Game Creation Software for Kids?

-Surak- asks: "I have been asked to teach a week-long class on Computer Game Design for a small group of computer literate kids, around 9-13 years old. My plan is to have them create a simple game, while exposing them to aspects of story design, artwork, animation, and simple programming. To this end, I'm looking for a 'game construction kit' that is simple enough that they can have a working game by the end of the week with some guidance. Anyone remember the 'Arcade Game Construction Kit' on the Commodore 64? Adventure Game Studio looks good, but it may be too complex. The genre is flexible, but it does need to generate a distributable Win32 binary that they can take home. Are there any Windows packages, public domain or otherwise, that can do this, especially any designed for kids?"

Comments

Klik 'n Play

[nerdguy0]

You should try Klik n' Play. My friend used it to make some intresting games when he was younger. And it looks like they have a version for schools that's free to use too.

Too complicated?

[JohnFluxx]

He says that the adventure game studio program looks to complicated. Looking at the site, it sounds very easy to use.
Don't be patronising to the kids.
Many people here probably could code by 9, the lower end of the age range. At the upper range, 13, I was doing advanced c++ courses at college..
Kids learn quicker than adults - remember that.

Squeak

[trouser]

Have a look at Squeak.
It's a Smalltalk virtual machine with easily programmable 2D and 3D graphics, audio support, runs on just about anything.

Squeak
Squeakland

just one thing before you begin

[funkmastermike]

I highly suggest you have them tweak the code/settings of whatever you use. I learned game coding real easily and quickly by messing with the source code. eg: changing resolution, starting health, rate of fire, amount of enemies on screen, colors of the actual art files, CHANGING the art files.. etc etc etc

so before you teach them to code or use the program. MAKE ONE FIRST or take a completed game and then give it to them and say that they'll make something similar..have them mess with the settings . It's much easier to first tweak your game rather than start from scratch.

For the long term....

[AnglerG]

You can direct them to Allegro (http://www.allegro.cc), or even pygame (http://pygame.seul.org) if they show an interest past your class. Both of these packages can be set up in Win32 (with some work), and are a great start in C/C++ and Python development. They're free, use free compilers, don't require too many additional libraries/includes, and they have excellent example programs the kids can play with/learn from. They also have support forums geared to beginners, and have very friendly followings willing to help newcomers.

SDL (http://www.libsdl.org) and Java (http://java.sun.com) are less optimal choices. SDL requires a ton of includes, and someetimes has a tricky compiler setup. Java doesn't have terribly much support for game programming, and doesn;t have a great game-support community.

Granted, they're not Klik and Play type programs, but it's useful to know about these things in case a student wants to continue their learning on their own.

bah

[pommaq]

Just teach 'em x86 assembly. That stuff builds character!

Suggested Software from Google Directory

[robbway]

Google Directory of Games Development Software is a good start. Don't miss the Parent Directory of Game Design. I've personally tried two free ones: Game Maker and Build Your Own Net Dream.

Game Maker is similar to Klik 'n' Play. It's free and you don't have to program at all. You do have to firmly grasp object oriented conditional behavior. You can also add complicated code if you get deeply into the game.

If you want to introduce game design, history is an excellent teacher. Space War, Pong, and Breakout are excellent games to mimic as teaching devices, then move on to Space Invaders (which is really just Pong Strikes Back!), Head-On (early version of Pac Man), and Asteroids.

GameKit

[magic]

I taught a similar class and wrote the GameKit environment to teach kids how to program, with games as a motivating example. It is a simple programming language where I tried to convey the idea of programming while removing many of the staples-- there are no variable bindings, callable procedures, complex data structures, etc. It uses event driven, object oriented programming to accomplish most game logic.

The environment provides a map editor, code editor, and single stepping debugger. You can use MS paintbrush to create new backgrounds and sprites. My goal was an environment where students could write classic arcade games in about 100 lines of code-- space invaders is provided as an example.

http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/morgan/gamekit/in de x.html

I wouldn't consider the project feature complete. It is written in Visual Basic and anyone seriously interested is welcome to the source.

-m