Well, I haven't ever tried to blog anything before, but hopefully I'll be able to post something useful here. I'll start with a game intro.
Heroes and Treasure is an FRPG/Boardgame mix aimed at young kids and their parents, who play asymmetrically. To borrow D&D terms, the kids are the players and the parent is the DM.
The big problem with "kid" games is that they're either so trivial that adults get bored playing them (Candyland, Snakes and Ladders, Go Fish, Old Maid), or they're really adult or teen-level games with a kid-friendly animal or princess theme and "Ages 7+" slapped on them (I'm looking at you, mystic mice).
Hollywood is actually quite good at solving this.. there are plenty of "kid" movies that have content that appeal to adults. The Incredibles, Frozen, etc. Even Trolls, I was surprised to discover.
This design intentionally simplifies the typical FRPG tropes to the point where the game can actually be played by a four-year-old. No reading, no addition or subtraction beyond adding or removing a chip or two. But all the fundamentals of a traditional FRPG aimed at people who have never seen those fundamentals before.
Comments
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hero kids
Sounds good to me! I am always looking for new games like that to try, and your description of what almost all of them are like is very accurate.
Did you try (or read up about) Hero Kids? That is actually a really good game that matches the (vague) description of what you are working on. We have played several scenarios over the last few years (kids aged from 4 to 8). It is marketed as a RPG, but it is really much more like a tactical boardgame with the DM/parent playing the monsters. Although you might have something even less RPG-like in mind, you might still find it interesting to have a look at Hero Kids.
Hero Kids
I should probably buy that and check it out. The "good news" is that it has a 50 page manual, so it's certainly more complex than mine.. Also it looks like there's no level-up mechanic, where my game actually is strongly based around steady character improvement.
Thanks!
Age Out Issues
Two questions:
- With a name like Hero Kids, do you think the company is aging out of its own audience?
- that being said, does the company that makes Hero Kids have a "follow-up" game for their customers once they no longer need their parents/older siblings to be the referee?
If the answer to the above is "Yes, No," then maybe approaching them with the next tier of games for the audience is a possible angle for publishing...?