I wanted to introduce my 8 year old daughter to adventure games and was wondering, how appropriate would “Thimbleweed Park” be?
Any other similar games that are more age appropriate?
You could start with Humongous Entertainment games first before introducing her to Lucas Film Games / Lucasarts titles. The funny ones (not Indy and not The Dig) should be fine for 8 year olds.
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In my opinion, there are many better adventure games suited for a 8 year old kid.
The tone of Thimbleweed Park can be perceived as a quite dark one and there are not many positive messages in the game. Small parts of the game might be enjoyable for a 8 year old, though.
Personally, I would suggest Freddi Fish:
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I just started playing Freddi Fish recently to test it for my granddaughter, and it is very good for children. On the iPad version, the controls are a bit clunky, but the game is very good.
What the… how old are you? I don’t know why, but I thought you were at most 40.
BTW, my daughter is 4 (actually, 3y364d today) and she LOVED Freddi Fish. Unfortunately, since we’re Italian, she could only play the 4th game (the only one with Italian voices), but it was so great to see her play and solve the game all by herself.
So, I’d go with Freddi Fish and other Humongous games. They’re perfect to start.
While I don’t think the murder is a problem in TWP, the puzzles need a bit of “adult” knowledge and the whole tone would be lost on an 8yo, so I’d keep it for later.
On the other end, I think that Monkey Island can be enjoyed without problems by an 8yo.
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I think you got the point. The way you educate your children is very personal, and surely some people could find “inappropriate” something I found suitable or vice versa.
But that’s not the point. if you just want to know if your son will see explicit sex/nudity/profanity/violence/alcool/drugs, you can simply stick to the official rating. It says it all.
Today’s 8yo play FPS or games like GTA, after all…
The point is that the game has an adult target, and a child can’t get all the references right and/or fully appreciate it.
You can sure choose more appropriate titles for an 8 yo, but I’d not advise to put TWP apart and save it for later: as Low Level stated, the game has multiple levels of depth that can be achieved. It can be appreciated, at a shallower level, even by a kid. If he likes it, he will surely replay it when he’ll be older and wiser.
Obviously, there’s an official rating you should consider, and you should play the game together with your child, in my opinion.
Oh, I totally second this.
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q.e.d.
Hehe, I agree with you on TWP.
As for my age, I’m 46, so you were close. My granddaughter is the child of my wife’s daughter from another marriage. My wife is older than I by a handful of years, and had her daughter very young.
I tried to avoid the whole affair and not get involved at all, but who can resist the laughter of a small child? It melts your heart, especially the first time she called me “abuelo” (Spanish for grandfather) and mispronounced it as “wellow.” Hehehe.
I thus have the distinct pleasure and advantage of having all the benefits of being a grandfather without any of the pains of fatherhood. 
dZ.
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Well maybe I’m a horrible parent, but I let my eight year old (now 9) play TWP with me. I was next to him most of the time and had my finger on to the . Key when I knew a couple of the innapropriate lines were coming up.
But I agree that Monkey Island is better for kids.
Oh, yes, you 're an horrible parent. If not, you would not have skipped lines of the game in front of your son 
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Except for this part, maybe.
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Wait…what?
Carla smoking?!
I only agree if you exclude Sam & Max as well, which in my opinion is not appropriate for 8 year olds either.
NOT Indy, NOT The Dig, NOT Loom, NOT Sam & Max, NOT Full Throttle!
As for Monkey Island and TWP, parental guidance would make sense. Though, the humor and the puzzle design in these games are destined for older audiences.
For this reason, I presume that Freddi Fish and the other Humongous games would be a more appropriate access to the world of adventure games, for an 8 year old.
Aren’t 8 year old kids too old for the Humongous games? (Serious question, I haven’t played them - yet.)
I remember a friend, who played Loom when he was around 10, telling me that the scene where Chaos kills Mandible haunted him for several years.
You may be right. I haven’t played them either. It’s often difficult to judge whether a child is too young or too old for something.
Though, I played Monkey Island for the first time when I was a young kid. And, on one hand, the game was not too violent to me. On the other hand, the puzzles felt very hard to me. Well, it’s actually not an easy game, but when you are a child, you cannot be as experienced as an older player, when it comes to solving a complex puzzle. Also, children usually tend to be impatient. Therefore, younger children ought to play adventure games that are not too hard. Well, MI 1 & 2 have nonetheless been my favorite adventure games from the beginning, so maybe these games are not too hard.
However, TWP feels a bit darker than MI and DotT.
I understand that.
I played Loom for the first time only a few years ago, so I was old enough. Nonetheless, once I watched that scene, my only thought was “This game is too violent for younger children”. I was even surprised that the same company that created Monkey Island and DotT made such a brutal and dystopic game. The harmless first half of Loom is really deceptive!
By the way, I did not regret that I hadn’t played Loom earlier. It’s definitely not one of my favorites.
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Thanks heap for the tips.
I got her:
Yesterday.
She had fun playing it, did get a bit OCD about it and finished it in 2 hours, I watched her play for the first 30 mins to an hour. It looked like a real fun game for her age group. The puzzles are pretty simple, at 8 you breeze through most of it.
After she was done in her typical OCD way she deleted it from her iPad to make space for other stuff. Then I asked her if she wants me to get any similar games and she said she prefers games she can only play for 10-20 minutes, I tried explaining that this is not how adventure games work and that you can just play for a bit and get back to it later, I hope that does sink in.
I wonder, is Freddy Fish geared at younger kids than Pajama Sam?
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Oh. Exactly the opposite here. I played Loom last year for the first time. It was definitely one of my favorites!
I also did not regret that I hadn’t played Loom earlier. Probably I wouldn’t have enjoyed it that much when I was younger.
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I was gifted Loom on my 17th birthday.
It was the perfect gift 
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