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Gaming 101:
Creative Games

Game
List

In this series, we are learning how different aspects of video games work by playing games that offer an easy introduction to this one concept. This is designed for people new to gaming and aims to identify games with the least barriers. In this entry, we are looking at Creative games.

While all video games could be considered creative, as you are interacting to create the experience. Creative games focus on this aspect of play. You can make something new that remains in the game world, like a picture, character, arrangement of houses, landscape or even how nations are situated on the map.

Some Creative games let you make your own levels, characters, objects or even entire playable games to share with other players. When these creations are shared online they are called "User Generated Content". This content falls outside the PEGI/ESRB ratings and is worth noting for younger players.

Creative games come in many forms. Perhaps you can create your own Platform or Puzzle levels. Or you could craft something new in an Open World. There are Racing games where you can design cars and circuits. There are Adventure games that involve drawing and sculpting to progress.

This list includes 18 games from the last 17 years, with 452 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to play your first creative game.

List Details

PEGI Ratings: PEGI 3 to PEGI 12
ESRB Ratings: ESRB EVERYONE to ESRB TEEN
Australian Ratings: G to M
Genres: Action, Adventure, Brain Game, Communication, Creative, Fighting, Narrative, Platform, Point-and-Click, Puzzle, Rhythm, Role-Play, Simulation, Strategy, Traversal and World Building
Total Likes: 452

Related Lists

We have other Getting Started lists of games:

Townscaper

Release Date: 30/06/2020, updated in 2021

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Switch, Web, Xbox One, Xbox X|S and iOS

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks and Hand-Made

Townscaper is a creative town-building game where you pick colours from the range available and click to put down a house in the sea. As you continue to add houses of different colours the game automatically orientates the architecture for you.

Chicory: A Colorful Tale

Release Date: 10/06/2021, updated in 2021

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Hand-Made

Chicory: A Colorful Tale is an adventure where you play an everyday dog thrust into the role of wielding a magic brush. The world starts black and white but you colour it in with your paintbrush to solve puzzles and help your animal friends. It looks...

Nuts

Release Date: 20/01/2021

Out Now: Apple TV, Mac, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, Day and Night and Hand-Made

Nuts is an adventure game where you play a rookie field researcher. You use your camera, caravan, GPS and map to investigate the depths of the enigmatic Melmoth Forest. As you study the local squirrel population you uncover a strange mystery.

Good Pizza, Great Pizza

Release Date: 05/06/2018, updated in 2020

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Good Pizza, Great Pizza is a simulation game where you run your own Pizza shop, fulfilling orders from customers while making enough money to keep your shop open. You can upgrade your shop with new toppings and equipment to compete against your...

Okami

Release Date: 20/04/2006, updated in 2017

Out Now: DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night, Hand-Made and Open World

Okami (Okamiden on Nintendo DS) is an unusual action-adventure. Combat is via interactions that are achieved with brush strokes rather than weapons. It has a unique visual style that invites you to inhabit its painted world with brushstrokes of your...

Eastshade

Release Date: 14/08/2019

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, Day and Night and Open World

Eastshade is a slow exploration game in a world you explore by walking around. Here, though, you play as a painter of landscapes rather than typical hero. Your mission is to paint your deceased mother’s favourite sights, but it's the world and its...

Concrete Genie

Release Date: 20/08/2019

Out Now: PS4

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Concrete Genie is a running and jumping game about a young boy, who is isolated and bullied, in this exploration platform game with a twist. Using motion controls and buttons you can draw beautiful graffiti on the buildings, which come to life. These...

Cloud Gardens

Release Date: 09/09/2020, updated in 2021

Out Now: Mac, PC, Xbox One and Xbox X|S

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Blocks

Cloud Gardens is a puzzle game where you grow vegetation over a dilapidated post-apocalyptic world. It's a low-pressure puzzle, from the team behind Kingdom. It has the same pixel-art style, but here you are left to take your time...

Colour With Crayons

Colour With Crayons (Dreams)

Release Date: 27/07/2019, updated in 2020

Out Now: PS4 and PS5

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Hand-Made

Colour with Crayons is a running and jumping game. You are a crayon in a world made from art supplies. Find the required number of transparent boxes and colour them in to progress. It's an unusual premise extended by the optional hunt for cones to...

Draw a Stickman: Epic 3

Draw a Stickman: Epic 3 (Series)

Release Date: 03/12/2013, updated in 2022

Out Now: Android, PC, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Hand-Made and Open World

Draw a Stickman: Epic 3 s Epic 3 is the latest game in the series, and you are on a mission to save your friends who have been scattered throughout the world by an earthquake. Work out the puzzles so you can progress through the game.

Tint

Release Date: 13/09/2019

Out Now: Apple TV, Mac and iOS

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Tint is a puzzle game you solve by painting. You mix watercolours to match the colour of the origami. The aesthetic and the low-pressure puzzles make for a soothing experience. There are no timers, no countdowns, no points and certainly no rush,...

Patterned

Release Date: 15/09/2019

Out Now: Apple TV, Mac and iOS

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Patterned is a puzzle game where you piece together beautiful patterns. It's a bit like a jigsaw but without the stress of forever finding more blue sky pieces. Each pattern begins as a sketch and you use visual clues to reassemble its scrambled pieces.

Train Valley 2

Train Valley 2 (Series)

Release Date: 16/09/2015, updated in 2022

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox X|S and iOS

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks and Grid

Train Valley 2 is a toy train puzzle game where you build a railroad company from the days of the Industrial Revolution into the future. It looks like a kids train-set but simulates real economics of the valley's cities and industries. The result is a...

Dinosaur Mix

Release Date: 16/05/2014, updated in 2021

Out Now: Amazon Fire, Android and iOS

Skill Rating: 2+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Dinosaur Mix is a creative dinosaur making game. You mix and match body parts to create your own colourful creature and then see it come to life and explore the world.

Summerhouse

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC

Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Day and Night and Pixels

Summerhouse is a creative game where you design little vignettes by constructing buildings by dragging and dropping doors, windows, roofs and other paraphernalia. Play is about design rather than success or failure, but still offers surprising outcomes...

Inked

Release Date: 26/04/2018, updated in 2023

Out Now: Android, PC, PS4, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Hand-Made

Inked is a puzzle game where you play a sketched hero venturing into the world of ink and paper, from the perspective of the artist who drew you. With simple controls, you traverse platforms and ramps and solve a range of hand-drawn puzzles with...

Soundodger 2

Soundodger 2 (Series)

Release Date: 11/10/2013, updated in 2021

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Soundodger 2 is a rhythm game where you move a small circle to avoid obstacles to the rhythm of the music. While it's a simple concept, the variety of deadly obstacles, the speed, and the precision needed (not to mention the extra game modes and...

Draw!

Draw! (Dreams)

Release Date: 09/03/2021, updated in 2021

Out Now: PS4 and PS5

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Draw! is a puzzle game where you draw your own platforms in order to get a stick figure to run and jump through the level to an exit. It is designed to look like drawings on a notepad with you as the artist.

Curated lists:
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Accessibility features:	Yes

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How long to play:
User-generated content:	No

Controls
Gamepad:
Mouse And Keyboard:
Touchscreen:
Motion:	Motion Aiming Motion Pointing Motion Tilting Motion Gesture Motion Camera
Remap Controls:
Button Combinations:	Holding Down Buttons Optional Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional No Simultaneous Buttons
Controller Vibration:
Sensitivity:

Getting Started
Onboarding Before Play:
Assistance Getting Starting:	Tutorials Practice Area View Control Mapping Assistance With Controls Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Adjust Speed No Jump Scares
Assistance For Progressing:	Guaranteed Progress With God Mode Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints Assisted Progress With Boosts Assisted Progress With Hints Assisted Recall for Characters Assisted Recall for Narrative and Dialogue Save Progress Anytime

Controls

Difficulty

Getting Started

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Getting Started

Reading

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Gaming 101:
Creative Games

List Details

Related Lists

Townscaper

Chicory: A Colorful Tale

Nuts

Good Pizza, Great Pizza

Okami

Eastshade

Concrete Genie

Cloud Gardens

Colour With Crayons (Dreams)

Draw a Stickman: Epic 3 (Series)

Tint

Patterned

Train Valley 2 (Series)

Dinosaur Mix

Summerhouse

Inked

Soundodger 2 (Series)

Draw! (Dreams)

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Reading
Reading Level:
Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text High Contrast Text
Subtitles:
Captions:
Voice Acted:

Navigation
Clarity:
Head-Up Display:
Menu Navigation:

Visual
Contrast:
Interactive Elements:
Visual Distractions:
Audio Cues for Visual Events:
Narration for Visual Elements:
	Motion Sickness Friendly
Colour Options:
Play Without Sight:
Violence:

Audio
	Balance Audio Levels
Audio Events:
	Play Without Hearing

Communication
Player-to-Player Online Communication:
Online Communication Assistance:

Difficulty
Difficulty Options:	Simple and Full Version No Memorisation Advantage No Hidden Information No Deceit Advantage No Colour Advantage No Mathematics Advantage No Weighing Decisions

Getting Started
Assistance Getting Started:	Clear Manual Electronic Version of Manual Electronic Version of Manual for Screen Readers Getting Started Video Digital Version Reference Aid
Assistance Progressing:	Play Order Tokens (Or play order doesn’t change) Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Low Impact Catch Up Rule

Reading
Reading Level:
Necessary Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text on Board (Or no text required) Large Clear Text on Cards (Or no text required) High Contrast Text (Or no text required) QR Code For Text (Or no text required) Primary and Secondary Text Distinguishable (Or no text required) Information Orientation Clear Icons

Physical
Pieces:	Components are Distinguishable by Touch Components are Replaceable No Non-Standard Dice (Or No Dice) No Tiny Pieces No Paper Money No Sprawl
Cards:	Large Card Size Standard Card Shape Limited Hand Management No Excessive Card Shuffling No Right-Handed Advantage
Placement:	No Unbound Placement Player Components Not Shared No Fiddly Placement Easily Verbalised Actions

Visual
Printed Visibility:	Colour Blind Friendly Design Double-Coding Colour High Contrast Colours
Component Identifiability:	Outline Key Elements No Busy Backgrounds Easily Verbalised Game State No Close Inspection Disadvantage Playable Without Sight

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Minimum age rating:
Age of player:

Platform:
Include compatible platforms:	Yes

Difficulty
Difficulty Options:
Adjust After Setting:

Audio
Communication:	Audio Cues Mirrored Visually (Or no critical audio signals) No Pressured Reveals No Pressured Communication Playable Without Hearing

Gender and Sexuality
Gender and Sexuality Choices:
Gender Representation:
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Gaming 101:Creative Games

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Gaming 101:
Creative Games