I am regularly asked which game to recommend as an alternative to “those-where-all-you-do-is-shoot-each-other”. I am always tempted to explain that shooting is never all you do in a game, but that is not the point. Because I have the ideal answer: the point and click.
Often teased playfully by my fellow gamers, this kind of game nevertheless continues to fascinate me. The characteristics of this style make it an excellent way in to introduce children to video games. We are halfway between the book and the more frenetic video game. The name “point and click” describes the fact that you point, with the mouse cursor, at the elements you want to interact with. Most of the time, there is quite a lot of dialogue to read, but above all puzzles to solve by combining objects.
When we consider video games as an activity to share, particularly with our children, point and click games are an excellent opportunity to play together. The large amount of text (often voiced by actors) makes the resemblance to the stories we read to each other easy to see. Even if only one of the two people controls the hero with the mouse, thinking about what to do next and solving puzzles can perfectly well be done as a pair.
The game I recommend this month is called Encodya and, as it happens, lets you play a duo. You control Tina, a 9-year-old girl, and her nanny robot, Sam. In the futuristic city of Neo-Berlin, she will have to carry out an investigation that leads her on the trail of her missing parents.
The explorable environments are superb and draw on both the aesthetics of Blade Runner and the animated productions of Studio Ghibli. Unfortunately, for the moment you have to make do with the English version, but the plot is well enough written that you can follow it (handy to have a parent next to you to translate, isn’t it?). The appeal of Encodya lies above all in being able to switch between the two protagonists and call on their respective skills. The robot, for example, will be useful for talking to a machine that only speaks in binary code.
Full of poetry, humour and suspense, Encodya is the kind of production we would like to come across more often. The sharing between parents and children then happens not only during the activity itself, but also in the bridges it allows you to build. Whether simply by thinking together the next day, after getting stuck on a puzzle and leaving the game, or by then exploring other similar worlds together (comics, films, drawings, etc.). And in the background, it is even about people who find it hard to log off from digital worlds. Nice coincidence, isn’t it?
To discover the game, you can download a free demo here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1137450/Encodya/
Or follow this link to watch other people playing it and form your own opinion: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/ENCODYA
And if English is not your cup of tea, I also recommend trying the classics Monkey Island or Grim Fandango.
Points that can be raised to play better together:
- The advantage of this kind of game is that a session can be interrupted at any moment. So agree with your child how much time you have available before you start playing.
- You can begin by holding the mouse yourself and gradually let your child take over.
- When you are stuck, do not hesitate to step back a little. Talk about the puzzle with your child and ask for their opinion. They will certainly have other ideas to suggest and will feel valued.
- Also explain that when you cannot find a solution, you often need to let the problem go and come back to it later (“we’ll sleep on it and see tomorrow”).
- Make the most of the moments when you are not playing to make guesses together, to show them that video games can be interesting even without the screen in front of you.
He works in Switzerland on the subject of excessive screen use, notably with families. He uses video games as a therapeutic tool and keeps a close eye on news in the medium (new releases, trends, impacts, etc.). Alongside his professional activities, he voluntarily runs a game review site (www.semperludo.com), as well as a national association of gamers (www.gamingfederation.ch), through which they aim for responsible video game practice.
Twitter: @niels_weber, @semperludo, @GamingFed
