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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?

#211

Post by swiftcoder »

gverrilla wrote: post #189
swiftcoder wrote: post #176

This seems to be in the complete opposite direction of other suggestions here, but the majority of my pre-teen gamedev experience was in the StarCraft I and WarCraft III map editors. These days the StarCraft II map editor would get my recommendation. Why? Because you start from the base of a working game, and incrementally add the specifics of your desired gameplay. In other engines you'll start with more or less a b…

TD games didn't originate in WarCraft, from my understanding[0]. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_defense

Yes, I guess it's more fair to say the genre was pretty much dead by the late 90s, and it was rekindled by those custom maps (as the wikipedia page alludes to)

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

#212

Post by killerstorm »

Charon77 wrote: post #47

As much as I hate to say it, Roblox Studio is the way, especially seeing it has to be 3D. It's pretty low barrier to entry thing

My daughter figured out how to do something in Roblox on her own (i.e. without my help) when she was 10 y.o. or something like that. So yes, the barrier is pretty much non-existent.

And it's possible to make pretty decent games with it. Like I saw FNAF on Roblox recently. If somebody told me it's a standalone game made by professionals in Unreal engine, I would have believed. It looks good.

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

#213

Post by a-saleh »

What I did last time I had my kid over at work:

I need to work so I open my laptop to work.

I have a spare, that I connect to a monitor in an empty space besides-me and fire up https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/makecode

Let my kid choose some exercise. If she is stuck she asks me, or I ask her if I should help. We talk shop. She makes animated holiday-card.

I can still have reasonable ammount of focus at work, while at the same time it feels we are making a thing together.

I would avoid anything heavier - i.e. it is said that you don't really have mental capacity to fully understand coding until you are ~11? From other things - scratch exists, I had some success with laying around with Hedy with her, 3d modeling - I would go for tinker-cad that is very simple and geared to make 3d-printable stuff, or blender because it is free and I still remember how to use it from my uni-courses - as 3d modeling gives you immediate feedback-loop.

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

#214

Post by Blaine0002 »

wodenokoto wrote: post #153
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…

That reminds me: When I was about 9 or 10 I created the sequel to Zelda a link to the past. With colored pencils. On paper. Dozens and dozens of sheets of paper. That game was amazing. I can’t believe Nintendo didn’t call me up, but instead decided to make a 3D game

buried in a hard drive somewhere, I still have hand drawings of a game we were gonna make on RPGMaker that was about dark vs light. crazy to think back on.

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

#215

Post by MrDresden »

I am no game developer but have over the past few years played around with GameMaker and their studio software[0]. I would imagine it to be one of the easiest ways to get started with making a 2D game.

Then there is also the option of not jumping directly into the coding bit, and rather cultivate in your son the ability to do on paper designs first.

This is a skill that would probably benefit him later in life as it is too often the case that we (software developers) get hyped for the act of developing before we have even decided on WHAT it is and HOW we should be developing.

Sounds like you and your son have a fun time ahead of you. Good luck, and have fun!

[0]: https://gamemaker.io/en

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

#216

Post by oblio »

taskforcegemini wrote: post #134
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

The kid didn't ask to code, he wants to make a game.

I'd argue that the even safer bet is to start by using a game editor.

For example Warcraft III had a great map editor with which Dota was created.

It's probably the easiest way to get someone started. Advanced configuration requires scripting so it's the very next step to programming.

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

#218

Post by drakonka »

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. When I was a kid my best friend and I made our own Pokemon game by drawing our own Pokemon cards and assigning various nuts (still in shells) to each one. My Charizard was an almond and her Mewtwo was something like a pecan, for example. We created our own arena on cardboard and would "battle" by knocking our nut-Pokemon against each other - the Pokemon that got knocked out of (or overshot) the borders of the arena lost, and eventually the loser of the set would get to pick an opponent's Pokemon (nut and handmade card) to confiscate.

I love video games and went on to work in game dev for more than a decade, but that was still one of the most fun things I've ever played.

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

#219

Post by jstummbillig »

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…

> 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.

Do you think of this advice as specific to working with your kid(s) or do you feel it applies (or should apply) more generally? If so, in how far?

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

#220

Post by GuB-42 »

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…

> YOUR SON DOES NOT WANT TO LEARN TO CODE

Maybe he does, but he doesn't know it yet. Do not force him, but you can show him. That's actually how I got into coding. Like every kid, I wanted to make a game, but progressively, I found that I had more fun coding than actually making the game. In the end, I went in so many tangents I didn't complete my game, but who cares?

Everyone is different. Maybe he just wants to imagine stuff, maybe he really wants to produce something, or maybe he wants to code, or write, or draw, whatever. Maybe that's an opportunity to see what he is really into. For me, it turned out to be code. People, kids and adults alike don't just want to "learn to code", they have a motivation and code is what gets them there. You need a starting point. For adults, it is often making money, but for kids, making a game is probably the most common.

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