I will include here a list of GOG games that my 8 year old daughter has enjoyed playing:

- Terraria (she really likes this and plays it a lot on Xbox as well as PC)
- FTL
- Pharaoh/Cleopatra (she like the idea of this, but it was too hard for her to get into)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III (she likes the easier/tutorial levels)
- Steamworld Dig

Games she likes to watch me play and has tried but are a bit too hard for her to enjoy playing on her own:

- Trine
- Trine 2
- Spelunky
- Don't Starve
- Kingdom Rush
- Pixeljunk Monsters
- Triple Town

Other non GOG games she's played quite a bit and really liked:

- Pinball Arcade
- Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed
- Sonic Generations
- Plants vs Zombies

I hope that helps some!

I agree about Stronghold and the managerial games, but then again some children are pretty intelligent for their age. The reason I mentioned those games is that they are not as abstract as other games: in Stronghold you have your little villagers walking around and working and every step in the production chain makes sense, like growing wheat, making it into flour and finally baking bread out of it.

But as I said, the best thing would be to just get them a Nintendo, Sega or, as you mentioned, an Atari. Those games are fun, easy to play and well-suited for children.

Please do! I would be very interested in it. Sharing experiences and the occasional encouragement when things get rough are good!

In Plants VS Zombies you repeatedly places units on a 5x9 grid.
In Broken Age you repeatedly search locations for objects to overcome the current obstacle.
I don't really see either of them being all that much better than the other.
Figuring out the solution to an obstacle in an adventure gaming can require quite a bit of thinking outside the box, even if there's only one solution. On the other hand, when I played Plants VS Zombies and did my best to optimize my economy while still keeping up an effective defence, I got this feeling that thousands of players had played the exact same level in the exact same way.

I say avoid anything that's text heavy. Games that are easy to get into and don't require much reading would be best, ones with good visuals.

I'd say quite a few SNES/Genesis games that are puzzles, including Columns, Tetris, Platformers like Megaman (any of them). More action oriented or puzzle... I always loved Top Gear 2, F-zero might be a good choice as well.

If you do PS2, then Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2 might work, the plot isn't as important as going through the dungeons/sewers for a while.

I recall some good games for Atari PC's, although i'd have to look it up and it would probably require emulation...


As for PC:

Whacky Wheels, Triple Town, MineSweeper (once you manually explain the rules)...

You might be able to do A Bard's Tale, or Sudeki, fully voice acted could help a bit...

Desktop Dungeons, (the original; The plot/town management in the paid version might be too much)

Battle Chess perhaps if they know chess already, might teach them how to move the pieces, and set the computer for the lowest setting possible.

If they don't care too much for visuals, first/second Ultima might work.

The Manhole from Cyan is a game especially made for kids, and is on GOG.

I noticed that kids don't care at all about graphics unless they've already been spoiled by modern graphics.
As I mentioned, my best friend is raising his kids on a diet of Atari 2600, C64 and Amiga games and they love that stuff.

So for kids who don't care about modern AAA graphics, you can't go wrong with the time-defying classics from the GOG catalog:

-Super Frog
-Hocus Pocus
-Gex

If graphics do matter to them, then Rayman Origins is where it's at, as Leroux has already mentioned.

And then there's all that more recent platformer/puzzle stuff which I'm sure has an appeal to most kids, here are some that haven't been recommended yet:

--Mousecraft
-Teslagrad
-Gateways
-Clarc
-Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack
-Ethan: Meteor Hunter
-Chronology

If your kids like puzzles more than platforming, here's a personal secret gem recommendation plus it's entirely for free:

Nanobots by Erin Robinson:
http://livelyivy.com/?page_id=73

This is a short, very cute an surprisingly clever point & click adventure game focusing on solving puzzles with a team of little robots, each of which has a special ability. This game requires lateral thinking and team coordination, I fully approve of this even for grown-ups!

Truly some kids are surprisingly smart, now that I think about it Stronghold is one of the easier RTS games to learn.
I completely forgot that you can turn down the difficulty to easy which would make the game a cakewalk and suitable even for novice players.
There are a couple unbalanced difficulty spikes in the game but that only applies to higher difficulties. There are two siege missions in the campaign that are tough as nails on the higher difficulties. Talking about the current patched version, not the old version where you could do tricks like shooting from a blind spot behind some rocks without getting hit yourself.
And then there's the economic mission number 7 called 'The Wolves' (not to be confused with an earlier, easier mission which also features wolves). This is the single hardest mission of anything in Stronghold & Stronghold Crusader. If any 7-year old can pull that off on anything higher then normal difficulty, I'll be seriously puzzled. In general, kids like challenges but don't seem to like excruciatingly punishing difficulty.

Wow, a huge THANKS everyone, for all your replies !

So, here on GOG, and suitable for kids... so far I got :

- Beatbuddy (bought yesterday)
- Botanicula (bought yesterday)
- Fez
- Gobliiiins pack
- Gomo
- Inner world (is this one suitable for kids ?)
- Kyrandia series
- Machinarium
- Pixeljunk Shooter
- Sam & Max series (maybe still a bit difficult for a 7 years old... ?)
- Shelter
- Tales of Monkey Island (maybe a bit complicated too ?)
- Terraria
- Theme Hospital, Theme Park (oldies but goodies)
- Treasure Adventure Game
- Trine 2
- Triple Town (just bought it)
- Tyrian 2000
- Unmechanical
- Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures (seems not available anymore)


They look great but I hesitate / wait (to have more money, or a (better) promo) :

- Aqua Kitty
- Battle Chess (I have to learn him how to play chess first)
- Broken Age Season Pass (woaaa, graphics... but still quite expensive)
- Chronology (seems interesting... but a bit short)
- CLARC (looks like WALL-E :) but seems quite hard...)
- Don't Starve (I've never heard about that one... sounds really cool, maybe more for me :))
- Dust: An elysian tail (looks very beautiful too)
- Giana Sisters : Twisted Dreams
- Incredible Machines (back in 1994, I used to play Sid & Al incredible Toons... it's quite the same I think ?... it looks really old now...)
- Mousecraft
- Pid
- Pinball Gold Pack (why not... !)
- Raptor (I think I already have a game like that... [EDIT] Tyrian 2000 ![/EDIT])
- Rayman Origins (looks great !!)
- SimCity 2000 (I already have SimCity 4, but find it too difficult for my son)
- Snapshot
- Spelunky ([EDIT]-80% right now ! hummm... temptation[/EDIT]).
- Steamworld Dig
- Teslagrad (comments says that the gameplay is hard...)
- Worms 2
- Z (never played... the graphics remind me Dune 2000 !)


Hmmm... definitely no, thanks.

- Downfall (lol)



Reading is not a problem, but in French only for the moment (I think about Manhole for example)...
He also plays World of Goo on my phone !
And Minecraft and Terraria on my PC...
Scribblenauts, LEGO games (indiana jones, starwars and... eerrr... a third one), harvest moon, animal crossing, plants vs zombies, and many pokemons, on his NDS ; and Mario Party and Mario Kart on the Wii.

Worms... Prehistorik... such good memories... not Earthworm Jim (to me !) : I remember this one was really hard :D
I try to introduce as many "old" games than new ones, so old graphics (you mention for example Hocus Pocus, Gex... or Gobliiins... or the Atari ones) aren't a problem really. I'm glad of that. I started on an Apple II :)

FPS, at this age, really... ? ô_ô

I think I'll try Algodoo and Nanobots too ; they sound cool, and plus they're free... Thanks for all your suggestions, on GOG or not, and emulation (NES, SNES...) too ; I'll try to find that.

I can't wait to show him Tales of Monkey Island... and all the old LucasArts point & click series in general (and also Kyrandia 1, 2, 3) ; I really love these ones ; that's how I really became videogame "addicted" :) ... he already knows Sam & Max (old and recent ones)...

I have Torchlight but it seems a bit hard to play for a kid... not tried it yet though. SimCity and Rollercoaster Tycoon series too... I think I'll wait 2 more years. Also : Heroes of Might and Magic II & III, Pharaoh/Cleopatra... I'll wait a bit (and I think they're all in english anyway...)

Thanks again for all your advice !! I'll keep an eye on this thread.

In general I'd say yes, but it depends on the kid's and the parents' sensitivity (is this the right word?). There are some light allusions to sexuality (that will probably go over a kids' head or not interest it much), some black humor (e.g. a chatty forest creature talking about how poisonous it is and what happens when people touch it - which kids might find either creepy or hilarious) and there's the theme of people being turned to stone by some kind of dragons (which might scare some kids) and the main character being an orphan who's lost his parents (which could be sad or shocking for kids at some points). But all in all it's all very cartoony, fairy-tale-like and funny.

It's not that difficult but not exactly easy for newcomers to point-and-click adventures either, as it does have some weird puzzle logic occasionally. I'd say it's best suited to be played together by adult and kid for this reason and also in case the kid feels the need to talk about the story, ask questions or look for some backup in case it gets scary (it isn't really scary, more on the level of Guybrush vs. LeChuck at the end of Monkey Island 2, but I know a former kid who was scared of LeChuck, too, back in the days).

EDIT: But it seems it only supports German and English - no French. :(


Maybe the Chex Quest trilogy. ;) (AFAIK it's available for free.)

This reminds me of two other games i don't know if were mentioned...

TALES FROM SPACE: MUTANT BLOBS ATTACK
GUACAMELEE

Now i'm wondering what other games might be good... Let's glance at my vast library and see if anything else stands out that isn't on your list...

Beat Buddy
Cannon Fodder
Escape Goat
Evoland (a little text heavy but nothing too complicated)
FTL (Although text heavy, usually it's battles... and nice visuals)
Hammerwatch
Luftausers
Moto Racer (It's bike racing... can't go wrong)
OctoDad (control an octopus.. can't go wrong :P )
Race the sun
Rayman
Sacred Gold (if they are patient, lots of side quests... nothing important though)
Unepic (a little heavy on text... and references...)
vvvvvv
WindForge

It's your lucky day: Today a whole bunch of puzzle games are on sale. It's a really good deal, just purchased it myself even though I'm not super crazy about puzzle games.

The bundle inlcudes Mousecraft which usually costs more than 150% of the bundle's price so the bundle is worth it for that alone, plus there's Tetrobot & Co, Q.U.B.E., Clarc and Blocks That Matter. All in all a pretty good selection, I usually avoid bundles because they include crap I don't want but in your case this is a cheap investment for 5 games that will keep your kid happy for quite a while, even if it doesn't end up liking all the 5 games.

http://www.gog.com/promo/big_fall_indie_puzzlers_bundle_161114

Wow, thanks for this clarification :) this is very clear ! Too bad it isn't in french...

Haha, not bad :D I didn't know, Chex Quest...

I got Beatbuddy :) and tested yesterday, it's very nice.
Escape Goat seems good too.
Octodad looks hilarious :D too bad it isn't on sale !...
Do you know if Rayman Origins comes in the flash sales ?

I just bought the whole pack too :D yay !!!
Thanks for this advice !