Here on GOG you might try Treasure Adventure Game (which is free). It's a simple side scrolling platformer/adventure game. The controls are fairly simple and while I haven't finished it, I don't remember anything too grim or dark during the parts I played. Since it's free you could always try it yourself first without losing anything than a few minutes of your time.

<span class="bold">Triple Town</span> is another game suitable for kids.

The one game I can truly recommend is the epic sandbox experience Minecraft!

There's a few game on GOG that I can recommend too:
Pinball Gold Pack - solid arcade pinball. Instant gratification!
Race the Sun - slightly more punishing, since this is 'roguelike' ... you race 'til you crash - game over! But this is a really solid arcade racer.

Since you mostly mention story-heavy games, I'll echo the recommendation for Broken Age.
Stacking and Costume Quest too.

As far as non-thinky games, speaking of platformers, the Rayman series would also be highly recommended.
Also, Race the Sun or the Bit.Trip.Runner games.

Off of gog there are the Toki Tori games and Scribblenauts (although that would probably be more enjoyed on a handheld).

Not yet mentioned, and on GOG: Terraria, The Manhole, Simon the Sorcerer I/II, and the Creatures series.

Treasure Adventure Game is even free!

Did anyone say Snapshot

I thought of 2, but it had a bit of tiresome snarky teenage humour, and 1 didn't have voice acting iirc, so it might be troublesome for a kid to read through all that.

Come to think of it, actually, I shouldn't be thinking down at kids! I played all those adventure games at that age...unfortunately, experience with kids today seems to show otherwise.

I used to play the shit out of The Incredible Machine (available on GOG, hooray) when I was that age. The games do show their age a bit, but maybe your kid won't mind.

Downfall.

No, just kidding, I don't want to be accused of creating a little psycho of your kid.


I was going to suggest Botanicula as my first option but I see I'm late. Other genres and games you could try out:
Platformers: Rayman, Psychonauts, etc.
Management/building strategy: Theme Park, Rollercoaster Tycoon, etc.
Shoot 'em ups: Aqua Kitty, Raptor, etc.

Must they be something recent? Games I played as a kid are very dated now.

We had a lot of fun with Prehistorik back then. Not available on GOG though.

There is also Earthworm Jim, which is on GOG.

Journey of a Roach:

A short but fun, low stress & puzzle driven adventure for the whole family. Finally, a game that finds the ideal balance between being neither too hard for beginners nor too easy for veterans. It can be comfortably finished in one evening but despite its short length, this game is packed with puzzles that feel like the designers made them to ENTERTAIN you rather than stop you in your tracks. Aside from a very basic understanding of electricity, no outside knowledge is required. All the puzzles are clued, creative but logical and don’t feel rehashed. No pixel hunting due to hotspot highlighting and no annoying timed puzzles, only one short sequence where you need to be careful where you’re crawling - thanks to the super simple controls hardly a challenge and you can’t die.
Progression is entirely linear and tiresome backtracking is non existent. You can crawl on walls and the entire world will turn around with you, thankfully it’s not all too disorienting as the level design is simple and compact. Crawling on walls is a fun feature and a key aspect of the game yet never feels like a gimmick. Interaction with the environment is very limited but it's an acceptable price to pay for such a well designed, streamlined and frustration-free experience. The only bugs you'll encounter are the cute little fat ones you get to eat in-game, and even those are optional so no worries. As in Machinarium or Gomo, there is no spoken dialogue and not much of a story beyond the “rescue your friend and reach surface” premise. Instead, you get light-hearted slapstick humor and charming characters who mumble in a hilarious non intelligible language reminiscent of Pingu the penguin.
Sadly, the game is all too short so if price for value is important to you, you might want to wait for a sale (which is now!). Not as magical as Machinarium but Journey of a Roach is a very charming game that perfectly succeeds at what it intends to do.

PS: One of the puzzles involves electricity and might be too hard for a 7-year old to solve on their own so you might have to lend a helping hand there. The game in general could be too difficult for a child this young but it's a great entry into the world of point & click adventures once someone has progressed far enough that games like Gomo or Botanicula are not challenging enough. I think games like The Journey of a Roach makes kids smarter, unlike most "twitch reflex" games.

My 7 years old son likes Z. I know it is all about shooting and war but at least those are all robots.
He also played Sid Meier's Pirates! (2005 remake) and Overboard

The Gobliiins series.

What about Dust: An elysian tail or Legend of Kyrandia or maybe The incredible machine


or Theme Hospital :D

I just started a thread on a similar theme:

Which GOG games have been played by todays kids?