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What are some casual, kid-friendly games that can be played remotely, over a videoconference such as Zoom?
I have a friend who's in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. They're currently all meeting remotely, for Obvious Covid Reasons.
The kid they were paired with asked if they could play a game like Monopoly or Wheel of Fortune.
I'm sure there are some amazing games out there that are a) well-suited to be played over Zoom or a similar videoconferencing link and b) enjoyable for an adult and a kid to play together (most likely 1-on-1, but if there's games that could be played with N adults and N kids, those could also work)
Board Game Arena might be a good option. It's web-based, so no need for Steam or anything complicated, and it has a decent variety of games.
It's not 100% free as there is a premium account option which restricts some games. Only the host needs a premium account though, and it's pretty reasonably priced.
Seconding. BGA is really high quality. The premium is so cheap it's well worth it, too.
Hey, it's OP's friend here. Thanks so much for the rec, I'll definitely be trying this one out!
Charades could work. Blackjack. Tabletop(ish) RPGs.
Maybe https://kahoot.com/ . You can make your own quiz(zes), or choose from a huge pool of premade ones.
Online gaming has a myriad of options, if that's an option for your situation. You can stay on Zoom (or Discord, or whatever) to maintain voice chat while playing a video game together.
Kahoot is very popular among 9-10 year olds, it works for 2, but works better with 3+
Well, you might consider digging through the Cheapass Games Archive. They are all print and plays, free. Cheapass, however, might better be named smartass games. While all of these are truckloads of ridiculous fun, there are some snarky games in there that probably aren't suited for children. Just perfect for teenagers, though.
Stardew Valley, OpenRCT2, Portal 2, GMod, Minecraft, Ticket To Ride, Worms WMD
Maybe The Jackbox Party Pack?
Jackbox games usually have some pretty raunchy humour in them, don't they? And it looks like all their games are rated T for Teen, for Fantasy Violence, Sexual Themes, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Crude Humor. So I somehow doubt Big Brothers/Sisters would approve of that.
Edit: Jackbox has a blog post about which of their games are family friendly:
https://www.jackboxgames.com/party-games-that-you-can-play-with-your-kids/
And it appears they also have a "Family-Friendly Filter Setting" in a number of their games too, including some (but not all) of the ones included in their Party Packs. A full breakdown of which games have that feature, and which are inherently family-friendly or unfriendly can be found here:
https://jackboxgames.happyfox.com/kb/article/3-are-your-games-family-friendly-what-are-they-rated/
So as long as OP's friend was a bit careful and made sure to only play family-friendly ones with the kids, it would probably be fine.
I haven't played lately, but I believe there's a family-friendly toggle in the settings.
Yeah, I was exploring their site to check for something like that when you replied. Not all of their games have that setting though. See my edit for details.
I enjoy Gartic Phone with colleagues and friends alike. It's a mix between pictionary and and exquisite corpse.