I would highly recommend the Trine series if they like fantasy stuff. My kids were about the same age as your 2 older kids and they both loved the first Trine and we played the second and third games as they came out. The first game is rated 10+ so you may want to look into it and see if it's appropriate for your kids but for me personally I did not find anything offensive or violent about it. You can find the first one here: http://www.gog.com/game/trine_enchanted_edition

Try the awesome The Night of the Rabbit. It is a magic journey for you and your children! Great story, beautiful artwork and amazing music. An interactive fairy-tail.

( video 1 ) ( video 2 )

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a nice kid-friendly puzzle platformer, and currently discounted on Steam (until dec 1st). Not sure if it's good for kids as young as yours though, as there is one big scary monster you sometimes have to run from, and while it's not about fighting and killing, occasionally you have to dispose of mean goblins by using your environment and creating traps (IIRC they'll vanish in a cloud of smoke when defeated).

Fight the Dragon might work as a kids game, too, on easier difficulties, and you can build your own levels with blocks, but it is about fighting (and killing), so probably not what you're looking for. Same goes for and [url=http://www.gog.com/game/oceanhorn_monster_of_uncharted_seas]Oceanhorn here on GOG.

Lili: Child of Geos is a short and simple exploration game, it does have fights but IIRC no killing or dying, and the fights are comparatively harmless (you sit on top of funny monsters and quickly have to pull flowers from their head).

Also check out Botanicula, it's non-violent and like an interactive children's book. You click on things on the screen and watch what happens. It does contain some dark themes and scary creatures (e.g. spider-like dark bugs that suck the life out of everything they touch and let plants wither), so if your kids are easily scared, maybe that could be an issue, but check out the trailer and reviews and see for yourself.

World of Goo and are kid-friendly puzzle games (which doesn't necessarily mean they're that easy to beat though). [url=http://www.gog.com/game/tri]TRI is also great, but possibly a little too difficult? You have to create your own stairs by drawing triangles. Snapshot is a cute and harmless puzzle platformer, but maybe a bit boring, depending on how patient your children are (not much action).

Never Alone is another kid-friendly platformer reminding of a children's book, and you can play it co-op (as girl and fox). It involves some serious themes and somewhat creepy creatures though.

Tiny Bang Story is a relaxing hidden object game, it might work if your children like "wimmelbooks" (not sure if you have those and what they're called, might be a German thing?). So you basically search the screen for small objects and click on stuff to make things happen.

And then there are casual games like Peggle (Peggle Extreme is free on Steam).

I think all of the above would be perfectly fine for primary school children, not sure about preschool children though.

Wacky Wheels might be a cute game for kids. We used to play it a lot back when it came out. It's from the DOS era though (not sure if you'd prefer something modern).

I also used to love side scrolling platformers. Off the top of my head there is Prehistorik, Secret Agent, Crystal Caves, Hocus Pocus, Earthworm Jim, Superfrog, Gex and Monster Bash on GOG. You can also get Commander Keen from 3D Realms.

Botanicula might be worth a shot too

I don't think "Lilly Looking Through" has been mentioned yet, or "Gateways" (there are guys you can jump on, but it's just as easy to avoid them).

If you have some form of touchscreen device, jigsaw puzzle apps are great for under-5s.

What age are your kids? I think that kids as young as 4 (and certainly 5) can separate cartoon violence from real violence pretty well. And I'm sure you'll be watching over them when they play, so you could certainly talk about it.

In my experience video games can cause violence due to frustration, that's pretty much about it. If my kids (5 and 7) play something like Kinect Disneyland Adventures they end up shouting and hitting each other, but they won't suffer any ill effect playing Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth (another Kinect title), where kicking and punching is part of the game.

Adventure games are pretty good (the Humongous Entertainment ones were mentioned), as are abstract puzzle games (but they can be a little hard for young kids). I can't make too many recommendations in the context of GOG, unfortunately. I can for Android games and PC games that aren't necessarily on GOG.

I haven't read everything, so I apologize if I duplicate.

- Humongous Entertainment games are a HUGE hit at my house
- They also like watching me play some simulation games and they like to try their hand at them. Games I've tried are:
--- zoo tycoon
--- a helicopter flight sim form Bohemian Interactive
--- theme hospital
--- theme park


They also really enjoyed Witcher 2. (that last one's a joke)

I recommend Journey of a Roach because it's a non-verbal adventure game that kids can play even before they have learned to read. The game characters speak a Pingu style gibberish language. Some of the puzzles can be too tricky for a 4 year old but they are guaranteed to enjoy watching you play this game. Very cute and inoffensive and there's no violence in the gameplay. Super simple controls, too.

Edit: This game is on a very deep sale every now and then, I recommend getting it on sale as it's a short game with no real replay value.


GOMO is another game I'd recommend picking up on a deep sale, even shorter than Journey of a Roach and even easier to play. Non-verbal game, as well.

Buy Croc 2: Legend of Gobbos! It's a really great platformer and it's not very scary (the mines can feel creepy though, if you're a kid I guess).

My nephew really liked those two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wATL8jsUobs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfDgO-ahYJ4

We regularly play those coop or VS.

The first one is free and can run even on a crap pc (requirements wise).

SpaceChem - So your kids learn to handle frustration
HuniPop - The flowers-and-bee-thing

Not Deathtrap Dungeon?


I second those. And in World of Goo you can beat a few levels and with the earned goo.... things your kids can try to build a freestyle tower - that's really fun.

And for something none gamey: just park them in front of Paint.NET. Hours of creative fun... for free!

Wait, no killing? Then I for one wouldn't recommend KSP, since this game, while not over-complicated and hyper-realistic, is a somewhat complex simulation of spacecraft construction where many things can be done wrong. When the rocket explodes, the pilots actually die, so in my opinion not a game for 4-year old kids at all (maybe if they are like 9 or 10)

Oooooh I forgot about World of Goo. I owned that at some point, but they'd probably like that, too. Thanks!