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[WhiteFire]

Hi all, I've just picked up this great looking game. I am from Australia, I work in retail and I have just completed a programming course at uni focusing on game development. It still amazes me how people can make such great games and really makes me appreciate the effort put into something like this!

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
I first saw it on Rock Paper Shotgun.
I then decided to pick up the game after reading the blog and watching Phuket and jimmijamjams YouTube videos. Great Videos and an absolutely wonderful blog! Very interesting!

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
I don't really play any proper roguelike games but really enjoy "roguelite" games such as Binding of Isaac, Tower of Guns, Risk of Rain and Ziggurat.

-What are your other favorite games?
I like the occasional FPS such as the Bioshock series, I love the Elder Scrolls games and am currently playing the Witcher 3 but I generally go for the smaller indie games and anything that takes my fancy at the time.

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
I do Krav Maga martial arts/self defence, I love to read, I watch (ALOT of) Youtube videos such as let's plays and that's about it really.
(I do also work alot but the question was 'What do you do for fun' and it wouldn't be my first choice of activity haha)

I hope this game holds my attention (I am very bad at starting games then getting distracted by the next game I find  ) long enough to become apart of this community!
-Alex

[Deliz Seemack]

Hey there,

Deliz here. I found out about Cogmind somewhere on reddit I think. I build and sell web applications for a living.

I enjoy Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup even if I'm pretty bad at it. I enjoy Dwarf Fortress, modded Minecraft, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Don't Starve, One Way Heroics, most of the XCOM franchise and a bunch of other roguelikes/roguelites/survival/puzzle/strategy/indie/tactical/turn-based/4x games.

Those are the games I have on my Steam Wishlist:

• Xenonauts
• Darkest Dungeon
• Kerbal Space Program
• Unepic
• Plague Inc: Evolved
• Project Zomboid
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• NEO Scavenger
• Transistor

When I'm not playing games, I enjoy inline skating and growing fine herbs.

[nullzero]

Hi there!

-How did you learn about Cogmind?

I was following X@COM development and got into the 7DRL, it was one of the few non-tiles one that got me hooked.

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?

preferably tile based rogues or roguelikes. Tile based: Stone crawl soup, DoomRL. ASCII: DiabloRL, Incursion, ASCII Sector to name a few. I'm now eagerly expecting to play KeeperRL as I like the concept of Dwarf Fortress but couldn't get into it yet.
-What are your other favorite games?

The old: LaserSquad, Chaos, Xcom, Ultima 8, Transport Tycoon, Settlers, Baldur's Gate. The new: Terraria, Starbound, Shadowrun Returns, Rogue Legacy, Luftrausers.

Also besides cogmind/X@Com projects I follow Gunscape, Chaos Reborn, OpenXcom, OpenMW and Moonman.

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?

Most of the time I end up getting myself tackingling never finished projects and brainstorming ideas into new ones. That and Linux distrohopping.   

EDIT: Added ASCII Sector.

[CormacMccarthy91]

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
Roguelikes section of Reddit.

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
Dwarf Fortress, Brogue, Nethack. Mostly Dwarf Fortress.

-What are your other favorite games?
Mostly FPS games like DooM 2, Killing floor, also Dark Souls and games like Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon.

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
I work as an A&P tech in Aviation. Fixing helicopters and airplanes. Doesn't leave a lot of time for anything else.

Quick question though, I read somewhere on here, (cant find it now), that there is some knowledge of hacking/ code writing required in this game, I was wondering if a lack of experience in that department would hinder my progress?

Thanks and Hello

[jimmijamjams]

Hi Cormac and welcome!

All the hacking stuff is here:

http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=68.0

Be warned, it's not necessarily important to know this stuff to play the game and you'll learn the main ones as you go (so it's a little spoiler-y). However, biomatter has put a tonne of effort into it and it's pretty useful when you're sitting there thinking 'now what was that command I used last time?'

[CormacMccarthy91]

Hi Cormac and welcome!

All the hacking stuff is here:

http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=68.0

Be warned, it's not necessarily important to know this stuff to play the game and you'll learn the main ones as you go (so it's a little spoiler-y). However, biomatter has put a tonne of effort into it and it's pretty useful when you're sitting there thinking 'now what was that command I used last time?'

Thanks so much for that link, your videos actually got me into this game.

[jimmijamjams]

Hey!  You've made a good purchase and from what Kyzrati says there's a lot more to come in terms of items/gameplay/levels/secrets.

It's also nice to hear someone out there doesn't mind my Aussie drivel

[Kyzrati]

Hey everyone!

Glad to hear jimmijamjams' videos are selling people on the depth and quality of the game--he does a good job with all that pre-launch experience he gained with the 7DRL . I've been really busy lately working on the game so I haven't had time to watch several of the latest huge batch of videos he suddenly dumped on us. I'm afraid I'm missing my weekly dose of Aussie drivel

Hi all, I've just picked up this great looking game. I am from Australia, I work in retail and I have just completed a programming course at uni focusing on game development. It still amazes me how people can make such great games and really makes me appreciate the effort put into something like this!

A lot of inexperienced gamers out there really do underestimate what it takes to make a game like this, though anyone who's done any kind of programming or game development certainly has a much deeper appreciation =p

I hope this game holds my attention (I am very bad at starting games then getting distracted by the next game I find  ) long enough to become apart of this community!

As an early access release for a game that like many other major roguelikes will continue to receive meaty updates for some time, I hope we'll be able to keep our original players around or coming back.

Hi there!

Hey nullzero! Glad to have you around after seeing you throughout the dev process for so long

I haven't played it yet but miki seems to be doing a really nice job on KeeperRL (I follow development on that one).

Interesting that you follow Moonman as well. I was checking out a demo last week and it caught my son's eye--now he won't stop talking about it... Ben's got quite a creative world going there.

Did you hear about/play the new Chaos? (Chaos Reborn) I never heard of it when I was younger so it doesn't hit that nostalgia button for me, though obviously I played a lot of Julian's "other" major title

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
Roguelikes section of Reddit.

Yeah, we need some people to post interesting things there occasionally just to let more people know that Cogmind is out! It's the prime audience and yet there are always readers passing through who've never heard of Cogmind.

Lot of DF fans here now, though that of course makes sense

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
I work as an A&P tech in Aviation. Fixing helicopters and airplanes.

Oh cool, my granddad did the same, but in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

[nullzero]

Did you hear about/play the new Chaos? (Chaos Reborn) I never heard of it when I was younger so it doesn't hit that nostalgia button for me, though obviously I played a lot of Julian's "other" major title

As for Chaos, I only found in the Kickstarter that Julian was behind it too! Both it and Laser Squad were basically my favorite games in ZX Spectrum. The thing behind Chaos was its simplicity, one simple skirmish game on an empty black one screen map, with 2-8 wizards on opposite sides with a random list of spells. Meeting a real dragon was like getting an Ethereal for the first time. Running away from one caster inevitably meant getting near another one.

I backed on the Kickstarter but I haven't played yet, I'm waiting for it to mature a bit out of early access. And since I'm only interested on the single player side of things I can wait

BTW, there is a free playable android version of the old Chaos and its pretty plug n play.

[Kyzrati]

Oh neat, didn't know there was an Android version of the old one. I rarely use my phone for anything, but I would bet there's got to be a PC port of the original as well, if I have a chance to try it out. So busy = very little time to play games anymore!

I followed the new one through development (he had a blog) up to its KS success, and it certainly looked like it was shaping up nicely. I think I first heard of it when he did an interview at GDC some years ago.

One of my school friends used to rave about his Laser Squad exploits, but I didn't play that game until many years later just to try it out, by which time I'd already played and loved UFO Defense and its sequels (but mostly the first one), which were much deeper games.

[Supernovadx]

Links to everything I mention will be in the bottom if I can find them

Hi I my name is supernovadx. What you should know about me is I love to do pretty much everything about videogames. I'm into super boring simulation stuff. Like just watching simulations is fun. I've used 3dvce and boxcar 2d and all that. I love that stuff. I've been developing games for under a year now, and really love it. I also love being in videogame betas more then when the game is actually released, I love being a part of the process. I've been in over 30-50 different betas and am a part of the community in most of them. This one is the most recent one. Some other stuff is I've used pretty much every coding language known to man, but am beginner in all of them. I participated for the first time in the most recent ludum dare. I got to work on AI for the first time which was cool. My game was called Pie Day Revenge.

Basically speaking if you know a game I've not at least heard of then there is a problem. I'm the game guy i'm not amazing at any particular game, but I know alot about game design and genres and stuff based on sheer amount of games I've played.

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
I can't remember exactly, I think it was an article by a news site. Maybe kotaku or gameinformer or something

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
haha ok, lets start the list. I'm a huge roguelike and simulation fan. I'm a person who enjoys progress quest. Like legitimately enjoys it. So thats one, I started my roguelike adventure when looking for quick games to play at school. I ended up coming across Cataclysm DDA which I played a lot of. That lead me to Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and Dwarf fortress. I'm also a huge fan of Brouge. Then I found out people made full roguelikes for money, so I slowly but surely got some of them. These games include Keeper RL which is like Dwarf fortress combined with dungeon keeper. I also played spelunky the binding of isaac and rebirth. I have many hours in don't starve, and a new roguelike called Catacomb Kids. I've also played Dungeons of Dreadmor, sword of the stars: The pit, and FTL.


-What are your other favorite games?
Um, yea. So I have over 200 games in my steam library alone. Over the course of the year I go through cycles of games that I like. It starts with roguelikes and simulations, then base building, then action, then racing, then strategy rts, then roguelikes again etc. So I could not tell you. Just know that I like new games. A lot.

Actually most recently my favorite games are this, and Rocket League. I cannot wait for that to come out. I had the beta for a week and I put 50 hours into that. I really love it and you should check it out too.

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
When I'm not playing games I'm doing parkour, hanging with friends, watching youtube videos about new games, discovering new games, coding games, and messing about with some language of code.

List of References:
My Game: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=49333
Rocket League: http://rocketleague.psyonix.com/
FTL: http://www.ftlgame.com/
Sword of the Stars: The Pit: http://store.steampowered.com/app/233700/
Dungeons of Dreadmor: http://dungeonsofdredmor.com/
Catacomb Kids: http://store.steampowered.com/app/315840/
Don't Starve: http://www.dontstarvegame.com/
Binding of Isaac: http://bindingofisaac.com/
Spelunky: http://www.spelunkyworld.com/
Dungeon Keeper: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Keeper
Keeper Rl: http://keeperrl.com/
Brogue: https://sites.google.com/site/broguegame/
Dwarf Fortress: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup: https://crawl.develz.org/
Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead: http://en.cataclysmdda.com/
Progress Quest: http://progressquest.com/
3dvce: http://3dvce.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Boxcar 2d(Genetic Cars Also): http://boxcar2d.com/
Genetic Cars: http://rednuht.org/genetic_cars_2/

[ukulele]

-How did you learn about Cogmind?

RPS, i really need to learn hot to create a web-crawler (I'm learning python atm) and pull info out of there, as it's a pain to scan for new games... but COGMIND stood out !!

Yes, the logo/title symmetry looks vv good and the name tells you everything ie thought-process: "Cogmind, hmm must mean machine mind... seems to emphasis the mind/software could be that you assemble different robot bodies... ahh, it's a roguelike too... might be worth a look..." I think that all took a few seconds of thought and scanning. Well I was very very taken with the aesthetic: I immediately thought: "This looks like a very professional production of roguelike... that is unusual, wonder how big team/dev costs are... ."

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?

I like the mechanics of roguelikes but find the ascii presentation graphics real turn-off!  So I've played very little. 878-Hack on iOS, 100rogues and I did not like either. That said Monaco and then FTL (rogue-lite) were my last 2 favourite games I played. Recently decided to look into rogues and might get Brogue going. I already downloaded Dwarf Fortress and currently that is my major game for now: It has more immersion than mmorpgs that I am a refugee from, that genre is so disappointing atm.

-What are your other favorite games?

Currently the games I have:-

1. Dwarf Fortress
2. Crusader Kings II
3. Towerfall
4. FTL
5. Unity of Command

They're all "investment" type of games what you put in you get out bar Towerfall, so I have my hands full; otherwise I'd probably have Cogmind in there at number 6!!

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?

Touch Footie is a great way to socialize with friends, when seeing family; going to the beach for a walk/swim ; enjoy reading (just got through The Man In The High Castle, Solaris, Hitchhiker's Guide and Foundation). Tbh, the quality of writing in the cogmind blogs made me feel as if I was reading a good sci-fi story, very well written as well as interesting! For my upcoming bday plan to start learning the ukulele, hence the username that came to mind.

[Kyzrati]

Links to everything I mention will be in the bottom if I can find them

Hey Supernovadx, sorry took me so long to see this one; it fell off my unvisited list since I'd passed through real quick one day!

But we've obviously met in the other threads . Nice to have yet more developer-players on board, because that keeps many of us on common ground when discussing features and implementation.

And parkour! Would be something I'd like to get into if my joints didn't have issues--I just swim and bike (mostly the latter these days) to keep my knees intact and usable

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
I can't remember exactly, I think it was an article by a news site. Maybe kotaku or gameinformer or something

It was probably RPS--they were the only news site I contacted, after the initial launch (since they'd been following Cogmind for a while). Cogmind will appear in many other media outlets once we get to 1.0.

Lots of good games on your list, wish I had time to play more of them, though I have toyed around with a good 25% of what you'd got there. I know the dev of KeeperRL, too--he's doing a really good job with that game.

@ukelele: I'm glad Cogmind stood out; that will really help the news spread later once we reach 1.0 and want to expand the audience. Quite a few players found Cogmind by spotting that RPS article--probably about 90% of current players are from either my original fan base or RPS.

Tbh, the quality of writing in the cogmind blogs made me feel as if I was reading a good sci-fi story, very well written as well as interesting!

Wow, thanks . I do put a lot into it. I'd be less inclined to write as much if no one bothered reading, but the readership is quite strong and continues to grow. Unfortunately the pace of development needs to pick up a bit and with increased post-launch responsibilities I'll be blogging a bit less. I'll still try to at least put out two posts per month, though many will be more developer-oriented, since a lot of what I'll be working on are spoilerish parts of the game, so I can't talk about them and have to find other things to write about!

Well I was very very taken with the aesthetic: I immediately thought: "This looks like a very professional production of roguelike... that is unusual, wonder how big team/dev costs are... ."

Now you have your answer, in the form of my latest interim alpha launch post-mortem, published just today. Answer: Pretty high . I think it'll turn out okay once we lower the price next year and show the game to a much bigger audience.

I like the mechanics of roguelikes but find the ascii presentation graphics real turn-off!  So I've played very little.

Another sci-fi roguelike, Caves of Qud, has been in development for years and isn't quite finished, but is coming to Steam EA around July 15th and has a nice tileset. Check it out!

DF is a really great game in terms of content, but I can't stand the UI, so never really played much.

You'll probably enjoy Brogue--both it and TGGW share similarities with Cogmind in terms of core design. Ah but the latter is ASCII only . I should ask the dev next time I talk to him if there's any hope of adding a tileset. (Unlikely since it would require an engine change, but never hurts to ask! It would help expand his audience, and as a good game it certainly deserves it.)

[ukulele]

Thanks for the reply. The blog post was fascinating; even though I have very low technical skills, I read a lot of game design stuff ; in fact you may feel inclined to cross-post over at gamasutra, where devs often post post-mortems which tend to go down very well simply because they're a) so important and relevant to a successful business model b) v informative.

It is quite scary the investment needed, still better than movie-making I think.  I followed FTL dev and as you mention about RimWorld, it comes down to providing a different experience in a polished package and that really helps drive positive word of mouth. What I found so good about FTL was the "story-generation" (the dev of RimWorld is such a pro on this subject) of each "run" as well different options for the player to express themselves (ship/crew types). I have watched a few Let's Plays of Cogmind (JimJam or we his name is! is really good) and I think the different approaches: Combat, Stealth, Hacker, Drone Army and any variations on these either between games or within single games will make Cogmind a game that people take to. Personally I enjoy messing with systems than achieving goals, so options to mess with each floor's standard running are appealing to me. In Monaco I found great satisfaction assassinating all NPCs or else doing a run without being "seen" 100% or sabotaging as much stuff as possible and still "getting out alive"! etc. 

I'm trying to reconcile myself to ascii graphics as part of the appeal of this genre is the low demands it makes on my computer or the memory space required.

On alphas, well I kickstarted a few games and that put me off paying upfront, I think the 2 things I found objectionable about KS is:-

1. Allowing money after the goal is achieved: "stretch-goals"
2. Players forking out high amounts instead of many players spending a little each

There's no way to really stop it but it defeated the clearer concept of "crowd-funding" imo. I think Early Access alphas are good per each developer on their own webpage being more responsible for a more targeted community however. 

Thanks for the link over r-roguelike/devs: Complete Roguelike Tutorial, using python+libtcod. Could be a good way for me to keep learning python.

[Kyzrati]

Thanks for the reply. The blog post was fascinating; even though I have very low technical skills, I read a lot of game design stuff ; in fact you may feel inclined to cross-post over at gamasutra, where devs often post post-mortems which tend to go down very well simply because they're a) so important and relevant to a successful business model b) v informative.

Absolutely. I'm already gearing up to post that on Gamasutra. Just today I submitted my trailer post-mortem first, just to get my foot in the door and test their system. The post-mortem will be next

I'd agree EA is generally better than KS, but then KS is supposed to be for supporting games that are not necessarily very playable, or technically still in the prototype stage, and they can't otherwise obtain the funds to make the playable version. With all the "abuse" of the system today, the situation's getting a lot muddier.

I'm glad I decided against KS in the end. This turned out to be a really good route.

It is quite scary the investment needed,

Making a great game costs a lot more than the average gamer/consumer realizes, but I think the growing community of players who like indie games is increasingly come to understand the financial side of things. My future expenses breakdown can hopefully become another point of reference when I publish that. It'll be more valuable meaninguful once 1.0 is out the door.

It'll all be worth it once we have the epic game that, despite already playing as you describe, will have even more content that players can use to define their own unique experience.

Definitely stick to the python libtcod tutorial and see it through--you can go far with just that and an imagination

[Reiver]

And I'm Reiver! The ideas-man who comments on every bloody blog post, because I apparently can't help but be 'helpful'.

I'm a kiwi, recently wed, and dealing with all the excitement that two adults moving in together entails, when the new house is really not big enough.

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
The Rock, Paper, Shotgun Devwatch article. It's pretty much the only gaming-related news site I bother to follow, simply due to the fact it's such a pleasure to read their articles. No-one else seems to quite match it. Anyway, when I saw the handful of GIFs they included, I Sat Up And Took Note... and started reading the devlog. Which was also sufficiently well-written that, well, now I guess I follow two gaming sites, but one of them is somewhat specific.

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
ToME, Dungeons of Dredmor. I guess I just really, really prefer a functional GUI...
If it counts, I was also a huge fan of Bionic Dues, and the new trailer has me just about hooked for when that one comes out, too.

-What are your other favorite games?
Current favourites: Kerbal Space Program, Luftrausers, and uhhh CogMind will do it.
Perennials: XCOM:EU, Sword of the Stars, Freespace 2 (<3).
My oldest, greatest loves: Total Annihilation, XCOM:EU, the Mechwarrior & Heavy Gear series.I also enjoy 4X games in general, though my PC of the past three years hasn't really been up to enjoying them properly (Went for a laptop, and sacrificed grunt for proper portability), and likewise FPSes of the Counterstrike/Battlefield/L4D variety - I loved playing them, but these days lack both a clan or the twitch skills to do any good.

In light of Freespace, I suspect when I ever get a 'real' gaming rig again I'll be losing a lot of hours to Enemy Starfighter and potentially Elite/Star Citizen at some point in the future too. I'm a man with a flightstick and very specific tastes, what can I say?

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
Trick question! My main other hobby is board games, so that's games too. My wife and I also collect comics, and should really get back into our painting.

I'm also a compulsive modder and in theory a fledgling game designer, though I've found I'm a better heterodyne than solo developer - I'm good at ideas, mechanics, and even analysis and design; but without a project partner to bounce ideas off and help with the inevitable quirks of implementation, I swiftly stall. I do have a couple of projects I'd love to do one day, though. We'll see.

[RogueDeus]

Hello.

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
From your twitter. I'd followed you some time ago. Around the time I followed Limit Theory...
Your updates have always been very good. Great info!

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
Approaching Infinity, ASCII Sector, Dungeons of Dredmor... RimWorld.

Honestly, I've never completely enjoyed most Roguelikes that stuck to closely to the 'Rogue' playbook. While some people can overlook the lack of relevant information and chance difficulty spikes, I've always been very put off by them. But I played them anyway because nothing else came close to the level of diversity possible in their experience. Of course, lately that's changed quite a lot. With the Indie scene exploding, more and more attention to inexpensive ways to extend the re-playability of games has really gotten Roguelikes a TON of new attention.

-What are your other favorite games?

My top 4. (Not in any particular order)

• Forgotten Realms - Unlimited Adventures (aka: FRUA)
• Heroes of Might a & Magic III
• Master of Magic
• Neverwinter Nights

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
Think about them. Talk about them. Take notes about them.
Occasionally watch NetFlix, YouTube... Read the new media.
Rarely, argue about ANYTHING, but mostly politics, with anyone willing and able to argue without taking it personally. (Oh, how ironic it is. To argue, these days. No one knows how.)

[Kyzrati]

I'm a kiwi, recently wed, and dealing with all the excitement that two adults moving in together entails, when the new house is really not big enough.

And another kiwi joins the fold . Well, you have been around for quite some time now. I'm glad RPS did that dev log thing because it certainly attracted a number of people from outside the regular roguelike community, while Cogmind was still in the middle of pre-alpha development.

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
ToME, Dungeons of Dredmor. I guess I just really, really prefer a functional GUI...
If it counts, I was also a huge fan of Bionic Dues, and the new trailer has me just about hooked for when that one comes out, too.

Functional GUIs are an important part of making a game the best it can be! (For everyone, not just players with a "certain definition" of functional...)

I thought the Rogue Invader trailer was pretty fun, and the game looks okay, though apparently made the improper assumption that it has anything to do with roguelikes. What is "Rogue" even doing in that title?!?!

Wish I had some people to play board games with! My wife is completely anti-competitive about everything, meaning it's impossible to play anything. I tried playing a couple shortly early in our marriage, but it got so boring because she didn't actually try or want to win! And congratulations, by the way! I'm waiting for my son to grow up so I can play board games with him, hehe.

Bouncing ideas off others can be an important part of the process, and can also work in public if you frequent a particular forum space or use some other social media. Though I can see the value of having one person in particular who takes a long-term interest in the same concept. There are partners to be found on the web, but that's hard to pull off...

Hello.

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
From your twitter. I'd followed you some time ago. Around the time I followed Limit Theory...
You're updates have always been very good. Great info!

Hey RogueDeus! Thanks

Looks like you're into a lot sci-fi games there. I was looking at ASCII Sector again just yesterday, and I check in on RimWorld occasionally... (I spend a lot more time looking at games than actually playing them, because the latter is so time-consuming and I just don't have that kind of time anymore. Maybe when I'm [even] older.)

FRUA looks pretty cool; something I never came across in my youth, though back then most of my RPG-specific gaming was PnP rather than on the computer.

And you didn't even mention your own gamedev endeavors there in your "what else do you do" section!

[Reiver]

Wait, there are other kiwis here? Where?! There shall be only one! (Or I might drink a beer with 'em. That works too.)

If competition is a problem, co-operative games might help, being games you play with your companions against the board, you can help each other out and not feel like one person did any dirty tricks or the like. I've found co-operative games to work well with folks that don't enjoy conflict, because when run well, they almost become team-building exercises.

My first two picks for a new player would be Forbidden Island or, if she's up for interesting logic puzzles, Hanabi.
Forbidden Island is particularly notable as being aimed sufficiently lightweight/themed enough to be a 'childrens game', popularly known as 'Pandemic lite', it's the sort of game you can play with the kids and not be driven mad by, even though it's perfectly playable as a lighter-weight game by the grownups; I own a copy and it gets a lot of play when we don't want anything longer. Just don't try to steer everyone's moves too much, else you're playing solitare. Half a step up in complexity but still Forbidden Island-ish (Just in case the indiana-jonesy theme doesn't get much traction) is Flashpoint - playing fire-fighters tends to be an easy win as themes go. It's got a dozen expansions, and they're all maps even harder than the original.

Hanabi meanwhile is a game that you can't play solitare-by-proxy with, because players have imperfect information - about what's in their hand. This does in fact make it a little tricky to plan your moves; the whole game is based on trying to get other players to help you intuit what you've got and vice versa. A programmers dream, though some find the "Wait, why are they getting so excited about the fact I have a three? I need a one... oh wait, I can see the other cards out there. That must mean that this card is the one!" leaps of logic a bit rough.

There's also Pandemic and Eldritch Horror, but they're bigger, heavier games (And Eldritch Horror especially is very heavy on the text, and I'm not sure what languages it's in beyond english, if that's an issue). Pandemic is Forbidden Island with the knobs turned up and the world trying to doom you; Eldritch Horror is huge and chunky and full of chthulu mythos and dice, and the world is trying to doom you. No, really, the Cultists can be rather determined.

... and thus endeth my treastise for co-operative games. I own every game I mentioned. What can I say, I'm a fan of clever systems and pretty aesthetics.

[Kyzrati]

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll check those out.

For me games have almost entirely been about competition, but I have had the occasional cooperative experience (long ago with my brother) and enjoyed that, too. More recently I've been playing a very simple kids board game with my son (his first): Busytown (he reads the books by the same name). It's really well done, and the first board game I've played in a long time. Ultra simple, but it needs to be enjoyable for three-year-olds . We will graduate to more games with time... nice to have some ideas for games even my wife would be interested in playing with us eventually--I hadn't even thought of that route before!

[Reiver]

... oh, your kid's three? And you're a Programmer^(tm)?

I'll just leave this wee link to Robot Turtles here.

Yes, I own this one, too. Starts teaching spatial reasoning, ends teaching friggin' function calls, and scales to player age in between, including multiple ages at once.

Also has a hilarious backstory to it - when it was Kickstarted the funding went a tad bezerk (half a million for a $25k goal, anyone?), and queries flooded in whether the designer planned to go professional. The answer boiled down to "Uh, thanks but no thanks, I work for Google. I just wanted a game for my kids."

[Kyzrati]

Oh my... I am so getting this. Like, today. Manufacturer recommends ages 4 and up, but I'll see if I can get him to play (it'll be on the more difficult side at first simply because he has a thing against turtles o_O).

And that's a great backstory, thanks for sharing!

[Reiver]

Hahaha! Yes, that is pretty much precisely the response that led to it earning half a million in pledges - "Welp, I guess that's a game I'm buying then..." from every programmer parent, ever.

It wouldn't hurt to wait on it, honestly - it'll sit nicely on the shelf until he's even more thoroughly into board games (and possibly over his turtle hate) in a few more months. How much programming history do you know to get the title, by the way? It's not a coincidence.

In hindsight, this should probably be an entirely different thread. Oops. Oh well! Either way, I should probably stop spending your hard-earned alpha sales for you. (Of course, if you ever want more suggestions, well, you know where to find me too.)

[Kyzrati]

Hahaha! Yes, that is pretty much precisely the response that led to it earning half a million in pledges - "Welp, I guess that's a game I'm buying then..." from every programmer parent, ever.

It wouldn't hurt to wait on it, honestly - it'll sit nicely on the shelf until he's even more thoroughly into board games (and possibly over his turtle hate) in a few more months.

Yeah, I'll get it anyway just to have it, and see when I can introduce it to him. With young kids you often have to wait on a lot of things until the opportunity strikes.

How much programming history do you know to get the title, by the way? It's not a coincidence.

Haha, know the history? My first computer experience was in our elementary computer class in the 80s during which we spent a good bit of our time giving commands to the turtle

[Reiver]

And now your son shall relive the same experience... by bossing his dad around, instead of hammering at obsolete equipment!

(Insert snarky quip about the poor sleep-deprived dad being obsolete equipment here)