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.

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.