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Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?

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Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?

#131

Post by soci »

fn-mote wrote: post #42

Understand that you're not going to finish what you start. Do things that are fun. Keep a notebook of ideas. Talk about plans and what you want do. Spend time with him. Even if almost none if it ever makes it into code, the imagination part will be going wild. Look at what he's really doing. He doesn't want to CODE. He wants to make a game. Like every kid. Emphasize the creative part just like he wants. Do things on…

I wish I had read your comment 5 years ago when my son wanted to build a utterly complex game in Scratch. I ended “coding” the game, almost on my own, because it was boring for him, and the result did not resemble what my toddler wanted/imagined. Of course he was imagining an AAA game built in Scratch… If anything good, the learning for him was building games is hard, and lost interest trying further. Great advise!

Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?

#132

Post by unrealp »

atoav wrote: post #117

Before working on a game certain skills need to be there. I would first start with a small project that helps building those skills. Modelling: Blender is a good start. There are tons of tutorials on the subject. With blender you can creat backdrops, models and animations for games Game Engine: I would nowadays start with Godot, there are equally many tutorials Programming: I recommend doing something using processin…

Seconding use of Processing. It was written for electronic arts, new media art, and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching non-programmers the fundamentals of computer programming in a visual context.

I have used it often, found it easy, has necessary functionality for graphics and interfacing.

Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?

#133

Post by burrish »

fn-mote wrote: post #42

Understand that you're not going to finish what you start. Do things that are fun. Keep a notebook of ideas. Talk about plans and what you want do. Spend time with him. Even if almost none if it ever makes it into code, the imagination part will be going wild. Look at what he's really doing. He doesn't want to CODE. He wants to make a game. Like every kid. Emphasize the creative part just like he wants. Do things on…

This ! Learning to code will come after, spending time with your son writing down ideas might be more fun at first and it's a good time to teach him that games are thoughts first and then coded after.

I would have recommended Scratch [1] for a first introduction instead of hoping into code right away, but since he is 9yo he will most likely want to hop on big game engine like he sees his favorite youtubers doing.

so while you guys are thinking about ideas, you should look up and compare engine in this thread and learn one, then teach him and make the game/prototype together later.

[1] - https://scratch.mit.edu/

Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?

#134

Post by taskforcegemini »

fn-mote wrote: post #42

Understand that you're not going to finish what you start. Do things that are fun. Keep a notebook of ideas. Talk about plans and what you want do. Spend time with him. Even if almost none if it ever makes it into code, the imagination part will be going wild. Look at what he's really doing. He doesn't want to CODE. He wants to make a game. Like every kid. Emphasize the creative part just like he wants. Do things on…

there are 9 year olds who want to learn to code, don't stop them if they do

Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?

#135

Post by ssss11 »

lubujackson wrote: post #111
fn-mote wrote: post #42

Understand that you're not going to finish what you start. Do things that are fun. Keep a notebook of ideas. Talk about plans and what you want do. Spend time with him. Even if almost none if it ever makes it into code, the imagination part will be going wild. Look at what he's really doing. He doesn't want to CODE. He wants to make a game. Like every kid. Emphasize the creative part just like he wants. Do things on…

What a great response. To follow, this doesn't preclude anyone's child from jumping head first into programming, just that "producing" a game isn't really the goal but "making" it is. My 9 year old son makes mini RPGs on paper. Like he draws hit points and a monster and does attacks and marks damage as he plays. It's awesome. Sometimes "making a game" doesn't need to be programming at all.

Yeah good points (and the parent).

I’ve made Super Mario levels on paper with my 7 year old son for the last couple of years that he LOVES. we make a small Mario character and long landscape oriented map… cardboard or butchers paper roll work well.

He rarely actually plays the level even. We spend time drawing obstacles and baddies. Then he comes up with tons of new baddies with new powers from his imagination.

It’s a great pastime.

Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?

#136

Post by pharmakom »

Wow, you could be describing me at 9. I even did the pages of design drawings all over the place!

what worked for me is to start with Game Maker from YoYo Games.

You can get started with drag- and-drop GUI blocks, but eventually move to a Basic-like scripting language. You can only make simple games but it is powerful enough for commercial 2D projects. Hotline Miami was made in Game Maker, for example.

Do not embark on managing a project for him!

The scope will be impossible and lead to disappointment. Instead, try to be a guide through tutorials and help if he gets stuck on a specific problem. Interest will wane in a specific idea and he will hop to a new one. This is fine, because the objective is to learn to have fun. Be a teacher not a producer.

This was my gateway to “real” programming, CompSci and a career.

Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?

#137

Post by rmetzler »

arcastroe wrote: post #57
fn-mote wrote: post #42

Understand that you're not going to finish what you start. Do things that are fun. Keep a notebook of ideas. Talk about plans and what you want do. Spend time with him. Even if almost none if it ever makes it into code, the imagination part will be going wild. Look at what he's really doing. He doesn't want to CODE. He wants to make a game. Like every kid. Emphasize the creative part just like he wants. Do things on…

When I was ten years old, I played a lot of web games built on Flash technology and asked my parents how I could build my own. My parents sat me down and taught me the very basics of how to code. I didn't learn very well from them, but they also bought me a textbook and I learned great from that. By age 12, I had recreated a lot of the games I was fond of, pacman, snake, space invaders, etc. Maybe the bar was lower f…

Yeah, when I 10 or 12 years old, I found a book with simple games in Basic. I had fun copying from it and learned a bit of programming.

My daughter is currently more interested in playing existing games instead of creating her own. I would probably look into how to create something in Roblox if this would fit for the game.

Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?

#138

Post by livrem »

blooalien wrote: post #104

Godot [1] is a very nice game engine. There's a game on Itch.io that teaches the scripting language it uses [2], and a ton of great tutorials on YouTube for beginners and experts alike. [1]: https://godotengine.org/ [2]: https://gdquest.itch.io/learn-godot-gdscript

I played around a bit with Godot with one of my kids around that age some years ago and I think it was good. We actually started with Scratch, but that quickly got annoying for both of us, with all the dragging around of boxes on the screen to write scripts instead of just typing in a few lines of text.

We used the intro tutorials from https://kidscancode.org/. Looks like those have not been updated to Godot 4 though. I still have working installations of Godot 3 and Godot 2, and the differences are not THAT big, but maybe it makes sense to start with the latest version anyway.

Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?

#139

Post by sureglymop »

I would say start with something like pico 8. It's not necessarily 3D but is easy and has a huge community around it. You'll quickly be making small games so there will be confidence boosts. And eventually you can embark on creating the game he wants to make.
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