What is the best way to teach my 10 year old how to create a computer game?
My 10 year old is a pretty good student so he can probably grasp concepts slightly beyond his age. And like most kids, he has been playing computer/video games for a while now. He likes Runescape and Star Wars Lego II. He recently has expressed interest in creating his own game. I’d like to encourage this without overwhelming him with too advanced of a programming language. Logo seems out of date. Not sure what else is out there. An example game he would like to put together is a computer chess or checkers game with graphics. I was thinking of "Samuel’s Checkers" for the strategy part. No clue on the graphics/language.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
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Tagged with: checkers • checkers game • chess • clue • computer chess • computer video games • example game • language logo • pointers • programming language • star wars • star wars lego • star wars lego ii
Filed under: Computer Chess Game
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Do your son knows how to programming in C or say Visual Basic? If so, he can start with an already written code ( there are many examples of a source code to download), and then he could compile the game within the visual builder and at the same time he could be learning the language. If your son on the other hand doesn’t know how to program, it would be the best for him to IMHO start learning C programming language. If not in school then maybe you could provide him a tutor that could show him the basics. Bare in mind that programming has to be learnt and in steps, plus programming games is one of the most advanced areas of programming itself.
draw out a flow chart first ….
if this thing happens – do you go right (yes) or left (no)
what happens to each and then some decisions flow back to common answers (You Loose) … Keep getting correct decissions and go onto win
start with tic-tac-toe to get the hang of writing flow charts
Wow when I was 10 years old all I wanted to do was ride my bike and play games with my friends. Sounds like you’ve got a really smart kid.
Microsoft just released the tool used to make games for the Xbox, it is free. I am sure he would have a kick with it.
The Microsoft tool is at http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/XNA/default.aspx
i would use a flash editor program they are pretty simple an example of these games is at http://www.2flashgames.com i think they offer a site to download this it takes basics and fundemental learning so try not to jump him up to far as far as animation and sound start slow and work up there
start him out with a really basic code… like visual basic or pascal.
javascript may be good as well.
Visual Basic is relatively simple to learn, even for a 10 year old if he has the interest. At that age however, it can be a challenge to learn from a textbook or online tutorial by itself. If you can afford it, then you should consider hiring a tutor to teach him to build games in visual basic. It will be a great skill for him to have later in life as well.
A tutor would be handy, or enrolling in a community course from an adult education center. If he is good, I doubt they would mind, but you never know.
You child will need to know the basic of computer programming, and they include:
Data Structures,
Algorithms,
Concurrency.
Thats all before you start looking into graphics and so forth.
You will need a language, and you will need to decide on that first, so you can get a tutor.
For the kind of things you are talking about, your child would be best off learning C++ (pronounced see plus plus). This has been a standard for some time now, and will work on different computers like windows and mac. They will be differences between computers (Operating Systems (OS)), so some changes to the code may be required if running on another OS.
Graphics and so forth are usually part of the OS, and you will have to learn the working of the OS to get them to display.
The reason for data structures is to know and provide efficient structures in a program. Similar to not using a wardrobe as a book case, it takes up too much room.
The reason for algorithms is to know how to make the program efficient. It is a competition for time and space. In general, the less time used, the more space required, and the less space required, the more time taken.
Concurrency to enable the graphics to be displayed whilst other things happen in the game. You do not want to press a button to move the checker or chess piece and you have to wait an extraordinate amount of time to see anything happen. Things need to happen, virtually, at the same time. (Of course it cannot happen at the same time, it is only an illusion, and the reason CPUs can do millions of instructions per second).