I can't believe no one mentioned It Takes Two.

The world is much different - but it has A LOT of the game play you're asking for.

Additionally, I found it to be one of the most enjoyable games I've played in... maybe ever?

We found the writing a little bit cringe at times, but ultimately it's a sweet story, and the gameplay and overall creativity is out of this world. Definitely a GOTY.

Except for the elephant arc.

Yeah the elephant thing was super weird and uncomfortable. I can’t understand how no one in the room pulled the plug on that.

My wife loves to play it, she is still learning how to use the right stick to aim but is getting much better. Know any other girlfriend friendly co-ops?

Unravel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unravel_Two

I think it’s on game pass so it should be easy to try out

Thanks, downloaded it in game pass!

Stardew Valley - a nice and cosy little farming sim, for a relaxed evening

Divinity Original Sin 2 - an entire RPG playable in split-screen co-op, with hard strategic turn based combat

Introduced my partner to both of these games. We completed DOS1 together and played countless hours of Stardew Valley - she would take care of the animals and I would take care of the plants.

For the King is a game I don't the mentioned a lot but it's great. It's much like divinity original sin but more roguelike. My girlfriend doesn't like divinity but absolutely loves For the King.

I've been wanting to check this game out forever. Glad it was mentioned in this thread. I think I'll finally give it a play [=

My wife is in the same boat. Here are some games we play:

- Narrative games. Think anything from Quantic Dreams (Heavy Rain, Detroit), lots of Nancy Drew games, Tell tale Games (Walking Dead). Note that none of these are co-op, but they're fun to pass and play. - Simple platforming games (we're currently playing Kirby and the forbidden land on Switch, will probably play Mario Odyssey after. I let her play the main character but take over if it ever gets tough) - Puzzle type games (Portal)

She isn't great at games, but she's getting better, and she enjoys playing them.

Lovers in a dangerous spacetime You are controlling a spaceship with up to four people, bit with all these weapons, shield and steering you have to swap between these or at least coordinate. Really enjoyed this with 3 other friends but might be even more fun with just 1 or 2 extra players as there should be more running around the spaceship

A Way Out, by the same developer - very campy and a bit shorter. Overcooked - test your relationship.

Portal 2 co-op

My girlfriend and I like puzzle games and would strongly recommend “ibb and obb” and “death squared”

Overcooked 2

My wife and I enjoyed Children of Morta.

The various Lego games are surprising fun and very forgiving to a second player.

Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons

Don't Starve Together on PS4, me and my gf have hundreds hours on it.

Goose Game

Cook, Serve, Delicious 1 and 3 will give you hundreds of hours of ~fun~.

See also Overcooked for more ~fun~

And by fun I mean CHAOS

Kingdom Two Crowns

It Takes Two is a masterpiece; I highly recommend it. But, as the title suggests, it indeed requires two players (only one needs to buy the game, at least on Steam).

Yeah indeed, I'm just playing that now with my girlfriend. She normally doesn't play games, but she even enjoys it. I like how creative the developers are with everyday objects.

wow, my wife and I literally just finished playing this (we are close to the end) and were thinking the same thing. Just a real treat of a game. We have really enjoyed poking around at all the extras and what not.

This.

It's not exactly what you're asking for, but you might want to check out the game Grounded. It's a crafting-survival game that's heavily inspired by "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"

Not only is it a solid premise, but there is an ultrashort story by Franz Kafka that lends itself perfectly to a cinematic promo video:

TINY MOUSE-SIZED HUMAN:

"Alas! The whole world is growing smaller every day. [Close on the tiny person, panning out ever-so-slowly to reveal, bit by bit, the cavernous enormity of the room.] At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into."

[Corner trap now visible, the camera holds steady and dwells for a moment on this sad, bleak fate. Suddenly, there is another voice from behind -- this is not a monologue after all.]

CAT, SLINKING INTO VIEW:

"You only need to change your direction." [CAT pounces, and promptly gobbles him up.]

Oh man, the first time I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH when I was a kid, I was enthralled. My best friend and I would always play that we were the rats and had to hide from the humans while improvising tools, gathering food, and building a base. This reminds me of that and of how fun/creative a game like that could be.

fuuuuuck this would be an amazing game. There are so many directions you could take it. Imagine having to get into the next door backyard, but there's a dog. You have to sneak into the bathroom, find some sleeping pills, then sneak the pills into the dog's food bowl.

It would be like a cross between The Last of Us, Hitman, and The Secret World of Arrietty.

Just a minor thing, but Arrietty is just a movie based on the books in The Borrowers series. Doesn’t matter, your point stands, just like to shout out the original inspiration for the film.

Oh interesting, I had no idea there was a connection. I thought "Borrowers" was just a name OP made up for the idea.

There are also a couple of old TV series based on the books.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0105957/

I would love this. I have played every Hitman - and am currently playing Hitman III... which basically just devolves into me simply killing every single person in the level.

I don't like the difficulty levels of Hitman III though -- I wish there were a hell of a lot more victims to go after.

But the levels are AMAZING and fun and beautiful.

But anything that can capture the Hitman gameplay would be great.

The thief series was also amazing, but its so dated it doesnt run well on my super high-end gaming machine...

But one thing that was super cool in Thief were the arrow types: Moss, Rope, Water... Moss arrows hit the ground and spawn a soft bed of moss to allow for silent walking.

I wish Hitman had some of these elements...

> The thief series was also amazing, but its so dated it doesnt run well on my super high-end gaming machine...

Do you have the NewDark patch?

https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146448&highligh...

Though I would start with a compilation patch: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149669

I am going to apply this advice and determine how much time I have missed wasting...

EDIT: Hitman and Thief are lit the only game-play-styles I prefer....

Whats weird Is that I dont know the difference bewteen I before SEE between Theif and Wierd.

---

Anyway.. if you actually evaluate (ovulate - Lets go deep on etymology!) the mental dopamine construct,

Gaming is a super interesting thing.

SOURCE I WAS THE LEAD OF THE DRG AT INTEL IN THE EARLY 90s...

I saw the first 'unreal engine' and worked on the first AGP platforms and blah blah...

None of that matters any longer.

That said; im not a person who is ignorant..

---

Agreed, the difficulty is way too low. I actually wouldn't mind if they literally made it realistic - get hit by one bullet and you're dead. I'd also like to see them experiment more with social engineering. Something like LA Noir, with branching conversations, where you have to talk your way into a scenario instead of sneaking in. Make the kills feel much more personal.

I've been looking at buying this for a while, you're shrunk and have to survive living outside in your backyard: https://store.steampowered.com/app/962130/Grounded/

It's alot of fun the whole perspective is really cool, can recommend however its still early in dev and content isnt that massive.

Makes me think of the Counter Strike map de_rats where you fought over the fridge, could hide in walls, use sponges as landing pads and iirc blow up the sink.

oldskool CS de_rats players represent!

loved that map. one of fave. and its variants. wish it was party of the current CS:GO distro

I was just about to mention that, loved that map. And yes, 5/5 would play this game

sounds like padkitchen.pk3 for Quake 3 Arena

Ah memories

If only we could get the people who made “Ni no Kuni” to make a game out of “The Secret World of Arrietty“ (I highly recommend the UK English dubs if anyone hasn’t seen this yet).

latest from that game developer: https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/23141182/ni-no-kuni-cro...

movie trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VlMe7PavaRQ

"The Secret World of Arrietty" is an adaptation of "The Borrowers" right?

Yep. And Studio Ghibli, that did Arietty, also worked on Ni No Kuni.

We need to get them to make dark cloud 3.

This reminds me of the game Prisoner of War. The setting is completely different (you are a POW in a german concentration camp) but the mechanics are pretty much there:

- Live in the "walls" (barracks) - Sneak out during curfew to do tasks and build things to open up more areas, and also for food - You nurture a relationship with the other prisoners and new ones arrive often

Check it out!

Not that it's what you're looking for exactly. But if you like the idea of being as tiny being in a home with massive humans, check out Mister Mosquito on the PS2, or Chibi Robo on the GameCube.

Hah, I thought of the mosquito game too, but for some reason I thought it initially was released on the Dreamcast. But I can't find any mention of that.

Wow great callback, I remember I only had this on a demo disc. I wonder if it is worth seeking out and playing the whole thing now!

There's a subplot from the show Solar Opposites (the show itself is just okay) where people who have been shrunk by alien children live in a segmented wall and form a society there - there's even mice.

Just to follow up: I watched this entire series and it really captured a lot of the vibe, ingenuity, brutalism, and collaboration that I was hoping for in such a world. Thanks for this recommendation!

I think that story in itself needs a show. In my opinion it’s better than the main storyline. The wall story has everything parent wants, going out to gather food, escaping dogs, riding mouse etc.

I can't seem to find it, but I read a description for a game in development that seemed really similar to this, a farming/crafting simulator where you start in the basement of a house and can expand to the kitchen etc. You have to avoid the house cat etc.

Totally different game of course, but this reminded me of Katamari Damacy! In many levels you start tiny in a room somewhere, and have to roll up paper clips and thumb tacks in order to grow and roll up successively larger things, while avoiding gigantic pets, and so on. Apart from being hilarious and sometimes challenging, I also found it an interesting psychological effect to come back to the same place when you're 100 times larger, now able to roll up humans, cars, the entire house... :)

Katamari is a casual game (I prefer this genre) but now I wonder if there would be some way to make a more "simulationist" game that uses this scaling effect somehow.

Elusive People. Supposed to be released next year by Chibig.

wow, thank you for recommending this - the graphics are not quite what I'm after, but the concept definitely is - albeit the tiny humans seem a bit too large to live in mouseholes

Sim Ant had some mechanics like that

Not sure if this idea was inspired by it, but if you haven't read it yet, definitely check out the Bromeliad Trilogy by Terry Pratchett.

It was probably inspired by the children's book series "The Borrowers", which was also made into an animated film.

There's a few live action films and series too.

I believe the Terry Pratchett one is currently being made into an animated film or series.

My partner and I enjoyed the Good Omens TV series, even though it was a bit silly.

So i'm guessing it would be a mix between isometric view for open space (like if you had a Borrower City or sneaking outside of the walls, for example) but for climbing through the walls it would be top-down (or i guess, out to in).

I really like the idea; i'm thinking much in the same art style as something like Arrietty just slightly more western cartoonish vibes, but only subtle changes.

My twitter feed showed me this fanart mockup of an Arietty game today so I thought I'd share it here since Arietty is based on the Borrowers. https://twitter.com/cloudtrumpets/status/1529465790247870464

You're describing Arietty by Ghibli, even "Borrower" is the English translation for the little beings :)

Well, no, obviously not. The Ghibli movie is a takeoff on the Borrowers series by Mary Norton; there is no reason to believe tetris11 had the movie in mind rather than the books he referred to by name.

There's a story called "The Borrowers" from the 50's. I'm not sure which pre-dates the other.

Arrietty is based on the book.

The micro machines racing games or the ps1 era game Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue, might scratch some of the exploring houses as a little thing itch.

There is a TTRPG exactly matching what you're after. Small folk setting for fate core. http://www.warehouse23.com/products/the-small-folk

Which has a brilliant play through in this podcast https://tabletoptales.roleplayingpublicradio.com/tag/top-of-...

Sounds like a DLC or sequel for "Grounded" from Obsidian Entertainment.

Somewhat similar: https://store.steampowered.com/app/962130/Grounded/

I've been playing this with my kids and we're having fun! It's also on Xbox Game Pass, in case you're a subscriber and want to try the game.

The idea reminds me to the game Sneaky Sasquatch (on Apple Arcade).

In that game you (a Sasquatch) has to steal food from campers, resolve some mysteries, play mini games, build your place, and go to work disguised as human.

special shout out to rat pack map packs for counter strike back in the day!!

this is pretty close, thanks for the recommendation!

It sounds like a complex "Tom and Jerry". Interesting..

Something similar exists, it's called "Ghost of a Tale" - very beautiful game:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_of_a_Tale

It's more action-adventure than sandbox but you should check out Chibi-Robo.

I know it sounds insane, but this is honestly my favorite game of all time. I would love to see an updated version for today's systems.

It's a crime how few of Skip's games are possible to play today.

Very close plot to an all but forgotten 1960s American Sci-Fi TV series produced by Irwin Allen (Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Poseidon Adventure) called Land Of The Giants imdb.com/title/tt0062578/

Also 'the borrowers', as OP makes referrence to

There's also an animated movie with the same premise, The Secret World of Arrietty

https://imdb.com/title/tt1568921/

It's the same premise because they're ideas based on the same thing. The OP mentioned The Borrowers as inspiration. Well The Secret World of Arrietty is based on The Borrowers. I think it's even called something like "Borrower Arrietty" in Japan as well.

There was a very old tv show based on this exact premise

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Giants

You mean like this?

Household, via @Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2lm/household

YES PLZ!

I loved reading the Borrowers books as a kid and would play tf out of this game haha

Aside from the end, this seems kind of similar to Stuart Little 3 'Big photo adventure' for the Ps2. From what I remember, I really enjoyed the game.

Reminds me of a wolfenstein map that was basically small humans in a large room. Honey shrunk the kids vibe.

Have you never watched "The Littles" growing up - this was exactly them.

This is almost like a cross between Pikmin and Little Nightmares. Cool idea.

Reminds me of Roald Dahl's 'The Witches', oh and Toy Story.

Reminds me a little of Chibi Robo on the GameCube.

Grounded?

Parasite (movie).

Sounds similar to the movie Parasite.