A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
The original Lego Racers. Works really well on the deck, is Lego themed, and is just an all-round fun game.
Child-me spent countless hours with it, adult-me beat it in under 2 hours. Fair warning though: the title screen song will get stuck in your head
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was a childhood favourite of mine that I played when I was 6 in the mid-late 00s and the remaster just came out yesterday! It's a fun 3D platformer from the 90s that was on the PS1/PC and was mainly made for kids. On PC it's a GOG exclusive though, so you'd have to set up Heroic Games Launcher to download the game, then add the game manually to your Steam library if you don't want your child messing around with desktop mode. I think it's very suitable for his age. The original game had tank controls which he might not like if he's used to modern game controls, but the new remaster has the option for full dual analogue stick controls which makes it feel like a normal modern game to control. I run a Linux desktop and the game works perfectly on the newest Proton version.
Oh, also Goat Simulator. So much hilarious mayhem!
Virtual pinball games
XenoTilt and DemonsTilt are fantastic, and my 8 year old loved them. They're don't really understand everything going on, but they get super excited when they trigger multiball or some cool table effect.
Haven't tried these out on a calibrated six year old, but some that I liked which might be in the ballpark are Tinykin, a Short Hike, Smurfs Vileleaf, Loddlenaut, Lil Gator Game, Little Kitty Big City, Costume Quest, What the Golf/Car.
What the golf is awesome
Now I want to know how to calibrate a 6 year old
Loved “A Short Hike” and every kid I’ve shown it to got hooked!
Pajama Sam was one of my favorites as a kid
My six year old loves Pikuniku (puzzle platformer), Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (wholesome 3d adventure), and Horizon Chase Turbo (classic arcade-like racing).
Untitled Goose Game has been a hit in our house. The Bluey game has been a close second. Power wash Simulator might be worth a shot. Sometimes it’s a bit fiddly finding the last little bit to complete the wash though.
Edit: I didn’t realize this was the steam deck sub. I’m only familiar with these releases on the PlayStation, so hopefully they’re available
It's alright, those games are all Steam Deck verified so they'll play just fine.
Spyro the dragon! I played it as a kid and even as an adult its still amazing!
Some of the only games I could think of are other lego games or something like the Scribblenauts series, for its puzzle solving that doesn't have a single solution and encourages creativity.
Katamari Damacy. Be prepared to replace those thumbsticks.
My kids (7 and 6) enjoy valheim, Lego Star wars, deaths door, portal 2 and spiritfarer
Mario teaches typing. Gate their steam dexk time behind what wpm or accuracy % they get. Don't let touch typing die with the millennials
Aer
Rime
Stonefall
Shovel Knight
Journey
Spider Heck
Overcooked (1 & 2)
Snakeybus
Osmos
Sonic Mania
World of Goo
Duck Tales Remastered
Spyro: Reignited Trilogy
What kind of stuff is he into? My son loves simulator games like...
There are a lot of good kart games on PC also, though I will say that my favorite - Sonic Racing Transformed - is much harder than Mario Kart.
Minecraft Dungeons is basically Diablo for kids.
Minecraft is good but I also like Dragon Quest Builders.
Minecraft is all a kid needs these days
Luanti is all the minecraft a kid needs these days
Tons of Lego games are also available on the Deck. Minecraft is always great. GCompris is a great collection for children.
And of course you can always emulate Switch games.
I will warn that some of the Lego games are rather buggy on PC. My son and I played all the way through Skywalker Saga and then when we started doing free play found that it would constantly crash.
I will warn that some of the Lego games are rather buggy on PC.
I had the same issues on my Windows PC. But they run great on my SteamDeck.
I don't use Windows at all, and have had the issue I mentioned for Skywalker Saga both on Steam OS and in Fedora on my laptop.
It does only occur in split screen though.
Oh, that makes sense. Local multiplayer on SteamDeck can still be pretty rubbish, so I probably just didn't notice.
Might consider this bundle, some of the games are targeted at kids younger than 6, but it's a good deal for younger players.
Wobbly Life is a pretty good one. It has online capabilities but no chat, communication is limited to a very small subset of emojis.
Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom is a great one. Colorful, fun, complex enough that he can grow with but simplistic enough for him to have fun without constantly needing help.