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Comment by aidos | Hacker News Reader

I don't really play games often but I played Braid and loved it. Does anyone have recommendations of other interesting games (probably puzzly, like Braid) that I might enjoy.

Funny story, my 4yo finished (with lots of assistance) her first adventure game (The Lost City [1]) the other day and immediately broke down in tears because it was over. Honestly, for the next couple of days she cried whenever she remembered about it.

Actually, would love to hear of about great tablet games for young kids too.

[1] https://www.firemaplegames.com/thelostcity.html

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Here are a couple games you and your daughter might enjoy:

FEZ - also a puzzle-platformer, featured with Braid and Super Meat Boy in Indie Game: The Movie

Portal/Portal 2 - a first-person platform/puzzler with a sci-fi atmosphere

The Long Dark - a single-player adventure/survival game that takes place in the Canadian wilderness. Not a puzzler, but has a painterly art style like Braid and a sense of discovery exploring new locations.

Terraria/Minecraft - these games are already immensely popular among kids. Mining/crafting adventure games in 2-d and 3-d, respectively. There is a creative component in building forts/bases.

FTL: Faster than Light - a spaceship rogue-like game. Too complex for a young child, but fun gameplay if you're into Star Trek/Battlestar Galactica sci-fi themes.

Kerbal Space Program - THE game to learn rocket science and orbital mechanics [1]. Fun, engaging, and tremendously educational. If you've ever dreamed of orbiting the planet or landing on the moon, this is an incredible game. I recommend starting with Science or Career mode, because Sandbox is just overwhelming with the number of parts available. You will probably need to design the rockets at first, but your child can be involved with launching/staging (just requires pressing space bar at the right time).

[1] https://xkcd.com/1356/

Jonathan Blow released The Witness[0] not too long ago. An exploration game based on puzzles and meta-puzzles involving tracing lines. The Talos Principle[1] scratched the same itch. It involves directing laser beams to ... laser beam receptacles :)

EDIT: Disclaimer for The Witness: Go in without reading much about it. It's got plenty of puzzles about connecting paths, but that's all you really need to know. The game is as much about discovery and thinking outside/around/underneath the box as it is solving the explicit puzzles.

[0]: http://store.steampowered.com/app/210970/ [1]: http://store.steampowered.com/app/257510/

The Witness and The Talos Principle are both excellent. I loved Braid too, but there's something about the zen nature of The Witness and fiendish puzzles that really appealed to me. The final challenge was so much fun.

Fair warning: The Witness has some unsolvable puzzles for people who're bad of hearing or colorblind.

Additionally the puzzles mostly revolve around moving around in the game world until you can see the "solution" to the board in the surroundings, at which point you then simply input it; while working out the solution based on rules inherent to the puzzle is often impossible.

For example there are two entire sections where the puzzle boards offer zero hints as to the solution and the player has to move around so ----------, which one then follows or redraws with the mouse. Other puzzles involve around walking ---------------------------- so that ---------------- form continuous lines which one then traces with the mouse.

I found myself utterly bored because even 10+ hours in i still felt like playing a really elaborate game of "find the easter egg" instead of actually using my brain.

YMMV.

Man, that's a lot of spoilers. And also not a fair representation of the content of the game at all.

It soon becomes obvious that you cannot always find the solution within the puzzles themselves. Given that fact, it's no spoiler that if the solution isn't contained within the puzzle, maybe you should look to things outside the puzzle (like your environment) for clues. I will agree that saying specifics beyond that might spoil the "aha" moment for some.

Additionally, after playing through the game I felt the same way about it. Particularly the "post (meta?) game" puzzles. Perhaps some enjoyed solving those, but for me it was a tedious exercise that brought little satisfaction to the point that I ended up looking up most of them in walkthroughs.

How is it unfair? I made an effort to portray only the truth.

Also, spoilers? In a game that does not have a story?

I'd love to hear which parts of my post you consider spoilers, since i only see "align --------- and trace them" and "walk ----------- and trace lines -----------" as possible spoilers, and puzzle-wise they're incredibly mundane.

It's not really up to you to decide if a puzzle is mundane for all players. Maybe it was for you, but there was a real aha moment for me on some of those puzzles.

In the general case, you are right. However then it becomes hard to even talk about the game and particularly the difference between finding what amounts to an easter egg, or solving a problem. As puzzles you don't spend a lot of time thinking about them, trying to work out the solution. Either you notice them or you don't. That's why i qualified it with the word "puzzle-wise".

Please delete that third paragraph. However minor you think it is, they spoil some of the serendipitous experiences that are important to the game.

Since you said please. And mentioned the serindipitousness. I realized that i was mostly fine just wandering around not thinking much, until the game broke the experiences on its own by presenting me with puzzles that were physically unsolvable for my body, forcing me to youtube.

Hope the censoring i did neutralizes it enough.

Limbo is another good platformer, it's fairly short like braid and you'll die a lot but it's very forgiving, mainly placing you to right before the moment you died.

A few more suggestions are:

Fez: Similar to braid, it's a very well done puzzle platformer with a unique gameplay mechanic.

In braid it was time travel, in fez it's warping the perspective of the level to reach places you couldn't.

It has a heavy pixel art style and lasts longer than braid just because of the crazy number of secrets hidden everywhere.

The level warping affect might feel strange but after 20-30 minutes your brain will just accept it and you'll be able to move along.

Antichamber: I'd consider this a mix of braid meets open-world portal.

It's first person, but each area has its own little mechanics you'll need to learn to get through it.

Don't worry about the harsh looking visual style, it was much less than I thought once I started playing.

Portal: Since I've mentioned it, portal & portal 2 for obvious reasons. Often considered "THE" first person puzzle game.

Hyper light drifter: An unusual one, I'm putting it here not because of the gameplay, but because of the art and story.

This is an atmospheric top down exploration game with short difficult fast paced combat segments that are very forgiving, doesn't matter if you die you can just try again or walk away.

The art style is super vivid pixel art and its story is just like braid where you don't quite get it until the end then you'll end up watching an explanation video on youtube and preceed to go "Aah" for the next week.

> Antichamber: I'd consider this a mix of braid meets open-world portal.

Seconded. It's brain-breaking in a fun way, playing with your expectations.

And it gives you hints to the puzzles you just solved, which I find hilarious.

Take a look at Machinarium. Not sure about the age level but it might be similar

http://amanita-design.net/games/machinarium.html

Another vote for Machinarium here .. my family love the game and have played through it a couple of times, from the 5 year old to the 9 year old to the wife .. they love the aesthetics of the game, which is really peaceful in parts but devilishly tricky in others .. would love to know of similar games in this genre.

`Limbo` and the new `Inside` are amazing puzzle platformers. Creepy as all hell, though.

Totally different genre, but The Talos Principle is another beautiful puzzle game with a thoughtful story.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/257510/

http://www.zepsdreamland.com/macpc.shtml

You might like Fez and Antichember. Both are available on steam.

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