Children's Roguelike? For little girls?

[guest509]

  I may have asked this before. Are there any Roguelikes for kids? My family is Mormon, so there are TONS of little kids around. I can think of 8 in town right now between 1 and 5.

  Are there any little kid's games? Bright graphics, simple interface and game play? I've kicked around the idea of doing a 7DRL geared towards children.

  "Mean guys have taken your puppy! Go down the stairs and get him back!"

  I've also kicked around the idea of doing a game for little girls, prototyped it even. How would one do this without being all stereotypical and condescending. Or does that matter? Can you make a roguelike starring a little princess with fairy wings searching for her pet unicorn pony, collecting hearts, candy and pixie dust? Where you put the bad guys to sleep instead of killing them? Or make them fall in love with you, or make friends?

  "You hit the goblin. The goblin dies."
Replaces with.
  "You see a mean little man. You smile. The mean little man smiles, he's now your friend."

  Too patronizing?

[Fenrir]

Have you tried to interest them in some of the 7DRLs already available? If they can handle the usual Roguelike, then there is no need to make games simpler for them.

You probably should forget about making games “for girls”, as that sounds insulting, but do create a Roguelike with under-represented thematic elements if you know people that like them. Pacifism is certainly such a thing, as killing and slaughter is most of what one does in a Roguelike.

[Darren Grey]

I've thought about making a pacifistic roguelike before with a princess having to rescue her prince and enemies being turned friendly with hugs, but all my ideas ended up using really bad stereotypes so I scrapped it.

PrincessRL is really brilliant for playing with stereotypes without being insulting.  It also is a little less punishing in that you get "rescued" upon death, though dying a lot ultimately leaves you weak for the final dungeon.  It's not a simple game overall.  Also, it's ASCII, which may not be great for a 5 year old.

If you want to introduce procedural environments to kids then I'd recommend Proteus - very child-friendly game.

[Krice]

"You see a mean little man. You smile. The mean little man smiles, he's now your friend."

This is not real... btw, I don't see any problem letting children play regular (=violent) games. It's what we did when we were young, right?

However an idea about non-violent roguelike is not that bad. It could be something like gardening or building stuff. Not "turning" enemies into ponies or something crazy like that. You can simply remove enemies and replace fighting with other activities.

[TheCreator]

  "You see a mean little man. You smile. The mean little man smiles, he's now your friend."

Now imagine that the mean little man was a little pedophile. I think that violent games are way better. Killing mean guys is normal.

[guest509]

  I like the looks of Proteus, is it really a game though? More of a toy, right? I like both, just wondering.

  The thing with a passive roguelike is that there are TONS of fantasy examples of nonviolent conflict. Befriending. Charming. Scaring away monsters. Tricking. Riddle contests. Debates. Running away. Hiding. Sneaking past them. Turning baddies into stone, temporarily. Freezing them. Going invisible, etc...

  I'll think on it. There might be a 7DRL in there somewhere.

  To be honest though my nieces and nephews are violent little heathens. Kids love violence and action, it's the adults that get all anxious and try to enforce the social norms. My favorite niece, she's 4, and her favorite TV show is the walking dead.

  "Uncle Jo is that bad guy going to be a zombi now?"
  "Yeah, unless they shoot him in the head before he turns into one."
  "They should shoot him. Zombies are bad huh Uncle Jo. Huh. Huh. Right. They should shoot him. Right in the face. Right?"
  "Yep. Right in face."

  That's an almost exact quote.

[Darren Grey]

 I like the looks of Proteus, is it really a game though? More of a toy, right? I like both, just wondering.

No, it's a proper game.  It just doesn't throw "SIDEQUEST" in your face when you start chasing a frog, or "+20 POINTS" when you have a great experience.

 The thing with a passive roguelike is that there are TONS of fantasy examples of nonviolent conflict. Befriending. Charming. Scaring away monsters. Tricking. Riddle contests. Debates. Running away. Hiding. Sneaking past them. Turning baddies into stone, temporarily. Freezing them. Going invisible, etc...

Riddles would be cool.  You could have Brogue style lock and key puzzles, with key items needed to get bribe your way past certain areas.  Procedural Knightmare, mm....  There was some 7DRL last year with dogs and cats that had a touch of this, though it wasn't very good IMO.

  "Uncle Jo is that bad guy going to be a zombi now?"
  "Yeah, unless they shoot him in the head before he turns into one."
  "They should shoot him. Zombies are bad huh Uncle Jo. Huh. Huh. Right. They should shoot him. Right in the face. Right?"
  "Yep. Right in face."

  That's an almost exact quote.

Creepy  :/

[guest509]

  Agreed.

  I dressed her up like a zombi for Halloween too. She got so into the act I made her wash her face. Freaked me out man. Big time.

[Darren Grey]

Children are the scariest thing out there.  Well, them and fungal parasites - eugh.

[jasonpickering]

You should look at some of the D&D mods for younger players. It might give you good ideas for monsters and story.

I would say that you need to make the game a little more engaging if you are making it for kids. I know it sounds horrible but strategy doesn't seem to be to tough in kids games. Maybe focus on very simple mechanics, and it will probably have to be graphical too.

Through theming though you can probably take care of a lot of the regular stuff if you want to tone down the violence. Fighting monsters made of shadows maybe, that way they can just vanish. Or maybe even go a completely different route and focus on a different genre, like space shooting robots.

[guest509]

  They like dexterity and matching card games too.

  I just want my nieces to be interested in computers. Something a bit more involved than Angry Birds.

  A simple 1 button co-op shooter might be the ticket. A nice gauntlet rip off maybe, choose to play the boy, the girl, the cat or the dog. No real ability changes, just a sprite flip.

  It goes without saying that graphics are a must. That's why I was working on my bright cartoon sprites in the DEV sub forum.

[Krice]

My favorite niece, she's 4, and her favorite TV show is the walking dead.

Why do you let her watch that? It's not for kids.

[guest509]

My favorite niece, she's 4, and her favorite TV show is the walking dead.

Why do you let her watch that? It's not for kids.

Because we are not hung up on bullshit social norms.

[Krice]

Because we are not hung up on bullshit social norms.

That's interesting because I thought being a religious is all about strictly (in theory) following social norms of that religion. I guess religions are not what they used to be.

[guest509]

  Ah, now I understand. We've had a miscommunication. I should have been more specific. We aren't church Mormons. Screw that.

  See Jack Mormon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Mormon

EDIT: My full first name is Joseph. Named after the Mormon prophet. Also my surname is one of the most common Mormon names, as my ancestors helped found the religion.