, but from today's perspective the pacing isn't its strongest suit (and from kids perspective I suspect it will be even more boring).
Arcatera on 13/8/2019 at 22:35
I am surprised that no one has mentioned The Stanley Parable.