I love the term 'child's play' because it acknowledges that adults play too. As far as I can tell, the world of modern board games first opened up to adults, and the renewal of games targeted at them had a head start for a long time. I fear that we tended (or still tend?) to believe that many kids' games seem boring just because we are adults now, having outgrown that level. And half-truths are always dangerous. It was great to experience in the late 2010s that I didn't have to play terrible games with my daughter, that there were choices, that I myself enjoyed playing these board games, creating a much more valuable gaming situation with my child.
A good children's game speaks the language of kids but knows that they often play with adults, so it doesn't forget about them either. Simple and stupid are not synonyms. If we feel that a game is condescending to the perceived level of a child, we can guess that it's not a good game. Understanding and speaking the language of children is not condescension.
Anyone who has closely observed a child knows that they pay a lot of attention to adults, and this is no different with board gaming. They see what we play, what we like, and they start to get interested in these things too. However, as a teacher, I do not advocate teaching increasingly difficult board games too soon. We like to show off to friends or strangers on social media that our kid is playing gamer games at age 5, but I don’t think that's the right approach. We wouldn't hand 'Crime and Punishment' to a 6-year-old who can read well.
I really like the efforts to turn successful adult games into good children's games, as there’s a lot to learn from these projects. They demonstrate what it means to create board games for children. The examples below show how they managed to maintain the flow of each board game while translating it into the language of kids. Each example is linked to a dozen great personal experiences, whether at home or with my after-school kids, so I heartily recommend them.
A few games that we currently have at home
Catan - Catan Junior
Catan has been with us since 1995, a cornerstone of the board game renaissance, experiencing numerous editions, expansions, and variations. It's not surprising that it also has a children's version. With today's perspective, Catan can feel a bit clunky, and the nearly 2-hour average gameplay seems unjustified compared to the gaming experience. Catan Junior, completed in 2007, also shows its age, but it's a great example. Let's see how it became a game for the younger audience and what it retained from the original game's flow.
Reducing the playtime was crucial; 30 minutes is much more kid- and family-friendly than 120. Klaus Teuber, the designer, likely tweaked the theme a bit with the publisher, which makes total sense because being a pirate as a child is way cooler and more understandable than being a settler. The theme nicely ties into the whole design, creating an appealing look for kids. The original Catan uses two dice, leading to highlighted, more frequent numbers, which the mechanics build upon. However, Junior couldn't use two dice, as adding with carrying over isn't expected at 6 years old, and it's known that games for 6+ are also bought for 5-year-olds. One die means more luck, but in children's games, the presence of luck is good as it helps balance the power dynamics. Yet, the original idea is still present; we are indeed talking about a mini Catan, which is great. Dice rolling is pure luck, but how and where we expand, thus influencing our luck, is a serious decision. What the author also wisely let go from the original concept is trading. Overseeing barter deals, making the best offers, and weighing options aren't for the average 6-year-old. However, trading is possible; we can ask for help from Coco, the pirate parrot, which is cheap and always positive, fitting nicely into the children's game genre.
For Catan enthusiasts, a Junior version is a treat, but as a children's game, it's a fully enjoyable construction on its own. Plus, we really get to know the framework of a historically significant game.
The Quacks of Quedlinburg - Quacks & Co.: Quedlinburg Dash
Wolfgang Warsch is a highly sought-after, successful, and award-winning author who showed in 2022 that he can also design specifically for children's games - comparable to his previous works. Let's first look at 'The Quacks of Quedlinburg.' I often say about such games that they wonderfully make you believe that it’s worth thinking about your decisions, that you have an impact on the game, while this is actually not at all true. It's no wonder the game's reception is divided, typically either hated or greatly loved. I belong to the latter group, but I understand everyone’s frustration. Just for me, this frustration feels good.
The luck factor is already key in the original work, so it was a given for the children's version as well. We build a bag and then see what we pull out. The base game is built on point collection - and in it, a very nice handicap rule - which, however, is less tangible for a child. But a race, a clever 'roll-and-move' mechanic, can be familiar and exciting for many. And if you look closely, this is essentially still about point collection. Here we draw feeds, fitting the theme, as we're feeding our mounts to make them faster, but the drawn markers also affect the game here. Simpler, less interrelated, but they have an impact, and here too, it's variable what each thing means. The bag drawing and its interpretation can perfectly bring the big Quacks flow. My daughter put in more than 50 plays in a few months, simply because it's a fun luck-based racing game, which is very familiar to children and shows extraordinarily new and interesting things at the same time.
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Kingdomino - Dragomino
Kingdomino, with its audacious simplicity and elegance, managed to be incredibly successful in 2016 amidst grand-scale projects. It's a perfect example of a board game that didn't need to be invented, but rather discovered in its natural essence. It's always a bold venture to create alternatives to epoch-making successes – not from a business, but a professional standpoint. However, the 2020 release of Dragomino became a worthy counterpart to the original. I think it was an excellent decision that Bruno Cathala brought Marie and Wilfried Fort into the project, who are renowned and successful children's game authors.
Let's start at the beginning. In Kingdomino, the number of players dictates how many tiles are used, which need to be sorted out. Have you played with kids, or perhaps at multiple tables with several of them? A minor, yet flawlessly professional modification in Dragomino is that it doesn't deal with the number of players; four tiles are always turned up, and any unchosen ones are removed from the game if there are fewer players. Simple. Everything that simplifies preparation is a huge help, as we’re explaining rules, providing frameworks, sometimes disciplining. It’s great when the game can start quickly and clearly. Here lies the second difference: the tile selection. The starting player may constantly change, but from that point, there's a given turn order. Simple, clean, practical. Kingdomino's tile selection is brilliant, but it's a tall order for 4-5-year-olds. Kingdomino works with scarcity (5x5 area limit), while Dragomino with expansiveness (no area limit), each suiting its target group. The math in Kingdomino is simple but tricky; Dragomino is almost entirely a game of chance. Of course, I can count how much of each item has been used; I'll probably pick up more eggs than kids usually do, but still, all of them could end up being broken. And that's okay. I’ve already written about the importance of luck above, no need to elaborate. And of course, the theme change is also a key element. While kingdoms work for kids, cool and/or cute dragon hatchlings might work even better. And amidst all this, the children's game shows that modern games have something to seek in the classics, as dominoes have been so beautifully and elegantly redefined in both games.
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Ganz Schön Clever - Ganz Schön Clever Kids
Ganz Schön Clever, also by Wolfgang Warsch, showed the masses that just because we're tossing dice, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a game of luck. It’s a real brain burner, so it’s not obvious at all how it can be turned into a good children's game.
The original game lacks a theme, but the Kids version has one, although it's more about the design, as the game doesn’t really capture the atmosphere of birthday parties, and it doesn’t aim to. Instead of a complex scoring system, here we just collect stars, and the one with more stars wins. That's it. The dice rolling is also simplified; I choose a category, and the rest goes to the others. No more steps, no complex thinking, I just take the best option for me at the moment, maybe leaving something less useful for the other player. That’s all. However, the author has retained the system of chain reactions, which brings the same flow for kids as it does for adults in the original. Putting an X in one area transfers me to another area - my daughter calls these chain reactions a 'journey' - and there too, I might be able to place an X that takes me even further… The most important element of the original work is here in all its glory, something I - like many children's game authors - wouldn’t have really believed, but I constantly see it working up close.
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Together
Essential to quality play sessions are good children's games. If I enjoy myself, the kids are more willing to be present too. The fact that today we can immerse ourselves in games with preschoolers that are variations of our personal favorites is another beautiful aid to experiencing playtime together. And I'm really looking forward to those moments when my daughter grows into the more complex versions of her favorite children's games. It will be nice to arrive at the same place together, each of us having taken a different path.