Coding for a beginner (particularly, an 8-year-old)

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#2695222 20-Apr-2021 12:00

Another vote for scratch. On raspberry pi

One of my jaw dropping parenting moments was when I was writing and playing a basic game on scratch with my then 5 year old daughter.

I left her to it and in returning saw she had a huge score.

Turned out she had worked out that if you change the value of baddie speed variable to smaller number the baddy moved slower in game and its easier to get big score...

Mmmmm

marpada

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#2695240 20-Apr-2021 12:21

https://make.gamefroot.com/ seems a good starting point for game development as it is completely visual and focused on 2D platform games.

Varkk

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#2695264 20-Apr-2021 13:09

tchart:
freitasm:

"He's said one day he'd like to code games (specifically for Nintendo if possible). Only thing is, I have no idea how to get him started on the road to doing/learning this sort of thing."

Whatever you do, if he loses interest, let it go. At 8 years old he's too young to know what he's going to be doing later in life. It could be just a phase. Don't force things to happen that don't exist or exist only on your head.

Agree. My son started around 7/8 and is now 14. He kind of drifts in and out. He's pretty passionate about it but he goes at his own pace in time with his enthusiasm.

I will add to the chorus on this. Childhood is all about exploring and doing different things.

My son turned 8 last year and we got him the Turing Tumble. He used it a bit with encouragement from us for the first week doing some of the challenges. It was then ignored for a long time. He then one day on his own he woke up early and got it out to use. The key is to have things available and be there to support and guide them in what they want to explore.

amanzi

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#2695274 20-Apr-2021 13:34

You should check out Code Combat - https://codecombat.com/

It doesn't specifically teach how to create games, it's a more general code-learning platform, but... the kids learn how to code while playing games. It really is cool - my daughter was typing out fairly complex Python loops and conditionals within a few days, and she loved it.

MurrayM

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#2695325 20-Apr-2021 15:39

quickymart:

Thanks Murray, good suggestions too. He's trying to get Fuze 4 but it doesn't appear available for download anywhere? He has found Smile Basic 4 and is having a look at it to see if he would be keen.

I've just checked and you're right, for some reason Fuze 4 isn't listed in the NZ Switch eShop. You'd have to do the old "switch your Nintendo account region to the US, buy game, switch region back to NZ" trick.

They also released Fuze for the Raspberry Pi, see here. And I thought they had a Windows version too, but I can't seem to find it on their website. It's referred to here.

MurrayM

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#2703419 7-May-2021 14:30

quickymart:

One of my boys is very into Nintendo, Super Mario etc etc. He's said one day he'd like to code games (specifically for Nintendo if possible). Only thing is, I have no idea how to get him started on the road to doing/learning this sort of thing.

If your son is still interested in making his own games then Nintendo recently announced Game Builder Garage. It's a visual programming tool that looks a lot like Scratch, where you connect various blocks together to describe your programming logic.

CokemonZ

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#2703424 7-May-2021 14:50

My boy got interested at 9 and basically gave up when he started asking questions I couldn't answer.

Ended up putting him in Scratchpad NZ (https://scratchpad.co.nz/) and he's gone from Scratch to minecraft modding to Game maker (Easily Make Video Games with GameMaker Studio 2 (yoyogames.com)) in 2 years.

Basically an after school activity. Also gets to do some other stuff like 3d printing and mBots which he couldn't do at home.

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quickymart

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#2703530 7-May-2021 17:39

MurrayM:

quickymart:

One of my boys is very into Nintendo, Super Mario etc etc. He's said one day he'd like to code games (specifically for Nintendo if possible). Only thing is, I have no idea how to get him started on the road to doing/learning this sort of thing.

If your son is still interested in making his own games then Nintendo recently announced Game Builder Garage. It's a visual programming tool that looks a lot like Scratch, where you connect various blocks together to describe your programming logic.

Thanks, he'll have a look at this.

MurrayM

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#2704253 10-May-2021 08:53

quickymart:

MurrayM:

If your son is still interested in making his own games then Nintendo recently announced Game Builder Garage. It's a visual programming tool that looks a lot like Scratch, where you connect various blocks together to describe your programming logic.

Thanks, he'll have a look at this.

Because it hasn't been released yet there are still lots of questions about what capabilities it'll have. Some people are suggesting it'll be pretty basic and while others have translated Nintendo's Japanese web pages that describe the game and their translations suggest it might be quite powerful. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on this to see how it pans out.

MurrayM

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#2704259 10-May-2021 09:07

CokemonZ:

My boy got interested at 9 and basically gave up when he started asking questions I couldn't answer.

Ended up putting him in Scratchpad NZ (https://scratchpad.co.nz/) and he's gone from Scratch to minecraft modding to Game maker (Easily Make Video Games with GameMaker Studio 2 (yoyogames.com)) in 2 years.

Basically an after school activity. Also gets to do some other stuff like 3d printing and mBots which he couldn't do at home.

GameMaker is still going? I played with that years ago when it was free, I was so impressed that I donated to the author. I can't remember too much about how I used it, but I do remember one little game I made which was like a shooting gallery, where cardboard cutouts pop up and you have to shoot them (I had Osama Bin Laden as one of the cutouts as he was still alive back then and was the most wanted man in the world). I think I even bought a book for it. I've just had a look at the website and while the basics still look the same I think it looks much more professional now.

CokemonZ

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#2704262 10-May-2021 09:11

MurrayM:

CokemonZ:

My boy got interested at 9 and basically gave up when he started asking questions I couldn't answer.

Ended up putting him in Scratchpad NZ (https://scratchpad.co.nz/) and he's gone from Scratch to minecraft modding to Game maker (Easily Make Video Games with GameMaker Studio 2 (yoyogames.com)) in 2 years.

Basically an after school activity. Also gets to do some other stuff like 3d printing and mBots which he couldn't do at home.

GameMaker is still going? I played with that years ago when it was free, I was so impressed that I donated to the author. I can't remember too much about how I used it, but I do remember one little game I made which was like a shooting gallery, where cardboard cutouts pop up and you have to shoot them (I had Osama Bin Laden as one of the cutouts as he was still alive back then and was the most wanted man in the world). I think I even bought a book for it. I've just had a look at the website and while the basics still look the same I think it looks much more professional now.

Talking with one of the tutors it seems to be pretty popular for pixalart/indie games.

Big step up from what they were doing before, now sprites are separate from objects.

quickymart

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#2711843 23-May-2021 20:02

My boy got SmileBasic in the end but says it's a bit difficult to follow/figure out how to us - is there some sort of online guide (preferably with a video) that can walk him through how to create programs and code, etc? I'd hate to see my investment go to waste :)