“Dad, it’s raining outside!”

“Dad, it’s raining outside!”

Children love rain and my 3 years old kid Santi is not an exception. He was very happy today, looking out at the rain through the window. The pollution and the drought were seriously hitting the city and the whole region and the rain came to give all of us a bit of a relief.

Rain has been used in videogames since this industry started. This screenshot is from “Zelda: A Link to the Past” for the SNES console.

Rain in videogames

Rain has always been present in videogames, just as in literature, movies and other fields of art.

Videogames being interactive experiences, one of their main objectives is to make the player “believe” the experience as much as possible. This “immersion”, as this “feel the experience” thing is called, is achieved through the ambience, the game mechanics and also with the direct and indirect messages that are given to the player. The videogame (actually, the game designer) wants the player to feel that it’s part of the game world, and the only way to actually achieve that is to make him see, hear and experience something super coherent with that world.

Rain is, indeed, an excellent tool to accomplish that objective. For instance, a dark and rainy night in a mystery solving videogame will push the player to feel a bit more insecure and expectant, in a mostly unconscious way.

Also, in some games, rain can also be a key gameplay element, directly affecting the player experience, such as making the floor slippery and causing the player to fall, or altering any other aspect of the gameplay mechanics.

I believe that the first game where I saw rain was “Lotus” for PC, the best racing videogame I recall playing in my whole childhood. I remember that while I was running I thought how “realistic” the rain looked and how cool was the effect of how the water splashed from the rear wheels of the car, or how much careful I had to be while driving because “obviously” the road was wet and slippery and it was easier to have an accident.

Rain in “Lotus”, for PC.

Of course, over the years technology has made rain look and feel a lot more realistic. There are plenty of examples, such as “Heavy Rain” for PS3, a game in which the rain did not only look better, but was also a key element in the story and even in the game name.

Rain plays a key role in “Heavy Rain”, for PS3.

Rainy winter holidays

Rain is also a usual companion for kids in their winter holidays. While in summer there is sun and the warm weather invite everybody to do outdoor activities, the story is different in winter.

Cold weather and rain, along with occasional colds and flu, are excellent reasons for kids to stay at home. Solving puzzles, reading a nice book or watching movies are pretty good alternatives, but of course a lot of them will very likely want to stay whole afternoons playing videogames.

As parents, we know that it’s a good idea to encourage our children to do different kind of activities, but if they really like videogames, there is no reason of keeping them away of their favorite hobby.

One way to address this dilemma and get something positive of their love for videogames is to take the opportunity and play with them some cooperative videogames, in order to share some significant time with them. Another possibility is to challenge them to complete puzzle videogames, which will keep them very entertained while exercising their logical-mathematical skills.

There are several videogames that meet those requirements, both on consoles and mobile devices. The last one I tried, thanks to a challenge that I received from my brothers, is called “Lazors” and it’s available both in iOS and in Android devices. I showed it to Diego, my eldest kid, and he quickly got curious and spent a lot of time playing.

“Lazors”, a mobile game, is a fun puzzle set to play on these holidays.

The game is about bouncing laser rays and getting some holes burnt. Each level presents rays in different directions and a limited number of reflecting cubes to be moved that need to be correctly located to burn the targets. The puzzles quickly become very difficult and challenging and they can be the perfect pastime for children who likes puzzle games.

Anyway, the important thing is to use these holidays not only to take a short break to recharge your batteries, but also to share with our children.

“Happy Holidays!”