She had very strong opinions on which color houses should be placed where, as well as the allotment of bridges, ladders, and boots in front of doors. My daughter loves painting, and this was essentially a canvas of an endless ocean, with the tools being little houses. Unlike Dorfromantik (which she didn’t especially like watching), there’s no challenge aside from seeing what the tool will create. Townscaper (Xbox Series X)ĭisclaimer: this is less of a video game and more of a toolset. I have to have some rules on this thing.) 10. (Special apologies to Planet Zoo, which would definitely have made this list if she hadn’t already watched me play it in 2020. Shouldn’t that be the point of all kids’ media? But by far the biggest consideration was how much of her imagination it captured, fueling play outside the confines of the tv screen or computer monitor. One key factor in ranking this list was “did I endure a tantrum by choosing to not play this game”. It also taught me the tightrope walk of being done with a game long before your child was tired of watching it. She got me to try out Jurassic World Evolution on the console, which led to me obsessing over the PC version after I got a taste. Having Game Pass let us dip into more kid-friendly fare than we might have otherwise, and the little one would call out game thumbnails that looked appealing to her. Unlike my personal GOTY blogs (the 2021 version of which should be posted sometime next week), I’m drawing from a pool of games my daughter watched or played during 2021, instead of limiting it to games released during 2021. It’s something I feel compelled to preserve as long as possible, even if it’s a battle I know I’ll eventually lose. Right now, she’s a sweet, empathetic little kid who giggles like a maniac at her own jokes, and she likes watching pleasant things. I don’t mean this as some sort of “arglebargle violent video games hurt children” the whole of American media is bent towards violence. I became way more self-conscious of any violence / aggressiveness in games I played, and not just around her. But as she grew older, and smarter, and more capable, my instinct was to find things she would enjoy watching. For 2019 and most of 2020, it meant that I would just wait for my daughter to go to sleep before I played anything.

Over the last few years, nothing has changed my taste in gaming quite like having a little hatchling toddling about the house.

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