Hi, I have a primary school girl who wants her share of gaming on the family android tablet.
While finding open source or commercial (i.e. I’m happy to pay) games with no ads that boys like is doable, I haven’t been able to find the kind of games a girl wants:
- with cute graphics
- where you care for dolls or pet
- no ads or subscriptions, no endless DLCs.
Do you have any recommendations for android games that fit the bill?
Edit: I should have been more clear: I literally typed the description she gave me of the game she wants.
I don’t like gender stereotypes and I am not pushing her towards anything. I’d be perfectly happy for her to play any game she likes, as long as it has no adds or micro transactions.
She can play with puzzles, RPGs, tower defense, sims… She wants cute dolls, and I am looking for a game with cute dolls that does not suck.
Stardew Valley
I was so convinced Stardew Valley had ads and micro transactions I had to look it up, but no ads no MT.
Everything I found was positive, it may be the last bastion of cute and positive gaming.
Also some major world expansions for free over the years.
Ginger Island is the most recent one, and I believe there is another one on the way as CA switches between Stardew and the unreleased chocolate game.
Here are some favourites of my daughter:
- Minetest, a completely free and open source Minecraft clone
- Picsart, a drawing app. I couldn’t find any free app that is similar in features.
- the camera app, to make short videos, even cool stop motion videos, or pictures to paint on with Picsart
- Signal, to share her art with the family. Although I don’t think it will run on a tablet.
- Toca Boca World, a cute little game where you can decorate houses and play with figures
- GCompris, a compilation of learning games, although she seems to have grown out of them in third grade
If you have a PC great games for her besides Minecraft are Spider-Man, Goat Simulator, Life is Strange: True Colors (we play that together) and GTA 5 (seriously, give her a 100% save. the interactivity in that game is through the roof)
No such thing as “girl games” and “boy games”. Just ones they like and ones they don’t.
I absolutely agree. I just typed the description she gave me of the game she wants.
Hah, sorry everyone jumped down your throat on the choice of words. Stardew Valley would be good for anyone old enough to read who would enjoy taking care of their own farm and building a relationship with villagers. I would call the graphics “cute”, but not gratuitously so (which might be preferred). Cooking Mama is another one that has a good reputation on non-mobile platforms, and it looks like they made an Android version. (Haven’t played the Android version, hopefully it’s not full of micro transactions).
If she has a Switch, I would say Animal Crossing.
There are definitely games where the primary/target demographic is boys or girls though.
The arcade classic “Centipede” is a good example of this. It was designed to try to attract women to play it. The colors were pastel shades and its sequel Millipede took it further by having a “story” about an elf archer protecting a mushroom forest from a bug invasion. Centipede was partially programmed by a woman (one of four people who made the game), Donna Bailey, who was also responsible for choosing the games vibrant pastel color palette.
Now, is Centipede or Millipede only for girls? No of course not. No video game is only for a single demographic. But real world data showed that girls/ women generally played Centipede and Millipede more than boys/men did. Some things just have a general appeal to some demographics more than others. So typically when a person asks for “girl games,” they just means games that will have a high appeal to girls or games that were designed with girls as the primary demographic.
Otome visual novels are this way as well. They target a female playerbase with a story-based romance game and generally feature a female protagonist who romances male characters in the game.
I should have been more clear; I don’t like gender stereotypes and I am not pushing her towards anything. I’d be perfectly happy for her to play any game she likes, as long as it has no adds or micro transactions.
I literally typed the description she gave me of the game she wants.
Itch.io has a bunch of virtual pet games for Android:
Of course, itch, thank you! How did I forget to look there?
No problemo 👍
without having read any comments i bet 99% of them are people telling you that you shouldnt give your daughter girly games even if it is she who wants them.
Minecraft (Can have a farm, pets etc)
Stardew Valley
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Minecraft has microtransactions in the marketplace unfortunately
There is no reason to push her towards gender stereotypes. If she likes the look of a game then why don’t you just let her play one of the many “boy’s games” you mention are available.
If you’re still looking for a suggestion then Stardew Valley is on mobile and a great game (although it is about farming and crafting rather than caring for a doll)
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Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit (though you need Netflix if you’re playing on your phone which is… Cool). I’ve played this one switch. It’s cute.)
Window Garden: Not caring for pets, but plants.
Bunny Haven (has ads)
Good Pizza, Great Pizza: A pretty cozy looking dinner-dash kind of game.
Neko Atsume: very popular cat collecting game
Kuma Sushi Bar: Cute bear runs a sushi restaurant for other cute critters
I know it’s not exactly what she’s looking for, but I believe they’re all “cozy” and have a “girly/cute” aesthetic.
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Flicky Bee is fun for a bit: https://f-droid.org/packages/org.lettucepie.flickybee/
Heart star. I liked it so much i paid for it. It’s not a doll game, more like a 16bit puzzle platformer.
Not a game per se but if she plays music, Ear Cat and Rhythm Cat could be something.
Thank you! I found ear cat, but not rhythm cat, do you have a link?
Ah, sorry, my memory tricked me there. I meant https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.demax.rhythmerr this one and thought it also was by the ear cat developers. Good app, but nowhere near as cute.
I’ve found that some games can still play after you’ve cut them off from the internet (in app settings from the phones general settings) but will no longer be able to display ads (and I assume microtransactions also won’t work then). Which might make some of the options you’ve currently ruled out work for you?
