Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 264 posts

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#61

Post by steve_adams_86 »

I don’t think it has been mentioned here, but dot big bang is pretty cool and suitable for young game dev-curious kids.

It has a fairly easy learning experience if you want to do very basic things, but opens up into an impressively capable editor if you want it to.

I worked on it for a year and the team behind it is awesome. Great people who are passionate about what they’re doing, care a lot about the kids using the platform (making it kid-friendly matters a huge amount), and put a lot of effort into making it genuinely fun first (rather than chasing trends for example).

Not sure how it compares to other options but it’s worth checking it out. I often wish I still worked on it.

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#63

Post by abrookewood »

gus_massa wrote: post #4

I remember a few post of games made by children in Scratch https://scratch.mit.edu/ For example: * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23892698 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26050913 (My daughter tried to use Scratch, but it's too difficult to cut&paste and move blocks of code, she preferred a text based programming language, so YMMV.)

Scratch is fantastic.

There are also a number of similar (block-based) tools that let you create your own custom blocks and see the code behind them - e.g. Blockly (https://developers.google.com/blockly)

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#64

Post by simpaticoder »

Not sure if this meets your specifications, since it's code first, but Processing (in it's JavaScript incarnation, p5.js[1]) might be worth looking at.

In terms of games that include content creation tools within them, I've been impressed with Fortnite and Rocket League. Using the in-game editor may be a good gateway to building mods offline.

1 - Examples https://p5js.org/examples/ and on online code editor https://editor.p5js.org/.

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#65

Post by huydotnet »

My kiddo want to make game on Nintendo Switch, which is almost impossible at this time, but I recently found Fuze 4 (https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/fuze4-nintendo-sw...) that allows him to do exactly that. Quite happy with Fuze's workflow. We can even connect an external keyboard so he can type on it.

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#66

Post by t-writescode »

I would encourage a bunch of different games where making a game is a game mechanic, so this includes:

  * Little Big Planet
  * RPG Maker (from the PS1 days ... I don't know what the new ones are like)
  * Super Mario Maker
  * Roblox (other comments are saying this is bad? I don't know much, but it was my first thought)
  * Dreams for the PS4
The person that made Lethal Company was originally a Roblox dev, so I know that route can work; and LBP and SMM are both great ways for learning how to create engaging and difficult levels. Some of them even have state management.

I played RPG Maker a million years ago and liked it, so I imagine that game or its family is still a nice experience.

I haven't played Dreams, but I've heard it's a strong, interactive environment?

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#67

Post by maxweylandt »

grahamj wrote: post #52
hyperbolablabla wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Concur with other comments here when I say: do not throw your child into this incredibly exploitative community

I’ve read about these concerns but my kid is 11 and on there all the time, often with me over her shoulder, and I’ve never seen any sign of it. It’s a huge platform for kids so I’m sure there are some creeps but there are plenty of controls in place to deal with that and even so, again, I’ve never seen it.

There's also the financial exploitation. https://youtu.be/_gXlauRB1EQ?si=C4prkNgGgK0bR_MX
Post reply on HN