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I'm surprised no one has recommended Game Maker yet. 8 years may be a bit too young though, but that applies to almost all languages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Maker
Unfortunately it's Windows-only (the editor at least) and only available in English. But when it comes to creating 'visual' programs (mostly games), this is about the easiest programming 'language' you will find that's still flexible enough. And there's an active Dutch community, which has translated the official documentation to Dutch as well. Game Maker uses a drag-and-drop mechanism like scratch (and there's a scripting language for more advanced users), so the learning time is minimal. There's a free ('lite') version that excludes the more advanced features, but these aren't needed anyway for beginners.

I highly recommend sticking to the 'classic' version (version 8.1) though, because it's somewhat easier to use, more stable, and has more community support. The 'studio' series is more focused on indie game development, is much more expensive, and the free version is crippled.

All of the discussion going on about teaching programming in schools is a great new/old trend. Like many posters here, I learned basic programming skills years ago in middle / high school. But then that all changed somewhere along the line.

School technology courses began to focus on turning students into secretaries - students learn Microsoft Office. If you're lucky, they'll teach design skills (PhotoShop, etc.) The other trend these days is about using Web 2.0 to enable collaboration, which is not bad in and of itself, but misses the mark. That's where programming comes (back) in.

There are a lot of great free resources out there. I have taught programming using Scratch to third graders, Microsoft SmallBasic to fifth graders, and JavaScript to ninth graders. There is also GameMaker, which has a free lite version that allows for drag-n-drop game programming. Microsoft also has Kodu, which let's kids make 3D games with a drag-n-drop interface.

A few months ago I gave a TEDxTokyo presentation on the subject (excuse the shameless plug), which you may find interesting, possibly even entertaining...

Stencyl Pro is $149/year
Game Maker is $39.99 to $99

What was that about expensive?

Rather than doing the classic "hello world" in BASIC, kids today start out by e.g. modding games.

Personally, I remember having fun by developing platformers using GameMaker back when it was free. This sort of graphical programming got me used to thinking in terms of loops, conditionals and variables -- as well as offering a high-level scripting language that let you access extra features.

Speaking as a current indie & AAA gamedev who has built game-related curriculum for 3 schools (middle school through college)...

Because of the diversity of student types (artist vs game designer vs programmer, etc...) I recommend teaching EPIC's Unreal Development Kit (UDK).
The tools are mature and will immediately offer something to every role on a game project.
As for yourself, the UDK uses Unrealscript which is based on a C++/C# syntax.
There is a wealth of knowledge via books and internet tutorials. (e.g., Just typed in "UDK tutorial" in YouTube and received over 4500+ results!)
A nice bonus is that learning UDK is something the kids can actually put on a resume and/or help them get an internship.

Milage will vary with other pre-built gamedev environments.
Below are a few all-in-one-solutions that have editing features, based in a Windows environment:

App Game Kit (AGK) - http://www.appgamekit.com/
Construct2 - http://www.scirra.com/construct2
Game-Editor - http://game-editor.com/
Game Maker - http://www.yoyogames.com/make
Game Salad - http://gamesalad.com/
Scratch - http://scratch.mit.edu/

Good luck!

As someone who's also been roped into the "teach game development" trap, my advice is to stay the heck away from programming and 3D and any other component that requires specialized skills. If you want the kids to actually finish something, then do what you can to make that happen. Not all of them will be programmers or artists, and you don't want to spend all your time teaching those skills. Plus, it's also pretty common for those that can't program (or model) very well to have really huge ideas that far outstrip their ability to actually deliver - which translates into never finishing.

And to that end, my recommendation is GameMaker, from http://yoyogames.com/ There's a free version, it runs on PC and Mac, it's friendly to non-programmers and programmers alike, and easy to use. Tons of free resources available as well (from good to bad).

If you DO want to move up to the higher production gaming style, consider modding. You can pick up a copy of FarCry for DIRT CHEAP, and it's a very modable game engine with lots of good documentation. Or consider modding Valve's Source (Half-Life 2) engine.

http://www.yoyogames.com/make

There is a free version - and paid for. You can code via their visual tool - or on the command line. My 11 year old son makes fine games using this!

I recently went through a related exercise with my daughter. I showed her ponycorns because it's exactly the kind of game she already likes. She got the idea that we could create a game too, since I'm also a programmer and she's a whole two years older than Sissy. At that age I'm not about to teach her actual programming, but I thought it might be a good way for her to see the creative process at a higher level - plus we'd end up with something that she could enjoy and show off to her friends. We had a lot of fun with her drawing the characters which I then turned into sprites, and recording audio, and brainstorming about what puzzles would be in the game. Now the effort has stalled, mostly for lack of a decent framework. I mean, all we need is basic point-and-click stuff, maybe even an inventory and stuff like that, but it would sure be nice to have the characters actually *move* smoothly from one place to another instead of just disappearing from one place and appearing in another. Oh, it would be extra nice to have something open source, or at least runnable on Linux. I looked at dozens of frameworks that I found on http://www.ambrosine.com/resource.html and elsewhere, and very few could meet those simple requirements without getting into full-out 2D suitable for side-scrollers and platformers - meaning that they're way more complicated than I need and generally don't "scale down" to the simpler stuff very well. I tried Adventure Maker but quickly ran into its limitations even with a project as simple as this. I might try GameMaker next, even though it's also Windows-centric (I can use my wife's machine if I have to), because the other offerings out there seem so incredibly thin.

The point is not that I personally need help finding a tool with which to make this particular game - though suggestions would certainly be welcome. The problem is that the "state of play" is just so incredibly piss-poor overall. Forget about finding something that even an older child could use *themselves* to create a game that doesn't totally suck. It's hard enough to find something that a *professional programmer* (albeit not a game programmer like Sissy's dad) can stand to work with long enough to get such a result. Something just good enough to let parents and kids put together a simple adventure/puzzle game on par with ponycorns, to give them something that's fun and that just barely hints at what you can do if you can program, would go a long way toward making them want to learn more. As far as I can tell, such a thing doesn't exist.

They should consider using Gamemaker instead as it's much more powerful and a lot cheaper (Free for Lite version and $40 for full version versus $120 for AgentSheets)

I took a game development course for an elective while completing my 2 year degree. We worked with a *free* program called Game Maker that teaches the fundamentals of game design without being too specific. Sure, you'll make cookie-cutter games, but its all about the ideas behind them.

Point any of your interested students to http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/ Its a nice little package with plenty of tutorials and (what used to be) a good following. If they learn the basics and still wanna pursue games simulation as a career they will find answers.

Game Maker is a pretty nice tool that let's you get into making games without heavy programming: http://www.yoyogames.com/make Also, you might consider mobile game development. I'm a professional Android developer, but I haven't looked at App Inventor yet. I'm not sure how amenable it is for building games, though I'd guess it would work pretty well for simple ones: http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/

A typical university student needs a word processor, maybe a spreadsheet.

And a web browser, at the very least. The ability to watch videos online, while not strictly a requirement, could definitely be helpful. All of these bump the specs up a bit -- in particular, I don't care how efficient your browser is, that 200 mhz Pentium is going to be useless on the modern Internet.

A cheap Linux Netbook is fine for most students, but won't run Portal.

It depends on the netbook. It's not going to be fast, but it could work. It's certainly more likely to than most modern, commercial games they could've picked.

A lot of students these days have Macs, but I think there is now a Mac port of Portal - was there back when this decision was made?

I don't know, but as part of my computer science program, I get a Windows license. Boot Camp is free, if I had a Mac.

There isn't a Linux port of Portal, yet, but one is in the works. I don't really see it being more of an issue here than in other disciplines, where, for example, LabVIEW is still required. It's certainly better than if they had required an iPad game.

It is still not possible to buy Portal without invasive DRM (you need either Steam or an XBox),

For some value of "invasive". I'd prefer no DRM at all, but Steam is a fair compromise.

Add to all these considerations the fact that most schools have computer labs of some sort, and I don't really see this being a problem.

I hope it's an optional module...

From TFA, the course is required, but not all sections of it require Portal yet.

I'll probably be vilified for this, but if you are using Windows (or Mac), try Game Maker (Mac version is beta). It's a good introduction to a lot of programming concepts using a construction set like metaphor. After you learn the basics, it's easy to move to just code. Game Maker is free, many schools use it, and it was developed by university professor as a teaching aid.

http://www.yoyogames.com/make

Read the manual, do the tutorials, work your way up to GML code, take your questions to the GMC forums. Once you learn GML (which is similar to C and PHP, but allows Pascal style code as well), you'll be able to pick up other languages easily. Most programming languages are very similar.

There is also a book, The Game Maker's Apprentice, if you feel the need to purchase something.

http://book.gamemaker.nl/

As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. ...."

Actually, Scratch is hopelessly underpowered if you have ever tried it. Aside from teaching basic logic, it can't go much farther. I recommend GameMaker. (http://www.yoyogames.com/). It really lets create games that are more than 640x480 and also teaches basics of OOP. (In Scratch you have to create a new object for every instance you need which rapidly gets cluttered.) It also includes a script function that is a great introduction to real coding languages.

To summarize, try it yourself. If you can't seem to get something interesting out, what's the chance they will?

I've had great success with my teenager with Game Maker from YoYo Games.

http://www.yoyogames.com/

Windows only unfortunately, but excellent. It'll teach simple variables and loops to start with, with instant results, before leading into more advanced coding as his skills and ambition increase.

If you don't mind giving the youngster a somewhat graphical and simple approach to programming, I highly suggest using Game Maker. It is a graphical game creation tool that also includes it's own scripting language that is very easy to get a hang of.

One of the more interesting aspects is that anything that is done with the icons or Drag and Drop items can be done through scripting creating a nice staged approach to learning programming.

It was created by a professor named Mark Overmars as a teaching tool to get children interested in programming.

http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/

It has very basic OOP functionality built in with child and parent objects, and you can actually create some pretty interesting applications with it. The problem is that is a bit too fun and you will need to encourage your child to use this solely as a launching pad and not a final destination.

http://lf2.net/
One of my personal favorites. Shouldn't be too hard to run.

Also, putting on a free game making program might be a neat idea to toy with. Then they can make their own free games. :D
http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker

I've just finished a class on game design where we used Gamemaker.

It was ridiculously easy to use and was lots of fun (even if it is a winodws app).It not only teaches how to make games, but is a great intro to basic programming concepts such as variables, branching, loops, events and functions. There are tutorials you could try with your son.

I've been teaching computers for the past 4 years to middle school students in Japan. Here are the programs I use:

Grade 6: Drape
Grade 7: Gamemaker
Grade 8: Phrogram (formerly KPL)
Grade 9: Javascript

The first two, Drape and Gamemaker, are simple-to-use drag-n-drop programming languages. Drape is no longer freely available, but you can download it, and lesson plans, from my homepage, http://www.christianthompson.com?For_Teachers/.

Gamemaker is freely available (shareware with just a few advanced features crippled). It can be downloaded at http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/

Phrogram is a BASIC-like programming language that has a number of built-in function for doing things like drawing and manipulating sprites, which as we all know is what students really want to do! Strangely, I found that they're not super-keen on converting miles to kilometers! You can download it for free at http://www.phrogram.com/.

If you don't know what JavaScript is, stop reading now, please. :) I use the program Max's HTML Beauty for my HTML / CSS / JavaScript unit. It is also freeware and can be downloaded at http://www.htmlbeauty.com/.

If any teachers out there have any other ideas, would like more information on my curriculum, or wish to collaborate on lessons, please feel free to contact me at christian[at]christianthompson.com.

Cheers,

Christian