Keep an eye on this Game Jam… It’s specifically targeted at creating games for kids…
Adam
3 Likes
Glowgrass - Details (ifdb.org) is my go-to game for this kind of recommendations. Easy puzzles, immersive world, traditional but non-frustrating gameplay.
I understand why, but personally I find Dreamhold too big and winding and twisty for a first encounter with IF.
4 Likes
Glowgrass seems interesting, and a small game, so seems good. Is there any way students can play it on-line?
2 Likes
If you want a very fast paced game without graphics then either of the following two games is available to play online (or on phones in fact):
Treasures of Hollowhill.
TWO:
2 Likes
@mathbrush compiled this great list of games: A starter pack for those new to interactive fiction.
6 Likes
It’s a TADS (version 2) game, and there’s this thread from a few years ago about playing TADS in-browser. I haven’t tried any of the suggestions myself, and there are places where the discussion veers from “how to accomplish this” to “here are the technical problems involved,” but it also contains several potential solutions and might be a good starting point for experiments.
On the other hand, depending on the students and what kind of equipment you have, projecting the game with an overhead projector (or getting a small- to medium-sized group to gather around a large monitor) and playing it collaboratively might be a good move. If nothing else, people having trouble figuring out how to engage with the game can (a) let others make suggestions, and (b) see that it’s not an impossible skill to learn: “the person next to me has never played this kind of game before but she can figure out to connect the cable to the power source, and so maybe I can learn to, too.” Having other students demonstrate the capacity for learning the new skill can help overcome a student’s belief that the task is impossible to learn.
1 Like
Excellent idea! Playing IF in group is a great experience.
Are you reffering to an in-game puzzle or hooking up the overhead projector? I have more trouble with the latter. 
1 Like
Just as an fyi: there might be some PG-rated games on that list, but some are definitely not.
1 Like
Ha! I was vaguely remembering an in-game puzzle from when I played Glowgrass, though of course letting students provide input in hooking up technology can be a group puzzle of a different kind.
1 Like
Which brings us neatly to this thread:
Me, IF helps me to stop and think before I begin solving a problem.
(Counting how many cables of which colour and length I have in the overhead projector example.)
(And looking around the room to see if I have a chair or table nearby to stand on.)
(And checking the thing’s buttons.)
(I do not ,however, obsessively look around the room every 2 minutes.)
1 Like
For me, it’s much more in the “do I have absolutely everything I might need in my backpack” vein. Yes, I have a charging cord for my phone, and a few batteries, and extra pens, and my journal, and a corkscrew, and a map of the county, and a small camera, and a bottle of water, and something to read, and some bungee cords in case I ride my bicycle out into the world that day and discover that I need to strap something to the rack over the rear wheel, and a candy bar, and a CAT5 cable, and …
1 Like
Oh, so you’re Milo Murphy?
(A cartoon where the protagonist has the right thing for every situation in his backpack)
I thought that was Dora the Explorer…
1 Like
I think Lost Pig is great for that. PG story that’s hilarious, with a built-in hint system.
9 Likes
As an extremely entry-level introduction to IF I’d recommend Best Gopher Ever, which has the sensibilities and charm of the best kind of weekday afternoon cartoons.
3 Likes
ZORK. Start with THE classic.
1 Like
Adventure (the Crowther and Woods game), for instance in Nelson’s Inform implementation, is actually pretty good as an introduction. They won’t solve all the puzzles, but they can explore a fair bit of cave without solving any.
Six would be good, but maybe these are kids at the age where they DO NOT want to play a game about six-year old kids?
I very highly recommend The Impossible Bottle. I don’t think there is any non-PG content, but you could ask Linus to be sure.
Definitely not The Game Formerly Known As Hidden Nazi Mode.
2 Likes
What about Lost Pig? It’s funny, has lots of responses for silly commands, only has a few rooms, and once you know the story it’s quick to play through. It’s also got a tidy up after yourself moral.
Zork is great too. Any bugs you find could be a good teaching point. But it’s so big that it’s probably hard for very young children to imagine.
What age are the children?
Edit: Sorry Katryna - somehow I hadn’t seen your post recommending Lost Pig when I wrote mine.
2 Likes
I’ve tried several suggestions, with a small group of students, but sadly, I’ve failed to gain their interest.
My hope was to create an end-of-year project where the students create their own world or story in this format, but obviously the medium is unfamiliar to them so I had to start out with letting them try the game. Can’t really expect them to make a game without having minimal familiarity with the format, right? Sadly, many gave up quite quickly and wanted to read the Scholastic magazine instead. I will try again with some other groups of students next week…and may try by forcing it as an assignment with competitive a task, “Be the first to locate room X”, that way they’re at least forced to get far enough into it that they might understand it.
I think the classic games are ones more likely to get them interested. Lost Pig is interesting from the point-of-view of a player who already understands IF, but since the very basic north south east west commands don’t work, students end up spending 5 minutes reading “sorry, you can’t do that” and end up completely confused by what they witnessed.
Though I’m not super involved and up-to-date on IF, I really enjoy the medium, so am quite disappointed I couldn’t attract their interest…will not give up yet though. …sadly, with the library being closed, they’ve also fallen out of the habit of reading.
It wouldn’t be too big a spoiler to tell the students to LISTEN twice in their first moves. After that, Grunk gets his bearings and compass-commands work fine.
1 Like