These games are perfect if you have never played one before.
With 1000’s of parents soon using the database it became clear we should grow it to cover more games. At first it was just going to be a way to search the 60 or so games in the book. The Family Gaming Database grew out of the book. They are grouped in categories depending on the style of game you are looking for, whether you want to play on your own, or with your family and friends.
When we wrote the Taming Gaming book we packed the second half with full colour game ‘recipes’ as a resource for parents and families. Most Puzzle video games are, by their nature, Turn Based but they can also be integrated into more pressured and time-limited Action game experiences. In this way, the puzzle can be used to communicate frustration, difficulty or tension as well as offer a sense of control, understanding and ease in or Adventure games. Other video games take this in more conceptual directions, offering puzzles that involve Action, Platforming, Shooting or even Role-Play relationships with other characters. Some puzzle games will focus on a traditional, self-contained, puzzle board with pieces to move. They test many problem-solving skills, logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. The games we specify here focus on a puzzle or conundrum as the main interactive mechanic. Puzzle video games are a broad genre, as there is something puzzling, or something to solve in most games.
In this entry we are looking at Puzzle games. This is designed for people new to gaming, and aims to identify games with the least barriers. In this series, we are learning how different aspects of video games work by playing games that offer an easy introduction to this one concept.