What's left for the younger ones?
I'm really puzzled at what I could offer to my young children (8-12) as nice, clever adventure games.
In the old days (30 years ago) game makers needed to please a young audience. Adults were not in video games. Simply. This means that the video games, In these days, video games contained less violence, sex and adult contents on the average, because of the commercial target.
Now that this younger audience is older, and also with the increased technical capabilities at hand, the video game industry is producing more and more 16+ 18+ games, very often extremely violent. Because of the commercial target evolution. And I'm not complaining: let's talk TTG, I am certainly pleased with the last games: GoT, TFTBL, TWAO, TWD 1 and 2.
However I would like to spend some time with my kids (8-12) with a good, clever adventure game. Not something dumb as 'Dora' or Mario whatever, but rather the equivalent to a modern version of the King's Quest, Day of the Tentacle, etc. games. I don't want something where decision making is constrained by time, I'd like to avoid games focused on battles (Pokemon etc.), But rather the ones where you would wake up in the morning (or in the night!) with a 'Yes ! I know what I have to do!'. I don't want something beautiful but so complex that you just die in front of your screen (like Myst etc.).
In addition to this, I want something localized (french!) with real voice and not subtitles because it's difficult for kids to follow the subtitles. I tried with TFMI and it was a failure.
BTW I'm not talking about retrogaming, I've tried, that's terrible 
, I want modern and clever adventure (more or less point-and-click) games for the family, with HUMOUR, because all those recent games are so damn serious !. I'm not sure the 21st century is up to its promises in this area, Apart from TTG's Monkey Island and Back to the Future, but no full localization makes them unusable in this context.
Shouldn't TTG have a role to play here, to keep the adventure spirit alive for the younger players?
Thanks for reading
Comments
I'm sure you've heard by now that TT is making a Minecraft game later in 2015 right? Maybe that's something your kids would enjoy?
Day of the tentacle is being remade at the moment that could be good for you. There isnt anything I can think of that matches your request, I used to like monkey island and grim fandango when I was that age, octodads ok but its short and not very clever, im struggling here too minecraft story mode wont be out for a while.
Oh actually the Sherlock Holmes games by frogware might be good for the older one but there are murders and drug references in them
Of course I read about that and I'm really not convinced this is what I want, until I see it at least.
Very interesting indeed. However we'll have to see if the young ones can see beyond the pixels
cough Grim fandango remake cough
Maybe I'm in the minority, but even with Telltale's new formula, I'd still love to see them make a new Season of Monkey Island or Sam and Max.
Have you tried Night of the Rabbit or The Whispered World?
They are adventure games with a very fairy tale like vibe and are really good, they also have voice acting and stuff, pretty good stuff and though these are silent and have no dialogue I'd also recommend Amanita design's stuff, Machinarium specially, they are puzzle focused adventure games with really beautiful art, like I said no characters talk in their games but they are still pretty good and definitely child appropriate.
EIDT: I didn't pay enough attention so I didn't realize you wanted them in French, anyway Night of the Rabbit and Whispered World are indeed available in French so that shouldn't be much of a problem, as for the Amanita Design games, well they appear to only be available in English however other than the menus that only contain features like new game and load game the games are designed to be understood by everyone, with most of the instructions and everything being explained by drawings or the actions shown in game so they should be still able to be understood by people who posses next to no knowledge of the English language.
Sam & Max is a good funny adventure game that is usually kid-friendly, if you don't mind a few demon/devil references. I'm not sure if you can get the whole thing in voiced French, though. The localization is the toughest part.
For a while there, there weren't any good adventure games coming out new in any language, so there's a big gap between the pixelated variety and the late 2000s.
There's a new King's Quest coming out later this year, but there's not a lot of info out for it yet, so I don't know if it will be appropriate.
How about Tales of Monkey Island
I noticed on Jennifer's Adventuress blog that the Director's Cut of the fan-made sequel, Zak McKraken Between Time and Space, is coming out in a few days, and it will have a French translation. But, gosh darn it, the French translation is subtitled, not voiced. And you also have to watch out for fan-made games, because they're not going to be rated for age level, and you never know if they might stick something inappropriate in there. However, it did remind me of this thread, so I thought I'd drop in a reference in case you're intrigued.
Zak McKraken - Between Time and Space trailer