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Creative Games sans Violence?

Posted by Cliff on from the engaging-the-intellect dept.

jolyon_jnr asks: "I'm looking for games to use in an unusual educational setting: a school within a Juvenile Detention Centre. I don't set policy, so the 'no violence' is a fixed criteria. I want to engage students' creativity and problem solving skills, without using 'boring educational software'. I've thought of Lemmings and The Incredible Machine. What other suggestions can you offer? Please bear in mind that most students have very low literacy levels, but will learn if motivated sufficiently."

6 of 604 comments (clear)

  1. carmen sandiego by bigpat · · Score: 5, Informative

    I liked Where in the world is carmen sandiego... put them on the other side of the law.

    http://www.learningcompany.com/SubCategory.asp?C ID =244

  2. Retro games by MSBob · · Score: 4, Informative
    Retro games should fit the criteria you specify. I don't know about their educational value but most will certainly meet the "non-violence" criteria. The ones that come to my mind include: Tetris, Manic Miner, Pirates, Boulder Dash etc. Often times they are more exciting that todays offerings and are pretty cost effective to purchase.

    For a modern collection of PG rated titles try most things published by Nintendo. Actually Mario 64 was an excellent game in itself and a pretty challenging one too.

    Hope this helps.

    --
    Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.
  3. Droidworks by Chelloveck · · Score: 5, Informative

    Lemmings qualifies as non-violent? The game where those cute little guys can fall off cliffs, be fried by flamethrowers, blown up, drowned, decapitated, and squished? That Lemmings? :-)

    Anyway, I recommend Droidworks. You build droids to solve various puzzles, then pilot them in an over-the-shoulder view. My kids love it.

    --
    Chelloveck
    I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
  4. Any adventure game by dagashi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Monkey Island 2, 3 and 4 are all great games where you have to think quite a bit... and best of all, you get to laugh too.
    Don't miss out on Grim Fandango either.
    All above from LucasArts.

    I also enjoyed playing the Qing's/Space/Heroe's Quest games (Sierra) alot.
    The Dig(LucasArts) is also a great adventure game not to be forgotten!

    They're all non-violence.

    --
    get xited
  5. Lego Alpha Team by trichard · · Score: 5, Informative

    Lego Alpha Team is a game that makes the player solve spatial puzzles to continue to the next level. The puzzles require the player to place special blocks that change the direction of movement of the on-screen characters.

    In effect, you "program" the movement to accomplish a specific goal. In fact, the playing process reminds me a great deal of programming. Kind of an edit-run-debug sort of process. You have unlimited time and lives to complete the puzzles (unlike actual programming, I guess).

    All of this is wrapped up in a action/adventure story-line which keep it engaging. My eight-year-old son loves this game and I enjoy playing it too.

    Check out the game's home page and a review at Kid's Domain.

    trichard

  6. The Bridge Building Game! by ObligatoryUserName · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've recently been consumed by the non-violent fun found in Bridge Builder (fulfill all your secret engineering fantasies), as well as the cartoon physics motorcycle puzzle game. Bridge Builder is Free (as in Beer), and the motorcycle game has an 18 level shareware version.