Construct 3 is awesome.
Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
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Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
#72You can try https://make.gamefroot.com/ it’s specifically designed for kids aged 6 to 14.
It’s used by a bunch of primary schools to teach kids programming via games.
It’s drag and drop interface where I believe you can drop into JavaScript as well.
Haven’t used it myself but met the founders at a game conference.
Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
#73When I was that age I made a bouncing ball in Flash (ActionScript, similar to JS).[0] This is still my "hello world" when trying out a new game dev environment because it covers: - drawing - movement - input - acceleration - gravity - friction - collision And all of these in essentially the simplest possible way. Most of all, it's a lot of fun to have a bouncing ball, and even more fun if you can use the keyboard or…
Many bouncing balls are also doable without knowing any actual physics. Balls overlap? Push them away from each other such that the next frame they'd no longer overlap. The result looks surprisingly acceptable.
And if you add some blur (I think in Flash this was just a property you can set) based on how fast the ball is moving, it somehow looks more satisfying still.
Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
#74I 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.)
you can also use microsoft's https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/makecode
it's slightly more user friendly imho, and you could do some more advanced stuff than scratch (i mean advanced as in using text, rather than blocks).
Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
#75When I was only slightly older, I was part of an RPG maker community. Skills I acquired there regarding image editing/manipulation, writing reviews, looking out for things that seem unnaturally regular, social communication, and whatnot still serve me today. It was a very creative place to be. There was a screenshot thread in the forum and almost every day I would check it out for new posts, reading people's reviews and write some myself. I remember spending hours and hours making a faceset too. Trying to fit those emotions onto the 48x48 pixels.
I would recommend such a community, but I am only aware of one bigger community like that surviving (multimediaxis forum[1], which could be great) and my old community does no longer exist, which saddens me to this day.
Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
#76I 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.)
I'm not a huge fan of scratch (for obvious reasons I'm not the target audience!), but my 10 year old can't get enough of it. Recently we started digging into some of the more "advanced" concepts (basically arrays and functions) and I was surprised how far you could actually get with the system. I'm trying to move him off scratch on to something text based, but imo for a kid it's hard to go wrong starting with Scratch…
The social angle of sharing ones games with friends and getting likes etc. and the ability to quickly play it off a link are huge factors that keep motivation high for kids.
This is underappreciated. I've been teaching my son JS but his main gripe is that he doesn't have an easy way to share his stuff in a quickly playable format.
Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
#77If you don't mind doing choose your own adventure style stories, I'd recommend Twine. It's a low-to-no code way to write branching stories, and you can add variables and conditional branching if you want to add a little bit of code. It creates a playable website of your story when it compiles. I do a lot of heavy coding but I still play around with Twine sometimes because it's fun. I also sometimes prototype the bran…
And if they use Twine (or other) to create text adventure stories, then they should also look at the annual IFComp (The Interactive Fiction Competition) https://ifcomp.org/
Several winning entries have been written by children or teenagers, with some help from parents.
Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
#78Back in my day (was teenager in mid-to-late 90s) I had to figure out how games worked. Thankfully, we had games like Quake which can be modded and had various level editors. Worldcraft, which is now called Hammer, was awesome.
It is this journey that helped me become a programmer today. While not a games programmer, I do make games in my spare time.
Now -- sure.. why mention this? I believe I understand a 11 year-olds mindset that wants to do more than play games - but understand how they work. I also have children of my own and waiting for them to hint they want to learn. Of course the 90s way is a distant memory. There is more access to things in the gaming world... but more options can also be a little intimidating as well.
11 can still be "young" depending on their skill level with computers. For now, you could start off with the basics. For world building/construction, we do have Minecraft (which my 6 year old son plays). We also have things like Roblox (which my 12 year old daughter plays)
We also have Scratch, a "Visual Programming Language" - my daughter has been using this at school and some afternoon/evening clubs at the library.
For me personally, I think 13 (years old) is going to be 'that age' when they start going into more detail with making games. Maybe your child is ready sooner. Only you know.
If they are ready to progress further than the above, I would recommend something like Godot, Unity or Unreal. Whichever I pick is a decision I make at that time... but if I had to choose now, I might try Godot first and go from there.
Yes.. I might make decisions for the child to start with. I would sit with my child and learn together. Once they start doing things on their own I would take a step back and let them play. They will soon ask for help if they want it.
For example, when I was playing with Worldcraft, I was trying to figure out how to move an object around but I just didn't understand how I used the "target" and "targetname" fields. I asked for my Step-Dad to help and he figured it out for me. Once I understood it, and got an object moving in the game, I was able to carry on from there. He gave me space to learn.
The great thing about Unity, Unreal or Godot - is these are used for REAL GAMES... so your child can stay on these and, perhaps, have a career using them. They can figure out if they want to be an artist, level designer, 3d modeler, or programmer, etc. Their interest and decision can also point them to Blender, GIMP/Photoshop, or to write their own games engine (or simply a game) using a programming language.
For me -- I went with the DIY approach as a programmer, writing games in C (but moving to Odin) and I use OpenGL, SDL2, etc. Once you get a window open you can start by making Pong, or a Card Game, etc. So, if any of my children want to learn... learning Godot is just as much an experience for me as well -- but it is also to give them space to learn their way and, like my Step-Dad did for me, to help me when I needed it.
"I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it" - Morpheus
--- All software I mentioned above listed here. I hope this helps. My advice is to go with the flow and make your own learning fun.
- Quake C / Modding / Worldcraft. -- For Quake (old school. Likely avoid for younger gen)
- Hammer Editor for Source/Source 2 -- More modern
- Scratch -- popular visual programming language for kids.. even young!
- Minecraft, Roblox -- Popular world building, fun games
- Photoshop, Gimp -- Popular Paint or Photo editing
- Blender -- Popular 3D modelling (architecture, 3d animation, etc)
- Unity, Unreal, Godot -- popular game engines / editing tools
- Programming language C, Odin... libraries like SDL (making games manually)
Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
#79Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
#80Roblox Creator studio, its amazing, tons of tutorials and its super easy to publish something