If it must be 3d, Unity is the right choice. Godot is great, but you will find less help on StackOverflow and YouTube compared to Unity. CodeMonkey has a fantastic library of videos that he keeps short, upbeat, and for non-programmers generally (or new programmers).
Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
81–90 of 391 posts
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#82Do you have any web development experience? React Three Fiber + https://triplex.dev is a powerful combo that you can do cool things with. Albeit it is coding!
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
His vision is a “survival zombie game where you have to find and repair cars to escape the zombies” Yeah I know, that’s how I started as well. Got some old 8086 and zero instructions on how to use it. But he’s not curious in the same way I was, maybe it’s the time right now. Kids expect immediate gratification, or maybe he needs a bit of a push. I looked at Roblox studio, that looks promising. Thanks!
Grand Theft Auto: the Dead Rising.
Now you have my attention.
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#84Switch to 2D and use kaboom: https://kaboomjs.com/ it is incredibly simple but incredibly rewarding!
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#85Get Gamemaker start off right away.
You'll pickup the scripting in no time and your son will bamboozle you with ingenuity in a month.
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#86My then eleven year old and me built one in Godot. I can not recommend it enough.
The fact, that you can get to something, that has graphics and sound quickly, is just awesome.
That it is beyond being an obvious toy (like Scratch) but used by grown-ups to make real stuff is a form of motivation you should not underestimate. I showed my daughter the Tesla app as an example, which was made in Godot back then.
Finally, GDScript is similar enough to Python, that it will facilitate learning that later, I hope.
We started this almost two years ago and came to a playable result quickly. We are still working on it to eventually publish it on the app store.
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#87The classical language for children from the early years was Logo.
Smalltalk also began as a language for children, but grew far beyond that.
Logo is not 3D.
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#88I've used many engines and shipped many games, including commercial titles (I don't derive a salary from the game industry, though). I think I'd recommend something like GameMaker. I've never used it myself, but it's a self contained IDE that has everything to make decent 2D games. I'd advise against the pitfall that 3D games lure you into. That includes engines that are 3D with a 2D "mode". There is so much leaky ab…
Seconded for Love2D, here's a sample of how simple it is to quickly whip up something in it:
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#89Check out Pulp [1].
In browser, comes with a scripting engine, sprite and font editors music editors.
It's for the Playdate, so is all 1-bit, with a focus on making a game to play right away [2] instead of getting bogged down in tooling or a complex modern development process.
There's an onramp to more complexity using a proper SDK with Lua or C too.
Re: Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
#90Let him?! Like don't make this too complicated. My dad, when I wanted to learn programming literally just gave me some "starter BASIC program" and let me find out things from there. No internet, nothing. Oh and a set of like a gazillion 3.5" floppies with Borland C and a book accompanying it. I made a super cool looking password entry screen with ascii art that was started by autoexec.bat before showing the start men…
His vision is a “survival zombie game where you have to find and repair cars to escape the zombies” Yeah I know, that’s how I started as well. Got some old 8086 and zero instructions on how to use it. But he’s not curious in the same way I was, maybe it’s the time right now. Kids expect immediate gratification, or maybe he needs a bit of a push. I looked at Roblox studio, that looks promising. Thanks!
Whatever platform/engine(s) you end up trying, you both might enjoy looking through the game assets that Kenney shares with the world for free:
* https://kenney.nl/starter-kits
The asset range includes 2D & 3D and in a variety of graphical fidelity/style from 1-bit to low-poly--including sets which are designed to work together.
The "Starter Kits" are a more recent development which aim to get you something working out of the box with Godot which you can then customise: https://github.com/KenneyNL/Starter-Kit-3D-Platformer
I'm pretty sure you'll find both cars and zombies to start with... :)
(Another person who shares high-quality free assets worth checking out is Kay Lousberg: https://kaylousberg.itch.io )