Watching little kids play games

video games
1

This is mainly a thread for sharing the design features of games that little kids gravitate toward. It can involve what they do, like, dislike, or anything else surprising compared to what you'd expect older players to do. Most of these anecdotes are centered on one five year old:

  • - Earthbound - wandering around the post-game world. I can teleport him to Fourside and he slowly, manually navigates all the way back to the house in Onett. Kid loves wandering and hates battles.

  • - **Super Mario Odyssey** - in New Donk City, he jumps repeatedly on the tables to see the cup and other objects bounce but not fall off. Then he'll jump on someone's head repeatedly as they say "oh oh oh oh" and duck; he asks, "Why are they doing that?" Falling is *really* funny. Also, Mario is always dressed in his boxers.
  • - **Minecraft** - All Creative mode. The glowing blocks from the Nether are his standard construction material. House walls, roads, everything is glowing blocks and bookshelves. He builds really intricate structures - including whole towns - with these two materials and doors/signs.
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    When my kid was 3 or 4 I enjoyed hearing her names for games I was playing.

    Katamari Damacy - "The Little Hammer"
    Baba is You - "Sheep Maze"
    Getting Over It - "The Man in the Garbage"
    Breath of the Wild - "The Thing with the Boy"
    Pikuniku - "The Red Bean Thing"
    A Short Hike - "The Penguin Thing"
    Celeste - "The Girl Made of Squares"

    If I was designing games, I'd want to show them to a bunch of little kids and hear what they call them. You'd get an idea of what stands out to them and it might help you come up with a good name.

    3

    my heart

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    4

    this sounds like the literary fiction novel version that came out on some Penguin Books imprint

    5

    Frankly I'm surprised this isn't already an indie game title.

    6

    all great names for video game levels/book chapters/curb your enthusiasm episodes

    7

    “the man in the garbage” is definitely some kind of haruki murakami character

    8

    @Dunkr Oh yeah, my child calls Mario Odyssey “The Mario with the hat that has eyes.” He also called both Final Fantasy V and Earthbound “The Duplo doll game.” Two Point Campus is called a lot of things; last night was “The school that has showers.”

    The Girl Made of Squares is an excellent title.

    9

    @Taliesin_Merlin These are great. I miss this part of that age. My kid is 8 now and would probably correct me if I got the name of a Frog Detective game slightly wrong.