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We have partnered with the National Literacy Trust to create this resource of video games that encourage and enable reading and writing skills.

The National Literacy Trust is a charity dedicated to improving the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills of children and young people who need it most, giving them the best possible chance of success in school, work and life.

Video games have significant benefits for children who are reluctant or struggling readers. They give them access to stories through interaction and world building which they may not have been able to read in print. Video games also have benefits for families where parents may not be confident readers, meaning that sharing stories as a family is still accessible to all. The rise of video games on smartphones and tablets, as well as more affordable game consoles has made the sharing of interactive stories easier.

There are different ways that video games create this kind of collateral reading and aid literacy:

Reading In Games: Video games offer all sorts of reading at all levels. This can be from simple narrative in a game like Florence to dialogue in a game like Mutazione or even just identifying useful items and game mechanics with in-game descriptions in a game like Zelda Breath of the Wild. Then there are games like Thousand Threads that help players think about the power and the consequence of words.
Reading Around Games: Video games create worlds that often spawn secondary texts. This can be official novels that expand the world or guide books that offer instructions and help. Knights and Bikes, for example, has spin off books, a cartoon series and recipes to read.
Routes Into Books: Many popular book series, such as Beast Quest, offer a range of video games as an easy first step into those worlds that lead to then reading the books themselves.
Communication Around Games: As well as reading, games encourage all sorts of creative output. This can be to contribute to the many online forums and message boards to talk about the game. This can also be to write fan-fiction after being inspired about a game world or character. The Sims, for example, has an avid community writing and creating all kinds of content online.

This list includes 43 games from the last 23 years, with 800 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to get children reading.

Platform Details

PEGI Ratings: PEGI 3 to PEGI 16
ESRB Ratings: ESRB EVERYONE to ESRB MATURE 17+
Australian Ratings: G to MA 15+
Genres: Action, Adventure, Battle, Brain Game, Collecting, Communication, Creative, Fighting, Narrative, Platform, Point-and-Click, Puzzle, Rhythm, Role-Play, Sequencing, Shooting, Simulation, Sports, Stealth, Strategy and Traversal
Era: 2000 - 2023
Total Games: 43
Total Likes: 800

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Rainbow Billy

Release Date: 05/10/2021

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Cartoon and Hand-Made

Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan is a role-play adventure where you save the world from a colourless darkness. Unusually, battles are won through listening and conversation rather than traditional attacks. It combines the excitement and...

New Super Lucky's Tale

Release Date: 08/11/2019, updated in 2020

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

New Super Lucky's Tale is a platform game where you play a fox on a quest to recover pages from a magical book that will save his world. It takes gameplay in a more action-oriented direction but the islands and characters are full of quirky character...

Halo

Halo (Series)

Release Date: 15/11/2001, updated in 2020

Platforms: Android, Mac, PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Halo is the longstanding sci-fi shooting video game series that started when Halo: Combat Evolved launched alongside the Xbox in 2001. The franchise has featured on every Xbox platform since then, with Halo 5: Guardians serving as the latest entry in...

Knights And Bikes!

Release Date: 26/08/2019, updated in 2020

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Hand-Made

Knights And Bikes! is a hand-painted adventure in a fictional late-eighties British island. You work together as Nessa and Demelza to explore its coast on bikes to find treasure, mystery and trouble. There’s fighting with frisbees, water balloons,...

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney (Series)

Release Date: 12/12/2014, updated in 2019

Platforms: 3DS and 2DS, Android, GBA, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a courtroom murder mystery series where you piece together clues to challenge testimonies and uncover the truth. It’s like a visual novel, although you must interact with characters and evidence to progress.

Ghost Trick

Release Date: 19/06/2010, updated in 2023

Platforms: DS, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a game where you play a ghost that can stop time to solve crimes and save lives. You can inhabit and control objects and possess corpses to alter what happens. His ultimate aim is to use his memories to find out how he...

Cris Tales

Release Date: 20/07/2021

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Cris Tales is a role-playing game where you see how your actions in the present affect the past and future. You play as Crisbell in a cartoon-looking adventure through four Kingdoms in a bid to stop the powerful Time Empress and rewrite the future of...

Wayward Strand

Release Date: 15/09/2022

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon and Hand-Made

Wayward Strand is a narrative game about Casey Beaumaris, intrepid teenage journalist. You visit an airborne hospital, uncover the airship's mysteries, and explore the lives of its inhabitants. It's a Tintin-style point-and-click adventure with a...

Citizen Sleeper

Release Date: 05/05/2022

Platforms: PC, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Dice, Grid and Text

Citizen Sleeper is a role-play game set in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism. You are an escaped worker exploring a lawless space station, making friends, and (ultimately) trying to escape your past. Each cycle you roll dice and decide how to spend...

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley

Release Date: Coming soon

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Cartoon, Hand-Made and Open World

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a musical adventure game where you restore the harmony of Moomin Valley from grotesque parks. It's the variety of play and the beloved characters that make this game a great experience for small (and not so small) kids.

Sid Meier's Civilization

Sid Meier's Civilization (Series)

Release Date: 21/10/2016, updated in 2019

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Day and Night, Grid and Open World

Civilization is a long-running strategy game where you develop a society from hunter-gatherer to space travel. There are many ways to approach this challenge; socially, militarily, politically or perhaps by building wonders to impress other nations.

Lost Words: Beyond the Page

Release Date: 01/12/2019, updated in 2021

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 3D Third-Person and Hand-Made

Lost Words is an adventure game where you run, jump and explore inside a young girl’s diary. You control Izzy as she writes her diary by walking on words, moving them around and solving different puzzles. This develops two parallel stories, one about...

Potion Craft

Release Date: 21/09/2021

Platforms: PC and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Potion Craft is a puzzle adventure game where you create potions in an ancient looking workshop to send you bottle around the map. You combine ingredients, fire and water to move your bottle along the map to the target location and brew a potion to help...

My Friend Peppa Pig

Release Date: 22/10/2021

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 4+ year-olds

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

My Friend Peppa Pig is a narrative role-play game. It recreates the TV show Peppa Pig and features a few of the voice actors from the programme. Unlike the show, you are in the cartoon, controlling a character you create. You play with Peppa and her...

Tunic

Release Date: 16/03/2022, updated in 2022

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Hand-Made

Tunic is an action adventure game where you play a small small fox who wakes with no memory of where he is. You push through trees, pick up weapons and learn new moves to discover an expanse of forests, caves and landscapes. You can do anything from the...

Beyond Blue

Release Date: 22/04/2020, updated in 2020

Platforms: Apple TV, Mac, PC, PS4, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Open World

Beyond Blue is an underwater exploration game where you play Mirai, a deep-sea explorer and scientist. You see, hear, and interact with the ocean and the creatures in it as you discover an untouched world.

The Sims 4

The Sims 4 (Series)

Release Date: 04/02/2000

Platforms: Amazon Fire, Android, PS3, PS4, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Day and Night

The Sims puts you in charge of a world of characters living normal lives. By providing a home, a job, leisure, friendships and even love interest, you work to make them happy. It’s an open-ended game as well, although the altruism is focused on...

Psychonauts 2

Psychonauts 2 (Series)

Release Date: 25/08/2021

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS2, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, 3D Third-Person, Cartoon, Dice and Hand-Made

Psychonauts 2 is a running, jumping and puzzle solving game where you play Raz who has psychic abilities that let him delve into the minds of others. In the game, you control Raz as he enters their mental worlds and uses other Psi-Powers (telekinesis,...

Half Past Fate

Half Past Fate (Series)

Release Date: 12/03/2020

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead

Half Past Fate is a romantic comedy adventure. You explore the lives of six different modern day characters and their romantic relationships over eight hours, eight days, and finally eight years later. It's a point-and-click adventure where you explore...

The Forgotten City

Release Date: 28/07/2021

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person and Open World

The Forgotten City is a mystery adventure. You explore and relive the final days of a cursed Roman city, where if one person sins, everyone dies. It starts as a bewildering array of characters, locations and information but over multiple goes your...

A Fold Apart

Release Date: 11/04/2020

Platforms: Apple TV, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

A Fold Apart is a puzzle game that explores the emotional rollercoaster of a long-distance relationship — in a world of folding paper. After career choices force them along separate paths, a Teacher and Architect vow to make their long-distance...

The Smurfs Mission Vileaf

Release Date: 26/10/2021

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Cartoon and Open World

The Smurfs Mission Vileaf is an exploration running, jumping and shooting game. You battle the wizard Gargamel to free imprisoned Smurfs and return the sarsaparilla fields to health. to do this you must track down the ingredients for the antidote.

Little Orpheus

Release Date: 12/06/2020, updated in 2022

Platforms: Apple TV, Mac, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Little Orpheus is a running and jumping game set in 1962 where you play Ivan Ivanovich as he explores lost civilisations, undersea kingdoms and prehistoric jungles. The game is played in retrospect as you explain your adventures to a general suspicious...

Black Book

Release Date: 10/08/2021

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cards and Hand-Made

Black Book is a dark adventure, based on Slavic myths where you are a young sorceress. It combines a visual novel point-and-click adventure with card collecting to gain abilities to fight evil forces and explore the world where humans live alongside...

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

Release Date: 21/09/2019

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Hand-Made

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is a role-play game reminiscent of the Paper Mario games. You play three bugs, Vi, Kabbu, and Leif, as they search for The Everlasting Sapling. Explore, level-up and take on fun battles in this lovable adventure.

Dodgeball Academia

Release Date: 05/08/2021

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 2D Overhead, Cartoon and Open World

Dodgeball Academia is a sports game that focuses as much on story as sporting action. You play Otto, who hopes to become the ultimate dodgeball player. To do this you need to build a diverse team and learn new skills.

Ord

PEGI 3 Video Game Age Rating for Ord in UK and Europe

Ord

Release Date: 05/06/2019, updated in 2020

Platforms: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Text

Ord is an unusual text adventure, rather than one grand story, you embark on a series of distinct quests. Whether it's defeating an evil warlock or creating your own world as a god, Ord tells stories through simple series of words and word associations...

Down in Bermuda

Release Date: 14/01/2021

Platforms: Apple TV, Mac, PC, Wii U, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead

Down in Bermuda is a puzzle game where you are stranded on a set of interconnected islands. You push, pull and manipulate objects to solve puzzles and explore the world. Each one you complete brings you closer to getting back home.

Stories of Blossom

Release Date: Coming soon

Platforms: PC and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Hand-Made

Stories of Blossom is a narrative point-and-click game where you play Clara as her grandfather tells her stories. In each story you take on a different character and go on adventures as you solve puzzles.

Sunless Sea

Release Date: 06/02/2015, updated in 2020

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 2D Overhead and Open World

Sunless Sea is a sea-faring adventure where you pilot a small steamship to explore a Victorian-era London that has been moved beneath the earth's surface. You take on the role of captain but select different ambitions that determine how you will play.

Peppa Pig: World Adventures

Release Date: 17/03/2022

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 4+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Peppa Pig: World Adventures expands on the My Friend Peppa Pig role-play adventure based on the popular children's characters from Peppa Pig TV Show. You play by customising your character and travelling to different...

Typoman

Release Date: 19/11/2015, updated in 2017

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

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Typoman is a running, jumping puzzle game where you use letters and words to solve puzzles and progress. You play as a character made of letters in a hostile land with evil creatures. As this unusual character, you make your way through the world...

Like No Other: The Legend Of The Twin Books

Release Date: 25/08/2022

Platforms: PC, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon

Like No Other: The Legend Of The Twin Books is a light point-and-click game about a bumbling adventurer who (in spite of his advanced years) sets out to solve the legend of the twin books by exploring the abandoned town of Red Pines. It stands out for...

Wednesday Addams Story

Wednesday Addams Story (Roblox)

Release Date: 12/12/2022, updated in 2023

Platforms: Android, PC, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Wednesday Addams Roblox is a story game where a group of friends are sent to Nevermore Academy to investigate the strange things that are happening. You help Wednesday uncover the mystery and defeat the monsters and witches.

Steve Jackson’s Sorcery!

Release Date: 02/02/2016, updated in 2022

Platforms: Android, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Day and Night

Sorcery! is a four part series of choose your own adventure games set in a world full of weird magic. You play a lone adventurer who must cross the wilds to recover the crown, armed only with a sword, a spell book and the power to choose which path you...

Minute of Islands

Release Date: 13/06/2021

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon and Hand-Made

Minute of Islands is a running, jumping and exploring game where you play Mo, a skilled tinkerer living in the dilapidated poisoned ruins of an ancient race of giants. You scavenge parts from their strange machines to get them running and clean the air....

Kraken Academy

Release Date: 10/09/2021, updated in 2023

Platforms: PC, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Day and Night and Pixels

Kraken Academy is a narrative adventure where it's your first day at high school. No ordinary high school though, it's a melting pot of wacky personalities and fantasy goings-on: ghosts fill the art department, cultists meet below the monkey bars and...

Letter Quest Remastered

Letter Quest Remastered (Series)

Release Date: 06/08/2015, updated in 2017

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey Remastered is an adventure game where you use words to defeat monsters, ghosts, and evil bunnies. You play by spelling words to trigger attacks and cast spells. It's a novel combination of Scrabble and a classic adventure...

The Little Acre

Release Date: 13/12/2016

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

The Little Acre is an animated adventure game set in 1950's Ireland. You play Aidan and his heroic daughter Lily, on a quest to find her grandfather. Like Monkey Island, this is a point-and-click adventure, but fully voice acted and animated like a...

UnderDungeon

Release Date: 13/01/2023

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

UnderDungeon is an action adventure where you play Kimuto, a cat on his first day of a new job at a logistics company. You take on different missions to deliver packages to various characters in the dungeons. It's the tongue-in-cheek take on these...

Curated lists:
Game genre:
Style of Play:
Components:

How long to play:
User-generated content:	No
Accessibility features:	Yes

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

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

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

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