Deserts are an unusual setting for games.
Being vast, often desolate places with little life, deserts don't at first seem suitable settings for games, let alone games aimed at entertaining kids. Yet somehow games designers have come up with several titles that are based around the concept of the desert, with games ranging from explorations of the wilds of Africa to those themed around isolated desert islands. These games are available across a range of formats.
Safari Adventures: Africa
Deserts are one of the types of ecosystem that appear in "Safari Adventures: Africa," a title for the Nintendo Wii gaming system. Players explore a series of 3D environments, based on African habitats, on the lookout for local wildlife but also for the causes of environmental degradation, problems that the player is looking to solve during the game. The title is intended for kids aged between 6 and 9 years old.
Through the Desert
This board game revolves around constructing caravan trading routes within a desert environment and is designed for two to five players, each aged 10 and over. Players each command a nomadic tribe and must decide where and when to establish caravans, with the goal of blocking off routes from other players and conquering oases to accumulate victory points. Players must look to construct long caravans but are also under threat of being prevented from reaching their own water supplies by the efforts of opponents.
Desert Islands
A classroom or party game closely modeled on "Musical Chairs," this game is suited toward kids aged between 4 and 7 years old. A supervising adult first sets up the play area by arranging large pieces of paper over the floor, to represent desert islands; there should be enough pieces for each player apart from one. The adult then plays music, while the kids walk around the play area but not on the islands. When the music stops, the kids each attempt to stand on an island or be eliminated from the game. The adult then removes an island and the game repeats until one child remains.
Desert Survival
A classroom game for children of age 10 and above, "Desert Survival" should be run by an adult who first explains the scenario to participants. The concept behind the game is that each group of players has been stranded in an imaginary desert as a result of a plane crash. Each group must decide by debating which of a given list of items are most important in the situation. The list is given to each group by the adult, and players have a predetermined amount of time to rank the items in order of importance. Items include rope, blankets, rations and a raft, for instance; a list suggestion can be found on the Go Wild...Read! website. After the time is up, the groups compare their lists with what the adult would have chosen.
Tags: adult first, adult then, Adventures Africa, aged between, aged between years