Summary
- Parenting simulators offer unique gameplay, storytelling, and character-building potential in video games.
- My Lovely Daughter explores a macabre, disturbing take on a parenting simulator with dark themes.
- The Sims 4 revolutionizes virtual parenting through detailed character values and family dynamics.
Being a parent can be one of the most rewarding, exhausting, stressful, traumatizing, and heartwarming things we can experience in real life. Even the most unexpected, mundane concepts, like the best office simulator games, have become some of the most popular, entertaining, and addictive games on the market. From Joel and Ellie to Big Boss and Snake, parent-child relationships in video games have a powerful effect on fans, so it stands to reason that parenting simulators deserve to be recognized for their incredible storytelling, gameplay and character-building potential.
.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=140&h=98&dpr=2)
8 Powerful Parent-Child Relationships In Gaming
No matter the genre, these wholesome parent-child relationships in video games have warmed the hearts of fans for years.
The joy of parenting simulators is the combination of a management simulator, a cozy, endearing narrative, and the excitement of raising a character from scratch and seeing them succeed (or fail) in the lives their parents (the player) have built for them. Some parenting simulators even incorporate endless cycles, so that child characters grow up to become playable characters and have children of their own for the player to raise, allowing players to build long-lasting legacies that outlive the original parents, such as in The Sims 4. Whether these virtual parents are super Moms and Dads or at risk of having CPS called, here is a selection of the most inventive, enjoyable parenting simulators out there.
6 My Lovely Daughter
Being A Dad And Raising Good Kids Is Killer
- Release Date: 03-08-2018
- Developer: GameChanger Studio
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One
- Genre: Horror, Parenting Simulator RPG
Horror fans will appreciate this gory reimagining of a parenting simulator, My Lovely Daughter, wherein grieving father Faustus attempts to resurrect his dead daughter by raising homuncli daughters and sacrificing them once they reach their full potential. The simulator incorporates many aspects of a parenting simulator, from giving gifts, spending quality time together, and supervising their jobs in the village. Playing as Faustus, gamers hear the terrible, heartless thoughts he has about his "children," or sacrifices, and his lack of empathy for their fate. However, players can’t help but feel attached to every daughter, each one a unique creation that they would want to nurture forever if the game didn’t force their eventual murders.
24 Macabre And Disturbing Video Games
Video games that showcase macabre elements are often hard to forget. For those brave enough, here are the most disturbing ones out there.
The murders of his homegrown daughters are made even more dreadful by the sad letters they write to him, pleading for mercy, complaining about the cruelties of their existence, or expressing affection for a father who has never truly loved them. Faustus' crimes prove him to be one of the worst fathers in video game history. As a result, My Lovely Daughter deviates from convention in a parenting simulator that is actually a macabre, disturbing video game, rather than a cozy, comforting foray into fatherhood.
5 Volcano Princess
Every Dad Thinks Their Virtual Daughter Is A Princess
- Release Date: 04-21-2023
- Developer: Egg Catcher
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Switch, Xbox One
- Genre: Parenting Simulator RPG
Volcano Princess is a 2023 parenting simulator RPG about raising a Princess from infancy as a single father, guiding her to develop core skills to earn a favorable future out of over thirty different romance and career endings. Players schedule activities to improve their daughter’s Strength, Emotional Intelligence, Imagination, and Intellect skills up until her eighteenth birthday. Early in the game, Volcano Princess gamers must choose a mentor and a Knight Path to study, which sets players several goals to complete. Players also have over fifteen romanceable companions to meet, befriend, and date if they wish. Depending on which characters players have maxed out their affection for, they can earn monogamous relationships or multiple polyamorous romantic endings.
6 Best Games With Healthy Polyamorous Dating Options
Not many games have managed to depict polyamory without bias, but there are a few titles that take big strides in this regard.
Some of the mini-game style activities in Volcano Princess are more enjoyable than others, from cooking, acting, and fishing to the more challenging gambling, combat, and socializing sequences. Even learning how to catch and race horses in Volcano Princess requires a guide or tutorial. However, the myriad of options gives players the freedom to customize their playthrough to suit their desired endings, becoming a crime boss, cultist, knight, Queen, or Goddess, and beyond. With some translation issues, typos, and a few underdeveloped stories, Volcano Princess is not a flawless parenting game, yet this rough-around-the-edges title from Chinese developer Egg Catcher is an addictive life management sim about nurturing a daughter from childhood to accomplished princess.
4 Octodad: Dadliest Catch
Are Eight Arms Enough To Hold Your Family Close?
Octodad: Dadliest Catch
The 2014 game Octodad: Dadliest Catch puts a hilarious twist on parenting simulators by using ragdoll physics to make fatherhood even more stressful and ridiculous. Octodad is an octopus who is pretending to be a human man to hide from a crazed sushi chef, while Octodad’s wife and kids somehow have no idea of his true tentacled identity. Originally an award-winning student project titled Octodad in 2010, the student developers became known as Young Horses and produced Octodad: Dadliest Catch as a sequel on Steam in 2014.
The deliberately over-sensitive, clumsy controls cause players to flail, slip, and slide around chaotically as they attempt to complete typical fatherly chores like cooking barbecues, shopping, and saving their family from a raging fire. Potentially the most unconventional parenting simulator game around, Octodad: Dadliest Catch does not conform to the usual daily management gameplay and instead embarks on wackier adventures where caring for his children is his biggest goal. This short, silly game is the perfect foray into parenthood for gamers who don’t take life, fatherhood, or being chased by a murderous chef too seriously.
3 The Shelter Series
Don't Mess With Mother Nature (Please)
Shelter 2
- Released
- March 9, 2015
- Developer
- Might and Delight
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Adventure
Playable characters don’t need to be human to be a parent, as gamers will discover with the Shelter s eries, developed by Might and Delight. In the deceptively serene 2013 game, Shelter, players embody a mother badger trying to feed, protect, and lead her five babies to safety across unfriendly terrain. The sequel, Shelter 2, revolved around a mother lynx and her four cubs, again with a similar agenda, except with the progression of seeing her cubs grow up and venture out on their own (if players kept enough of them alive, that is).
10 Games Where You Play As An Animal
From stray cats and bothersome geese, to shy frogs and adventurous alligators, these games will let players take control of animals.
In 2021, Shelter 3 moves to the jungle as players control the matriarch elephant, guiding her herd with the help of her ancient wisdom and fierce protectiveness. Despite encountering different terrains, settings, and mothers in each game, the tragedy of losing a child hits players hard every single time. It is impossible for players not to get attached to these adorable pixels in a storybook-style setting, but the Shelter series speaks to the core value of any parenting simulator: keeping children safe, fed, and alive in the face of all dangers.
2 My Child Lebensborn
Parents Shield Their Child From Bullies And Warfare
- Release Date: 06-01-2018
- Developer: Sarepta Studio
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Android and iOS
- Genre: Social Simulation, Parenting Simulator RPG
Few parenting simulators truly touch upon the challenges of protecting and nurturing the delicate emotional needs of a vulnerable child like My Child Lebensborn. In post-war Norway, players adopt a kindhearted child (named Klaus or Karin) who was born and abandoned as part of the Lebensborn scheme to produce Aryan offspring under the Nazi regime. Sarepta Studio developed My Child Lebensborn in 2018 as an alternative to producing a documentary about the real experiences of innocent children who were abused and neglected by Norwegian communities due to their unsavory Nazi heritage.
5 Best Cozy Summer Games
These cozy games are perfect for the summertime lazy days when players would rather sit back and relax than try-hard.
Despite the heavy subject matter, My Child Lebensborn is a gentle, wholesome point-and-click management sim. Players control Klaus or Karin’s parent, balancing chores and engaging thoughtfully in dialogue options to keep their child happy and safe by cooking, fishing, sewing clothes, playing games, and reading bedtime stories. Peace at home is disturbed when Klaus or Karin experience severe, heartbreaking bullying, which has a devastating ripple effect on the child’s mental health and worldview. Sarepta Studio are developing a sequel, which copes with the aftermath and healing process of trauma for a parent and child. My Child Lebensborn is a tender game about raising a hopeful, sweet child in unforgiving circumstances.
1 The Sims 4
Social Worker Sims Are Out Of A Job Now
The Sims 4
Sims have always been able to have children, from the first baby in The Sims in 2000, but over time The Sims 4 franchise has become one of the most detailed life and parenting simulators on the market. In 2018, The Sims 4: Parenthood expansion revolutionized toddlers and children, introducing Character Values that can be taught to children, including empathy, manners, conflict resolution, responsibility, and emotional control. For the first time, parents could implement rewards, discipline, and curfews, as well as engage in special aspirations, traits, multiple choice pop-ups, and activities that help to shape a child’s personality.
Having positive or negative Character Values at the end of childhood results in Sims earning traits that they carry into adulthood, meaning Simmers can really feel like their parenting choices have an impact. In 2023, the franchise expanded on its unpredictable family-orientated gameplay with The Sims 4: Growing Together, where new aspirations, milestones, and events bring more joy and meaning to Sim families. Rather than NPC babies that only have a small set of interactions, the new infant lifestage requires constant nurturing; each infant has unique quirks like “hates being held” that make the parenting experience both personal and challenging. By interacting with their children in a positive or negative pattern, Sim parents earn supportive, strict, or difficult family dynamics. The Sims 4 has improved family gameplay so much that the classic Sim faux pas of putting a newborn baby on the floor and walking away is no longer the height of Sim parenting.
10 Things Missing From The Sims 4
The Sims 4 waited a long time to add horses, but there are still a few things missing from the game.