12mo ago

Seeking: Kid-friendly Adventure/Exploration Games (PC)

My daughter (4) is very into exploring cities, homes and villages in Skyrim, feeding aliens in No Man's Sky, and cleaning houses in House Flipper. She gets annoyed in games like House Flipper because she can't leave the property to explore all of the visible houses on the block. I'd like to find other PC games that are relatively kid-friendly (or at least with my guidance and supervision) and easy for her to just wander about and be nosy.

Any suggestions? Simple adventure/fantasy would be great and provide us with something to progress through together, but anything that lets you explore a neighborhood and/or poke around in buildings and such would be perfect. I'm picking up Goat Simulator today for that exact purpose.

I appreciate it in advance.

48 comments

Minecraft, 100%. You can set it to peaceful mode so no enemies spawn, and even mess with the world settings so more structures generate in your map.
- Since she is very young and has no social pressure towards microsoftcraft, I‘d suggest mineclone, its free, open source and in opposition to bedrock mc not bloated with ingame purchases.
  Minecraft used to be good though.
  
  Could just play Java edition...
  
  Still in early development, probably not that suited for a kid. The bespoke and enclosed experience of Minecraft would be better, assuming you can turn the shop off or limit it in some way.

The putt putt line of games. They run on scummvm and my kids love them. Later kings quest, and stardew valley. The lego marvel super heroes on Xbox 360 (I think there's a pc version) has an entire Manhattan island that they can roam around freely and interact with.

Putt-putt, pajama sam a.d freddy fish are great!

Slime Rancher might be worth looking into.

There's a few short indie adventure games that may fit the bill:
The First Tree
Spirit of the North
Abzu
Aer
Proteus
Untitled Goose Game (Not an adventure game, but good goofy fun)
Donut County (Not adventure, but a very simple and accessible puzzle that spans an entire town)
I haven't played Stray, but it may be a good fit. I also haven't played past the opening scene of Firewatch, but if your daughter can manage walking around Skyrim then I think it should be okay.
I searched for indie exploration games. City of Muse came up.
There's a list of 3D exploration games on Itch.

If you're open to dealing with emulation, both the new Zeldas pretty much fit the bill. There's combat but probably less than Skyrim.
Slime Rancher is one I enjoyed for a while that's definitely kid friendly. Supraland didn't really grab me, but in terms of being super tame and having varied stuff to explore it fits again.
If it specifically has to be houses/cities, none of those fit that well. But they have worlds that are varied and interesting.
- Botw/Totk's combat might be a bit too difficult in the beginning for a 4 year old, so OP might need to take the reigns when combat starts.
  
  That's possible. I think it's more kid friendly than Skyrim though.
  It's also mostly easy to ignore.

Outer Wilds
Might be a little advanced for a 4yo, but it definitely checks the exploration/adventure mark.
- I was also going to suggest this. No, she won't be able to understand what she's doing in it yet, but the game is a celebration of exploration.

Maybe Stardew valley would scratch that itch. Or some old rpgs like FF or chrono trigger.

The Peppa Pig game is surprisingly open. If you just walk off screen it lets you keep going and you end up in new locations. Hop on the bus and end up in another location. There aren't many blocks to stop you from going where you feel like going and there's a variety of activities at each location.

Since you're on PC, using cheats or potentially mods can expand the list of games you have available, since you might be able to just ignore certain aspects of a game, like combat, money or resources in general.
The more recent Assassin's Creed games have something called a Discovery Tour, where you can just explore the world, without combat. They are partially meant for educational purposes and can teach about the different regions and history, and offer guided tours. I don't know if there's a real free roam, where you can just do whatever though.
You mentioned buying Goat Simulator, so maybe other of these "Simulator" games might be for you.
I don't know how much you can go into houses, but Farming Simulator could be worth a look. Your kid can probably just explore the map and maybe even try some of the farming.
As someone else mentioned, Slime Rancher might be fun just to explore the world with the cute creatures all around, but there's not really much or any buildings as far as I know (don't know if the sequel has this stuff).
A Short Hike could be worth a look. You're on a mountainous island / national park type deal and your main objective is to get to the peak of the mountain, but you can just explore, do some side quests, solve puzzles, etc. I feel like the screenshots on the Steam Store page for the game look really ugly, since it's so pixelated, but that's just a filter, that you can change in game (from smooth to really pixely).

These aren’t exactly exploration games, but they’re simple games that my toddler likes too:
Animal Crossing is easily her favorite. She loves “helping” my wife pick outfits and fish.
A Building Full of Cats is short, cheap, and cute. She likes making up stories about each apartment and cat. There’s also tons of similar games in different locations.
Cats in Time has simple puzzles that she can do with a bit of help.
Slime Rancher might be a good fit. It’s simple and cute with a focus on exploration.
Dorf Romantik is a relaxing and cute game that’s a good introduction to resource management. She might not be good at the actual goal of the game, but she likes placing tiles.
Subnautica in creative mode might be interesting for exploration, depending on how sensitive your kid is about some of the darker areas and creatures.

Sounds like "The witcher 3" world will be a good fit for your daughter curiosity, the guest line however is too dark for her age.
- Doesn't that game feature fully nude characters at times in the vanilla base game? And sex? And violence? And brothels?
  
  You don't have to do any of that, but just walking around you will get attacked by all manner of creatures so I would take Witcher 3 off the list on that basis.

What's the underwater game that came out a few years ago? Your spaceship crashes in the ocean of a cold planet, and you explore and make bases, and solve a mystery... SubZero or something?
- Subnautica? I think subzero was maybe an expansion for it.
  
  Below Zero is Subnautica 2
- Subnautica! That's the first (and better) one IMHO. The sequel is Below Zero.
  Might be a little scary for a 4 yo - at least it can be that way for this thirty something.
- This is a good suggestion because in the Subnautica Below Zero you can play a custom game mode where you can turn off predator aggression, hunger, thirst, and freezing allowing you to roam to your hearts content without getting eaten.

If combat is an option, those simple ARPGs could fit the bill nicely:
Quest Hunter
Cat Quest 2

No one said Journey, but it's one of the best immersive games that let you wander in really cool environments. Might be a little frightening in some parts but under your supervision it should be fine

I think Tchia was made for your daughter, it's a shame it's only on PS...
Kena is nice to look at but you'll have to do the fighting.
Hogwarts Legacy has a pretty, relatively kid friendly world to explore too.
- tchia is listed on steam to release in march

WALKING SIMS
I fucking love the genre, and while a lot deal with heavy topics (struggling to understand ones identity, death of a loved one, accepting loss and grief), most don't get violent or sexual. I love loading into them and just exploring the world.

Monkey island!

I haven't played it, but that Crayon Shin-Chan game seems to fit what you're looking for. Not sure if it's on the platform you want, though

Minecraft, if you play online and enter a server like Cubecraft the default lobby is very kid friendly and has a large interesting map to explore. And of course the game itself has tons of single player content and you can build your own stuff in survival or creative modes.
Try Grand Theft Auto 5 and see what you think. If you don't actually do any missions it's really a very nice and alive world to explore. The pedestrians make some rude comments though.
Also Arma 3, the base map is a sandbox of a real life island with most buildings enterable, and no people or traffic or anything offensive by default. You can enter the editor, place a civilian player and some vehicles, and explore the island completely peacefully. There are also lots of mod maps some are very good.
If only driving around is acceptable then the Forza Horiizon games are great for driving around.
- I agree with Minecraft, just not online and put it on peaceful. But GTA? That must be a joke. Even outside of the missions there is plenty of driving over people, shooting and other events that are inappropriate at that age.
  
  I don't know, I used to let my young niece play GTA 4 at least, supervised the whole time of course. The rule was you could drive around until you crashed or hit someone, then we switched players. Generally there is no trouble unless you make trouble. The pedestrians can make rude comments but having the volume low solves most of that.

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