Scratch is great. Let me also plug using an LLM to help code a game; I got good mileage on an Arduino project with my son by having him talk to the ChatGPT app and pasting the resulting code into the IDE. Great experience for everyone.
Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
31–40 of 391 posts
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#32It falls short on your 3d request, but for someone new to things I'd go down the pico-8 rabbit hole.
There are some really spectacular (given the limitations) 3d games, but they're the exception. However, the IDE is built-in, it's basically lua, and you can load/view/edit the source code for all the published games.
https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
Some newcomer-friendly tutorials: https://nerdyteachers.com/PICO-8/Bitesize_Games/
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#33I’m surprised no one suggested this. I haven’t tried it but would Roblox Studio be an option?
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#34Plugging my friend's side project: https://quickga.me/ Fully 3D online game engine with multiplayer. Most of the game is made in the interactive click and drag mode, but has modes for extra logic and ultimately a full JS scripting engine if needed. Kind of like Roblox but far simpler on the dev side. This shows the end to end development of a soccer game: https://youtu.be/6a1NmNhoO0M
This looks cool. What's the history behind the company - is it independent?
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#35Scratch and Roblox, all the way
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#36Does he Minecraft?
Get him started with combining mods for Minecraft. Then he’ll learn about collisions, debugging.
Then there are scripts for Minecraft mods to modify items/recipes.
Eventually that will be too limiting, at which point you throw him bodily into InteliJ and see if he floats.
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#37Check out Kodu Game Lab; it was a Microsoft Research project from a number of years ago, and is still maintained. Your son won't need to learn a language, but he will learn some of the core concepts from a visual paradigm.
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#38Plugging my friend's side project: https://quickga.me/ Fully 3D online game engine with multiplayer. Most of the game is made in the interactive click and drag mode, but has modes for extra logic and ultimately a full JS scripting engine if needed. Kind of like Roblox but far simpler on the dev side. This shows the end to end development of a soccer game: https://youtu.be/6a1NmNhoO0M
This looks cool. What's the history behind the company - is it independent?
It's just him so far. Built in his spare time over the last several years.
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#39Unity. Here’s a tutorial to build a simple 3D game that requires no prior programming experience: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n0GQL5JgJcY
OOP, Events, and Algebra.
Unity has a pretty good debugger and graphical language.
Also somehow need to help develop tolerance for a great deal of thumbing through giant directories of names of things, skimming abstracts, and uncertainty in general.
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#40Scratch, MakeCode, Godot
but since 3D is a requirement, godot seems the more appropriate option. Although, I would say too early.
Have made many small games with/for the kids (6yo and 10yo) in Scratch and using microbit+LCD and Makecode Arcade-compatible. Start small, grasp the basics before starting on something big.