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Teaching Kids to Make Games?
FreakerSFX asks: "My son has shown an avid interest in video games like most kids his age. What's different now is that he insists that he wants to learn how to build his own game. He's 9 and fairly gifted from a mathematics and computer standpoint and certainly capable of learning basic programming. What tools/books are recommended for a neophyte computer game programmer?" I remember one of my first exposures to computer languages was Logo,
which was a language that seems perfectly suited to young children. There is a Windows version available here that seems like it would be perfect for the development of simple games, especially for youngsters. What languages, and language resources, are you aware of that might be suitable for youngsters with an interest in creating games, and learning programming?
Assembly. Yup. Definitely Assembly.
*flame suit on*
Since I don't know too many nine year olds, I can't fathom what games they're playing (Pokemon still? Yuyu Hashuko?), but my suggestion is to first control his expectations. What I mean is, you should be aware that even though he is gifted in math and has an interest in programming, that he won't be able to recreate Max Payne 2 or WarCraft III. Or even Pokemon on the GBA. That simply requires money. Some of the simplest games like Tetris aren't instantly easy to program.
Deep breath.
With that out of the way, I'd suggest writing a text only RPG or something like that. You can learn a lot about how games work coding up MUDs and such, and you don't have to worry about making the eye candy to go with it. When I was nine I coded up a mud in Basic (of course that was in the late 80's but whatever). Once you've got a fairly fun text RPG, you can try making it into a 2d world (a la Zelda) which wouldn't be too hard to implement.
I realize I haven't answered your question about programming languages and websites mostly because that usually leads to flame wars ("Nu uh! Ruby/VBA/C++ Rocks! Python/C/Java Sux!"), but if he's try interested in programming a game, I think a mud is a good place to start. I have a preference for Python, so you may want to check out pygame.org as well.
I learned programming by typing in code from books like "100 BASIC Computer Games" and so on. David Ahl's books, Compute!, and the like.
I don't see why a kid today can't type in a page of BASIC code out of a book. Once he sees the structure and gets the idea of how things fit together in a logical flow, the next steps should fall into place naturally.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
It is very important to use the carrot instead of the stick approach. First, get him the most advanced workstation you can afford as well as a 21" monitor minimum. Make sure he takes plenty of breaks, and when he does well, reward him with something nice like a trip to the zoo or a soothing massage. Above all, have fun TOGETHER!
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Michael Jackson
Best Windows Freeware
You might take a look at BYOND (Build Your Own Net Dream). It has a simple tile-based graphics engine, an object oriented language that is easy to learn, and automatic networking so you don't have to do any extra work to get multiplayer games. And it's completely free to download and use.
We've had a number of kids around the junior high age get involved and create their own games using BYOND. For most of them, it's their first introduction to real programming, and serves as a great springboard for getting into more advanced languages like C++ and Java. In fact, the success in that age group has almost become a problem -- the community is swarming with young adolescents and we adults feel like a minority there sometimes. We're even thinking of pushing it as an educational tool somewhere down the line...
Browse around at some of the games listed on the games site to get an idea of the system's capabilities. You won't be making first person shooters, but it could be just right for someone your son's age. Puzzle games and RPG/adventure style games do particularly well in BYOND. Once you've downloaded the client (Downloads link, obviously), you can even connect to any games that are currently online. Just beware the ones in the Unpublished section - they may or may not be up to snuff, and may be hosted by immature 13 year olds looking to be rude.
Then take a look at the programming guide and jump in to see if it will work for you. I'm not sure if 9 years old is too young for this, but your son sounds very smart, so he may pick it up just fine. Good luck!
Say hello to zMac.
I was just looking into text only games [Interactive Fiction] recently for the first time in a looooong time. I found some fun ones that were done in the TADS language which is apparently made just for that. The site I downloaded the runtime environment from also had a compiler. Check out tads.org For some background. I think an IF game is a perfect starter for a kid.
You could also take a look at Macromedia Flash. They have a usable scripting language and you can draw or import graphics and sounds from elsewhere.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Consider the Squeak environment. It's an open, highly-portable Smalltalk-80 implementation. It is really friendly place for kids to get started and smalltalk is a good language for kids to start with.
That's all I can find in a quick scan of my bookmarks from way back when...
"Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
A few years later my dad got us a copy of Kids and the C=64 but the games in that didn't seem as fun as the ones we were making, which were more graphical.
Learning by making games is the way to go. Kids can learn some algebra concepts by learning the simple graphics libraries and learning to do simple animations.
A few years ago a 12 year old sent me an email and asked if I would help him make a video game. He had seen one of my others games on the web and wanted to learn. I thought it was cool that he dared to ask, so I took him up on it. We decided to code in Java since it is freely available and you can put your work up on a website for others to see. The result is at http://www.angelfire.com/games4/anirak/. I did most of the programming and he did the design of the game and the graphics. We went over the code using instant messenger he understood it and would modify it to try out different things. It was a lot of fun for him.
After that I started writing a pacman type tutorial on the same site, but only recently have I made any progress on it. Unfortunately the stuff I have done recently is pretty complex. It is probably easier to stick to shot-em-ups that don't involve complex boards or AI when using the game as a learning tool for children.
If you want to use any of the code on those sites for educational purposes feel free to do so.
Lasers Controlled Games!
Alice is a free simple 3d system based around Python - I can highly recommend it, my two ten-year-olds and even my six-year-old have been playing on it.
It's developed by Carnegie Mellon University, and at it's simplest is directed towards telling interactive stories. It's sufficiently flexible to allow a wide range of applications, however. The interface is intuitive, and it has a large library of pre-built objects to get started with.
Err, that would be LogoMation
http://www.magicsquare.com/LM2/
and CodeRally is at:
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/coderally
BTW, he mastered LogoMation quickly and loved the colored patterns he could product.
Lets see here - he is already gifted in math and computers, just like most of us (are / were at that age). Lets assume the kid has just a touch of autism (which is good for computer guys) and already knows his way around a keyboard and a development environment.
:
Programming isn't about syntax, and it isn't about variable scope or recursion or data structures or loops or any of that crap - it is about expressing, simulating, or recreating real world ideas in a digital format. The biggest problem most programs have isn't that the programmer didn't use the correct syntax of some computer language - it is that he didn't understand the business problems or real world ideas that he was attempting to address digitally in the first place, or he wasn't able to bridge the gap between the real world and the digital recreation of those ideas.
He wants to program computer games, teach him project lifecycle development
1. Imagine
2. Define
3. Architect
4. Develop
5. Deliver
The imagine phase doesn't happen on a computer, it happens in your brain. Add a box of crayons and some paper, have him sketch out a storyboard to help him envision the flow of the game. The difference between good usable software and crap that nobody likes happens right here.
The define phase doesn't happen in a programming language, it happens in English in Word or OO - or possibly even verbally, have him define it to you so you can help him shape it. Define all the different parts of the program, what all he is going to do. The difference between bloatware and good focused software happens right here.
Architect phase happens with Legos or Crayons - or a whiteboard with colored (easy erase) markers. Could be simple, but doesn't have to be. The difference between web sites that can / cannot handle a slashdotting happens here.
Develop - now he starts coding. Look at what he has designed, how he architected and THEN pick a platform, language. If he wants to code a stock market game then Logo isn't your language. If he wants to make a first person shooter then GW-Basic isn't going to cut it, and ANSI C probably isn't either. Tip here : pick a language that you know so when he needs help you can help him. If he got the first three right, this one pretty much has to succeed.
Deliver - could be deploying it to your ISP if it is a web based game, could be burning it to a CD if it isn't.
Software development doesn't start with 'what language do I want to use?' It starts with 'what EXACTLY do I want to accomplish?' If you fire up VB.NET in an IDE and plunk him down at the keyboard while his goal is still a simple 'make a game' then the poor kid is fuxored. That works if all you want to do is teach him syntax and bad programming habits. If you want him to be good - then show him how the development process starts not with his hands on a keyboard, but with a box of crayons or a whiteboard.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
Try this post:
"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?"
god i need a fscking life...i've tearned into jeeves.
Just to clarify for those doing searches, it's Cocoa (just like the OSX/NS framework).
And mods, this is the direct answer to the Ask Slashdot question, the tool built for expressly this purpose. A friend taught his 8-year old daughter how to use it and she was absolutely delighted.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
A lot of the people here are advocating the hardcore, learn-to-program approach.
;)
But not everyone that wants to make games wants to learn programming, and this was a source of some frustration in my own younger years, because although I had tools available, I saw what I was going on, and I had plenty of ideas, my drive to actually create code was almost zero. So I let things sit quite a long time, and was almost entirely dependent on finding tools that minimized the amount of structural work needed(graphics routines, objects, tile engines) and maximized the amount of control I had over the critical segments of gameplay, like collisions and shooting. The best free one around like that today is Mark Overmars' Game Maker. It allows you to do some very complex things with a C-subset scripting language, while at the same time providing a strong IDE and toolset. It's unfortunately tied to DirectX and Win32, though, and it's also not an opensourced project(for a $15 registration fee you get a couple more options), but the free version is by no means crippleware, and for what it does it's very good. Also the forums are quite funny because the majority of the posters are kids playing at game development, and not even really having the smarts to do well with such a great tool.
Now I'm a freshman in college and plan to get at least a BA in CS, not because I like it, but because it's going to keep pushing me to advance my skills until I'm well capable of making games of all complexities. (I plan to go into shareware/independent gaming, so learning all skills equally well is a Good Idea. Also a good recipe for using up all my spare time.)
I've moved on from Game Maker to Pygame since I started college; my current greatest accomplishment with it is doing a scrolling tile engine(with all sizes, screen border etc. adjustable); it took three times for my code to be really anything close to clean, and after the second time I decided OOP is not a magic bullet for anything. My next project is to add a modular framework that includes the tile engine; using this framework, users will be able to make maps that play differently, because each map will load some Python code and objects in addition to settings for the tiles. It's kind of confusing me, which the tile engine did too, the first time, but I think that if I keep at it I'll get somewhere, and from there it'll just snowball until all of the sudden the game I'm planning is done hehe