children games: Little Bird Big Hunger, To Market, Act Fast

I recently tried a number of children games designed for young children aged 3 to 5. It was an eye-opening experience for me. I normally don't seek out games for young children, so I am unfamiliar with this genre. These game won't be interesting to adults. In fact I would say they won't work at all. However when I look at them from the perspective of a 3-year-old (as best I can) or from that of a teacher of a 3-year-old, I realise they are cleverly designed and deliberately crafted to teach things to children which we adults take for granted. 

One game I tried was Orchard. This is a classic which I have never heard of. It is an evergreen title and has celebrated its 35th anniversary. It even has a number of spin-offs. Yet I am unaware of it because I rarely look into games for young children. 

Little Bird, Big Hunger is a game about baby birds growing up. You need to feed them specific types of food so that they can grow up to become full-fledged adult birds. This is probably a good game to convince kids to eat their vegetables.

During game setup, everyone takes one set of four tiles. There are flowers of different colours on the back of the tiles, so that you can tell which tile belongs to which set. 

Players take turns rolling a die. The die faces are various food types. Regardless of who rolls the die, everyone gets to collect the food type as indicated by the die, if his bird needs that food type. In the photo above, the die face shows two food types. In this case you pick one from the two options. The food types are flies, worms, seeds and berries. 

The face-down tile indicates the food types you need for your bird to grow to the next stage, which is on the front of the tile. Initially the baby bird only needs two food types. In the second stage (photo above) it needs three. Eventually in the third stage it will need four. At this point in the game, the little bird had eaten seeds, and it still needed worms and berries. A mechanism similar to The Settlers of Catan is used here. Regardless of who is rolling the die, every player has the chance to collect something. This keeps everyone engaged. It's a clever concept. 

We did a full 4-player game. Now all the birds were in Stage 2, i.e. they all needed three types of food. 

Worms! Yummy! 

This bird is at Stage 3 now, and has eaten flies. It still needs two servings of seeds and one serving of berries. 

The first player to have his bird fully grown-up wins the game. The fully grown bird flies into the sky (photo above). Others may still continue to play until all the birds are grown up. One thing I didn't notice until after our game was that every picture of the birds featured a bee. That's something the teacher can point out to the children, or ask the children about. Children may notice these details more often than adults. 

This game is To Market. The game box is turned into four shops. Each shop accepts only one particular form of payment. The yellow shop only accepts thick coins. It has a big coin slot. The blue shop accepts credit cards only. It has a long thin slot. In real life, when you pay using a credit card, the shop does not keep your card. In this game, this aspect is simplified. Your card will be confiscated by the shopkeeper. Don't try to explain this to your child. 

Every player starts the game with three coins and a credit card. You also get a notepad - your shopping list. Your goal is to buy all four items on your list. On your turn you roll a die to see which shop you get to visit. You pay using the required payment method, and then you claim the tile representing the item on your shopping list. This is mostly a luck-based game, but a small decision element is injected. Two of the die faces are wild. You get to choose which shop you want to visit. For adults, this is a no-brainer. You simply visit any shop which you have not yet visited. However for a 3-year old, this is a meaningful decision that teaches logic. 

This is Act Fast, by Wolfgang Kramer (Take 6, The Princes of Florence, Tikal, El Grande). This is a speed game in which you compete with your opponents to claim tiles from the table. Every round, a player rolls the four dice, and they will tell you which tiles are up for grabs. However, if a fire is rolled, you are not allowed to claim any tile. If you accidentally claim any, you are penalised. You must return one previously claimed tile. In fact, if you make any mistake, you will be penalised in the same way. If the four dice all show icons of tiles which have already been claimed, you race to claim the rainbow tile instead. The player who wins it immediately swaps it for one other unclaimed tile. When the only tile remaining is the rainbow tile, the game ends. The player with the most tiles wins. 

This is a very simple game, but I was completely surprised by how well it works for adults. This is an engaging and exciting game. Even adults will easily make mistakes, especially when the fire is rolled. Adults will claim tiles by mistake, because everyone is tense and keen to grab tiles as quickly as possible. In the early game there are many tiles on the table, so finding the right one is not easy. In the late game, although there are fewer tiles, the twist introduced by the rainbow makes things tricky. You have to be very careful in making sure none of the icons rolled can be found before grabbing the rainbow tile. If you make a mistake, you will be penalised. 

As a party game, this is a riot! I think this would be a wonderful drinking game. Just don't do it when kids are around.