I’ve always loved point-and-click adventure games. I remember playing old LucasArts PC games like Sam & Max Hit the Road (I missed out on some of the earlier ones) and I’ve enjoyed the revival through companies like TellTale Games (who had a newer Sam & Max adventure). There are games for kids, like Putt-Putt and Freddi Fish, and the games are making their way onto iPads and even consoles. They had wacky puzzles to figure out, fun animation to watch, and were less prone to syntax errors than games like early Space Quest and King’s Quest where you had to type in instructions, but still offered a similar sort of adventure.
Not all of the games are kid-friendly, though: some have PG-13 humor and a lot of innuendo, some are a bit violent, and some can just be too hard for younger kids to figure out the puzzles. A couple that my kids have enjoyed in particular are Machinarium and Samorost, both mostly wordless games with some beautiful artwork. (I’ve had to help them with some of the trickier puzzles, though.)
Just recently I got wind of a new point-and-click adventure currently in development by Geeta Games (and seeking funding on Kickstarter). Lilly Looking Through is a cute-looking adventure that features a little girl named Lilly and a pair of interesting goggles she picks up. I could tell you more, but really the best thing is to grab the free demo for Mac, Windows, or Linux, and try it out yourself. I downloaded it last week, thinking I would check it out and see if it was worth writing up, and ended up just getting lost in the demo with my kids.
Above is a little video showing some of the in-game animation.
The folks behind the project have experience in film and animation, and it shows. The backdrops are beautiful and the animation of Lilly is a lot of fun to watch. The demo is pretty brief but ends with a pretty tough puzzle that took us a little while to figure out. After that, though, she finally gets the goggles — and I can’t wait to see what happens next! My kids wanted to play the demo again immediately after finishing it, so I’ve already kicked in for a copy of the game.
The Kickstarter campaign is already fully funded, but the team announced two stretch goals today: first, at $26k they’ll add more content and extend the game; second, at $36k they’ll also make an Android/iPad version.
For more about the game, visit the Geeta Games website or check out the Kickstarter page.
