this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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Are there any fun games for 2 children (around 13y) to play on one computer? (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 14 hours ago by niva@discuss.tchncs.de to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
38 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Preferably free or at least not to expensive (<20 EUR)

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[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 30 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (5 children)

Here's a quick list of inexpensive games I think your kids could enjoy. All of these are shared screen games and I've played (almost) all of these with my kid who is around the same age. All of these run great on my Steam Deck.

All costs are in USD, so they should all fall below the 20 EUR mark.

Of these games, I would absolutely grab EDF 5 while it's on sale. It's just plain, stupid, fun and at $15 it's a steal. Saw EDF World Brothers is on sale as well, though I haven't played that one, it looks like it's the same dumb fun as the others.

[–] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 8 points 9 hours ago

I will put in a strong vote for Castle Crashers, one of the most fun, charismatic beat em ups of all time, imo. Would be perfect for kids that age.

[–] tamal3@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You can play Portal split screen, or do you mean that they collaborate on the solutions?

Also, my husband and I love playing Overcooked. That's an excellent suggestion.

[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago

Portal 2 can be played split screen, yes.

I was joking below with someone else that suggested it that Overcooked is more likely to cause a fight. That game is so stressful lol

[–] Attacker94@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

I would also keep an eye out for the steam sales on the TT Lego games, I still enjoy them even as an adult.

[–] seralth@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Rabbit and steel is SUCH A FUCKING GOOD GAME

it needs WAY more love

[–] Strider@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

This answer is way too good for such a rough broad question with too many options. 👍

[–] salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 22 points 14 hours ago

Sure. Get two controllers and Retroarch and they're set on games for life.

[–] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 21 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Overcooked is one of the most popular co-op games of the last few years, simple concept but fun, frantic gameplay. It's pretty cheap at base price but goes on sale pretty regularly too.

Would have to get it through Steam I believe.

[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 11 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

They said fun, not anger inducing

[–] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It'll teach them teamwork XD

[–] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 hours ago

And swears.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 points 11 hours ago

https://hurrycurry.metamuffin.org/

Is also cool. Not sure if it has splitscrern multiplayer though.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 12 points 10 hours ago
  • A Hat in Time - $30 USD
  • Caveblazers - $10
  • Unravel Two - $20
  • Alien Hominid Invasion - $20
  • Magicka 2 - $15
  • Jamestown - $10
  • Ship of Fools - $22
  • Pixeljunk Shooter - $9
  • River City Girls - $30
  • Degrees of Separation - $20
  • Speedrunners - $15
  • Blanc - $15
  • Cat Quest 2 - $15
  • Potion Party - $10
  • Double Dragon Gaiden - $25
  • Biped - $15
  • Guacamelee 1 + 2 - $15 & $20
  • KeyWe - $25

All of these are full price, so if you wait for a sale (like I do), you can usually find each of these for $10 or less.

[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Basically all the Lego games (although 13y olds might already find them too child-like, depends...).
They all have split screen, so are suitable for couch (or desk) coop.
Also the slightly older ones are quite inexpensive when buying them during sales (a few €).

Special recommendation: Lego City Undercover.

Another fun couch-coop-capable game would be SuperTux, a Super-Mario-Cart like game.
This one is OSS and therefore completely free!

[–] tamal3@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

LEGO Island nostalgia.......

[–] londos@lemmy.world 12 points 11 hours ago

Any of the Worms games

[–] karthnemesis@leminal.space 9 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Ordered by amount of "potential" replayability, vaguely

I've played all these through and am confident it'd be ok for 13 yos

If they like silly chaos and cooking games, $20 PlateUp!

If they like absolute madness and precise button inputs to make pretty food, $20 Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!

Rock of ages series I think all have local multiplayer, but I think $30 > on sale for $3 till sept 1 rn Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break is the only one you can do the actual story mode together (which is very fun) instead of just versus. describing this one is hard uh. Both a tower defense as well as a reverse tower defense where you play as a boulder smashing things. historical art humour themed. very silly. highly recommend this series.

$15 Tricky towers is competitive tetris with balancing physics

$14 Neurovoider is a straightforward / small scope game, robot piece-swapping twin stick shooter, very arcadey

$20 Ember knights is in the same vein as neurovoider but with flamey dudes and more fantasy / magic theme

[–] karthnemesis@leminal.space 3 points 12 hours ago

On looking in to it some more I am fairly certain you can also play $15 Rock of Ages 2's campaign as splitscreen co-op. Did not remember offhand but looked around at steam discussions. 2 is also very good!

[–] RushLana@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 13 hours ago

If you are ok with emulation dolphin is pretty great. You can still find wiimotes for cheap and don't need the sensor bar ( use two candle instead ). With that the entire wii games library is yours.

If you want natives games I would recomend indie couch games ( overcook, moving out, etc... ).

[–] Flyswat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 13 hours ago

Rayman Origins

[–] str82L@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago

Definitely recommend It Takes 2 when it's on sale.

[–] Someplaceunknown@leminal.space 5 points 9 hours ago

SuperTuxKart is fun

[–] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

I mean, I can basically advise the same list as I do for anybody.

  • Mindustry
  • OpenTTD
  • Luanti (especially MT-Game, I actually dislike MineClonia)
  • Endless Sky
  • Shattered Pixel Dungeon
  • FreeCiv
  • YGO Omega & EDOPro

If you're open to buying and/or piracy, I can also suggest the following:

  • OpenRCT2 (get both RCT Deluxe and RCT2)
  • OpenXCom (get both X-COM: UFO Defense and Terror From the Deep)
  • CorsixTH (Theme Hospital)

If you're okay with more violent games, any Doom sourceport (like GZDoom) with FreeDoom phases 1 & 2. There's also OpenQuake, but I don't do 3D much.

[–] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 2 hours ago

I've now been thinking about the multiplayer aspect of this. The first thing that comes to mind is something like DOSBox and Epic Pinball or other pinball games. Sure they'll have to take turns, but pinball is a fun time so the one who's playing learns the table and the one who's watching gets the spectacle. Going into the more piratey side of things, MAME or Retroarch. MAME especially has stuff like Marvel vs. Capcom, the Street Fighter series, Fantasy Zone... so basically, you can give them an arcade cab at home. And I'll mention FreeCiv again.

Back on the less-pirate side:

  • Armagetron Advanced: Tron lightcycle game which can support local multiplayer. I've enjoyed it for years.
  • Battle for Wesnoth: Hex-grid turn-based strategy (think Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, or Tactics Ogre). Supports local multiplayer.
  • Any chess, checkers/droughts, or shogi game. I don't know if lichess or lishogi (both .orgs) support local multiplayer - but I know there are local ones like gnome-chess, brutalchess and gnushogi + Xshogi.

So there's my thoughts on local multiplayer games.

[–] karthnemesis@leminal.space 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

they only have 1 computer, most of these are online only unfortunately (though not bad suggestions for 2 cpus)

[–] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 11 hours ago

Ah, if you're looking for the kids to play together, I have no idea. I don't do multiplayer

[–] bjornsno@programming.dev 3 points 13 hours ago

Heroes of Might and Magic 3. Great strategy game, on steam or gog, can't remember which one has the expansion packs, but they're not necessary anyway for the first year. I played it for hundreds of hours with my sister as a kid. Has a lot of replayability. Works really well with two players with hot seat mode. More players and you will want to use the network capability.

[–] jbloggs777@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Boomerang-Fu ?

[–] vikingtons@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

such a fun game

so cute as well 😊

[–] missingno@fedia.io 3 points 6 hours ago
  • Lethal League (and the sequel, but I liked LL1 better tbh)
  • Mega Knockdown
  • Panel Attack (FOSS)
  • Petal Crash
  • Streets of Rage 4
  • Them's Fightin' Herds
[–] wizzor@sopuli.xyz 2 points 13 hours ago

I played an ungodly amount of Tapan Kaikki 3 with my brother.

Best game ever.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 points 13 hours ago

Lego Batman 2. Probably all the other Lego games as well. But I know that this one can be played on one keyboard.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 points 11 hours ago

I think Children of Morta can be played in coop on a single PC.

[–] bassad@jlai.lu 1 points 48 minutes ago

Goat simulator still exists?

My nephews loved it

[–] Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com -5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

No. There never have and never will any games be made for 13yr old children. Completely ridiculous to even suggest something like this may exist.

[–] karthnemesis@leminal.space 1 points 38 minutes ago (1 children)

i know this is tongue-in-cheek and this is not at all a roast of you, it just made me think about how this niche needs filling

it sounds like a basic suggestion to just look up games for multiplayer, but it is actually way more time-consuming to find multiplayer games for specific use cases than you'd think it might be

kind of long reasoning if one cares loli spend HOURS finding games for my established player group because they don't tend to distinguish in tags if they're couch co-op, how many players you need (if there's a minimum or maximum), and what kind of game they are all at once.

or even weird stuff like if multiplayer is "even" or not (like some "multiplayer games" are someone playing as the useless mascot essentially) or if multiplayer is versus-only and no campaign, or if multiplayer is broken in some way, or if the game is too buggy...

in terms of having kids it can be time consuming to find things that are age-suitable and don't have anything hidden in them

honestly from my perspective if i didn't have the time and wanted to find some decent indies i would just ask people

[–] Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 15 minutes ago* (last edited 15 minutes ago)

Completely agree, I didn't mean to insinuate this question is a problem. I just found the way of asking incredibly funny.