Video Games for English Reading Skills

Reading can seem like a skill for some that feels elusive and/or challenging. Is this you? During my career as an English Second Language educator, I racked up a small list of the games I occasionally used to spark an interest in reading – at any age! And with Steam sales constantly in rotation, now is as good of a time as any to start your reading improvement toolkit!

Firstly, any game that combines your reading and your interests can be a reading tool – think Pokémon or Animal Crossing. I have used games like these to establish many “quiet reading times” in my former classrooms.

However, I created this list for group readers, or readers looking to challenge their English skills.

The list below contains my suggestions for fun reading games to introduce to your loved ones and my recommended reading levels for each:

• Creatures Such As We – advanced group/solo
  Creatures Such As We is a philosophical interactive romance novel by Lynnea Glasser, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
• Grammarian Ltd – advanced group/solo
  Use your grammar and management skills to work your way up from “Junior Passable Intern” to “Editor Extraordinaire.” Find and correct grammatical mistakes in documents, learn some new grammar rules, and beat your colleagues in a grammar battle. If you are doing well, you can upgrade your crummy apartment, adopt a pet, or ride a helicopter to the office. Everything is possible in Grammarian ltd.
• Community College Hero: Trial by Fire – mid group/solo
  Outwit your professors at superpower school! Ace your exams, date your classmates, and bring down the nation’s most wanted villains to earn your degree.
• Heroes Rise: The Prodigy – mid group/solo
  Powered heroes have become the ultimate celebrities, and you dream of joining the A-List–but to get there, you’ll first have to take down evil Powered gangs, compete with deadly rivals, choose a worthy sidekick, team up with famous champions, and prove to all of Millennia City that you’re a true hero.
• Monster Loves You! – mid group/solo
  As a Monsterling, your choices are simple ones. Do you chase those poor little mice (+1 Ferocity) or protect them from the dogs (+1 Kindness)? Do you come clean about that fungus your friends ate (+1 Honesty) or cover for them (+1 Bravery)? As a youth, your choices determine your personality.
• Journal – solo advanced
  Enter the pages of the hand painted world of Journal. A journey through the life of a young and troubled girl as she tries to face up to the choices and responsibilities that come with childhood. An experience that questions the reliability of how we choose to remember events and explores the truths hidden within our dreams.
• Epistory: Typing Chronicles – solo mid
  In Epistory you play the muse, a fictional character in a world where everything is untold. Your adventure begins on a blank page, but the world will soon become larger and livelier as you gather inspiration, solve its mysteries and defeat its enemies. From movement to opening chests and fighting in epic battles, every element in the game is controlled exclusively with the keyboard.
• Noun Town – solo mid
  The new way to learn a foreign language! Noun Town is the world’s most advanced language learning software, using interactive gameplay to remove the grind from learning a new language.
• Teacup – solo entry
  You play as the titular Teacup, a shy and introverted young frog who loves drinking tea and reading. The day before she is to host a tea party at her house, she realizes she is completely out of tea, and thus must venture into the woods around her to find the herbs she needs to restock her pantry.