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Ask Slashdot: Resources For Kids Who Want To Make Games?

Posted by Soulskill on from the building-blocks-of-fun dept.

Mr. Jones writes: My 11-year-old son is fascinated by games — game mechanics in particular. He has been playing everything from Magic to WarFrame since he was 5 years old. He seems mostly interested in creating the lore and associated mechanics of the games (i.e. how a game works). If it was only programming I could help him, but I am lost when it comes to helping him learn more formal ways of developing and defining gameplay. I really see a talent for this in him and I want to support it any way I can. Can you suggest any conferences, programs, books, websites, etc. that would help him learn?

8 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Actually... by Empiric · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.gamedev.net/

    --
    ~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
    1. Re:Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hide nothing from him for game development.
      He can't have total focus on any particular aspect and be able to ship anything.
      Buy this kid a new gaming-class computer every 2 years.
      This investment could save you $100,000 in college tuition fees.

      This may be advanced, but worth a shot: Game Theory

      As far as gameplay goes, follow the mantra of Dwarf Fortress and FTL, "Losing is Fun!".
      Occasionally place players in impossible situations so they can experience failure while trying their best.
      A game that's too easy or too linear gets dropped quickly.

      Maybe he'll pick up the art side as well and make a game before he's out of high school.
      8 years is long enough for a really good game, even designed/developed solo - Uplink had 3 devs, Banished is a 1-man shop.
      I started programming at age 15 - within a year of getting my 1st computer.
      I could have done it earlier, but didn't have the $2000+ required in those days.

      More resources
      Unity 3d
      Playmaker - an AI design tool using zero code.
      Blender
      Blender Guru
      character rigging

      Quick assets (some free):
      CG Textures
      Open Game Art
      Turbo Squid

      Easy scenery:
      Terrain - Terragen
      Plants - Speedtree

  2. Advice from a real game designer by Fwipp · · Score: 3, Informative

    Rather than asking the armchair gamers on Slashdot (myself included), read what some successful game designers say.

    Here's Mark Rosewater, head designer for Magic: The Gathering, on game design 101: http://archive.wizards.com/Mag...

  3. Scratch by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://scratch.mit.edu/

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  4. Code.org by Warhaven · · Score: 3, Informative

    We just did the Hour of Code at my workplace for the kids. Lots of tutorials for beginners on there. MichaelSmith above me also mentioned Scratch, and that's an excellent visual approach to learning procedural programming.

  5. Re:Good god by Pikoro · · Score: 3, Informative

    I was going to post RPGMaker as well. It has some good tools for character and story development. Picked this up for my kid a year or so ago. She loves it.

    --
    "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  6. Re:If you're a male, don't even bother. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The author's free to say whatever he wishes, but Debian doesn't have to provide a mouthpiece for him. The software in question has some interesting oddities in it, which are probably the reason that the packaging request was denied, and rightly so. To whit:

    The subroutine "nowomensrights", which repeatedly prints out "Just Say No To Women's Rights"

    An occasional section where "Return to Casino Men" has a different color than the continuation "u" (completing the word "menu")

    Odd references to feminism, women's rights, the 19th amendment, etc that trigger the aforementioned subroutine to be run

    Easy bugfix: Remove the political and sexist bullshit, and I'm sure that the software would be accepted. Seriously, what other software accepted by Debian contains obvious political speech? This isn't about the software being unavailable, it's about the author's unpopular opinions, and the fact that it's not the author's right to make someone else listen to what he says.

  7. codeCombat by P3r53ph0N3 · · Score: 3, Informative

    You should take a look at http://codecombat.com/ it is an interactive website where you can learn to code by playing a game. I excuse in advance if someone else already suggested this site, I read a few answers and couldn't find any reference to it. Because I think it's a good resource and the target age is in line with your kid's age I'm taking the risk to annoy with redundancy