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

Luckily when my dad came home he explained that we actually had GW-Basic on the computer (an IBM XT my dad had bought second hand from a friend's dad who was IN computers). That's where it all started. My dad could keep up for a bit but soon I had to rely on whatever the local library offered, and later a floppy disk that somehow made its way to me (copy by copy) full of useful TXT files and examples. Oh internet where were you.

So I feel a bit reserved towards the 'YOUR SON DOES NOT WANT TO LEARN TO CODE' screams that seem only based on very, very little context. But I do agree with the general advise, best to not jump to conclusions and go by their (the kids) pace.

Some people here forget that children are way more tolerant of not understanding things than adults are. They just want to get a quick taste not necessary dedicate their life to the study of game development.

I think something like RPG in a Box https://rpginabox.com/ is nice if the child likes Minecraft-style graphics. Alternatively modding an existing games is something that might be of interest. Also blender is perfect for those that are mainly interested in the 3d graphics aspect, as it allows to focus on certain fields like modeling first and has an amazing game engine that can be solely driven by logic bricks: https://upbge.org/#/

Still, I think even something like Unreal should not be ruled out if the child is dead set on making a "real" game (9 years is a bit pushing it but with help it might work out). For a visually-motivated child that has access to beefy computer, Unreal is the perfect tool to get things done early and fast. Load the starter template and they have a character they can walk around with in the first minute. Grab some free-for-the-month asset packs and they can make decent looking levels in a day or two that they can show friends and be proud of. And if they get to the point of needing logic, the visual scripting language is more than enough to make complete games in it.

Unreal is a monster of complexity but but perfect for just hacking together a quick asset-flip demo one can feel good about. They will learn about the realities of game dev soon enough, let them have some fun.

It removes a ton of moving parts squarely outside the "I want to make a game from my notes" goal, like "Oh I discovered that Lua lib" or "which text/image/sound editor can I use" or formats or whatnot.

Scratch Roblox Godot Unity