Puzzle games with stories are like a combination of interactive books / visual novels and investigative board games like Cluedo or Think Fun type puzzle games. Imagine Harry Potter books turned into games where Harry, Hermione and Ron are trying to find the puzzle pieces to make sense of the events happening to them, or Miss Marple/ Hercule Poirot piecing the puzzles together to reveal the truth about a crime. For beginner parents / players we have put together the following information:
In these games, you are indispensable: your help is needed to make to the story move forward. Puzzle games are mostly played in smaller sessions (20-30 minutes), but some fans play them in a single session. The duration of a single game is a total of 4-8 hours depending on which game you play or how challenging a game is.
Point and Click and Combine
To solve the puzzles in a puzzle game (also called a point and click game) you will point the cursor at various items on a screen. Mostly it is not just any item but an item that you can highlight with a button, or an item that will change its outline if you hover over them. In a picture it is normally 6-10 items at a time. Once you click on an item, you can learn more about it (what it is) or even get a hint at what you could use it for (which is part of the narrative of the game). Often you can pick them up and place them in your bag called the Inventory. Some items can be used with other items combined (e.g. if you find a hook and a fishing rod, they could be combined into a single item, if you need to angle). Some other items will need to be offered to other characters (e.g. somewhere on the map you’ve found a photo, and it turns out that it is a long lost picture sorely missed by one of the people you meet later on. If you give the photo to the character, you will get a reward item, or you get a new piece from the puzzle or you simply help to make the story move forward).
Talk to Characters
To learn more about a story / problem, you will talk to characters. Some will tell you all they have to say in a single go, while others need to be asked several times to learn more. In some cases, you may even need to revisit an already known character to get a clue to be able to move forward.
When You / Your Child is Stuck
If you should get stuck with the puzzle solving, normally there are hints that you can look at, which are provided in the game itself. Older games may not include a useful help/ hint system, but there are lots of other gamers uploading their gameplays on the internet. You can search the problematic game or game episode, or even the specific scene often on video sharing websites too. The words you may want to use are gameplay or walkthrough, and some keywords from the game you play / the scene that challenges.
As a parent you may wish to know that other video game genres, e.g. adventure games (like Pokemon games) may also contain puzzle elements which may cause massive frustration in younger ones and older ones alike if a particular game puzzle is insurmountable. So gameplays and walkthroughs offer a relief for gamers where help is needed, and your help may be needed by a younger player to find the solution.
I think one of the moments where my 10 year old was immensely and genuinely grateful was a moment I helped her overcome a frustrating puzzle problem. After hours of gameplay one of the puzzles was just too difficult for her to figure out. She broke down, her game time was up, but she was heart broken. It helped a lot when I listened to her without mocking her feelings, or downplaying the importance of her game, then we looked up the solution together – walkthrough + game name + scene, and there it was, the magical solution. As a parent, I think it is just as important to help a kid through a game problem as you would help with a math problem, or a friend problem.
Age Ratings and Recommendations
Even though most puzzle point and click games are rated by PEGI from the age of 3, actually many such games are only suitable to be played with a child from age 10, alone or in a coworking session. As a parent you need to be aware that some of the puzzle point and click games may contain more serious, starker images (a proper crime scene or scantily clad figures etc.), characters may use swear words, (jokingly or seriously) insults or suggestive language. Recently, there have been more and more games developed with younger audience in mind, which may also be suitable from age 6 in a parent or sibling coworking / coplaying set up.