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Finding Games That Fit
Your Family Schedule
Author: Jo Robertson

02/08/2021 / 2 years ago / Author: Jo Robertson


Managing children’s screen time is top of parental pressures and often talked about topics when it comes to video games. It’s easy to feel like video games take over. Children naturally want to keep doing what they enjoy, even when it’s long past the time they should have stopped.

Being a parent trying to juggle work, home, children and all the things they want to do (and what you want them to do) is a challenge. Life sometimes feels like a constant bombardment of requests and obligations.

Taking time to play a video game with your child can feel like an unrealistic idea, especially if the game takes a long time to play. Some games can take 100’s of hours to complete. Other games can be played in short rounds. Finding the right length game to play with your child can open the door to enjoying games together.

On the database, you can search for games of different durations so you can find something that fits into a snatched half an hour with the kids, or maybe something to play over a number of evenings with the family.

Games Played in Short Rounds

Short round games work well when you don't know how much time you have. They usually take less than 20 minutes to finish. They can also work well in a family with children of varied attention spans.



Games That Are Less than 2 Hours

Quick games can be completed in a couple of hours, which is possible in three or four short sessions together. This is long enough for the game to tell a good story, or take you to imaginary places to solve quite complex puzzles.



Games That Are Less than 20 Hours

As games get longer they can be more ambitious about the worlds they create and the stories they tell. Some of these games are long because they offer spaces with lots to do. Other games are long because they take you on a linear journey with lots of twists and turns.



Games That Are More Than 40 Hours

Less often talked about is how good really long games are to play with your children. Like a gargantuan box set or Netflix series, there are games that can be played in hour long sessions over the course of a year. These games invite you to explore huge worlds, or spend time with characters as they develop. You can to know the places and characters in considerable depth, like you do watching a sit-com like The Office or a drama like Game of Thrones.



As well as these examples, you can find the right length games for you family using the ‘How Long to Play’ search field. This can be combined with other factors like how many players, or what system you have, to find the perfect fit for the stage of life you and your children are at:
Taming Gaming Book Written by parents for parents, the database complements the in-depth discussion about video game addiction, violence, spending and online safety in the Taming Gaming book. We are an editorially independent, free resource without adverts that is supported by partnerships.

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