Looking for a software to code a game with my 8yo kid

Question

Hi,We&rsquo;re confined and my 8yo girl has started designing a video game on paper, centered around horses and riders.She's asking me if we could actually program that and have a real thing to show.Since we&rsquo;re stuck for the moment, i&rsquo;d like to give it a shot.Do you guys know if there is software out there that has a basic structure in which we could start coding? Something woth a bit of asset mgmt, siund and so on..?Ideally open source but I can spare a few bucks

tkdc926 · Accepted Answer

https://scratch.mit.edu/

bananicorn · Answer

Have a look at love2d[0] - (or L&ouml;ve, as they prefer it to be called) It's a lua-scriptable game framework, where you can at least see results fairly quickly. All you need is a text editor and the lua executable. It's only thought for 2d games, but it's got an integrated physics engine (Box2d) and a bunch of libraries to help with all kinds of things that might come up.And the community was absolutely lovely last time I checked :)[0]love2d.org/

textread · Answer

PICO8 might suit your needs if it is a simple game where the focus is on teaching.

amerkhalid · Answer

Not exactly what you are looking for but I have heard good things about Dreams on PS4 (https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/dreams-ps4/). I have bought it but haven't really had a chance to try it yet.It may not teach programming but might be good enough to learn about basics of logic, design, assets management, music, sound, etc.

trilinearnz · Answer

GameMaker Studio might be worth a look. It's $39, but there's a 30-day trial as well. From what I can tell, it's a simpler, more user-friendly alternative to the likes of Unity. Also, it's from the creator of Lemmings (although he's since moved on).https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker

daly · Answer

I made a game for Android. Unfortunately the tooling needed is too hard to explain. But it might help pass the time.http://daly.axiom-developer.org/apps/MahLetters-release.apk

muzani · Answer

Construct is a little outdated but still good. Using events instead of code. It took half an hour to make a little race car game with my 5 year old, and she started tweaking things like designing the cars and how the race behaves. There's collision detection, etc, built in.

h2odragon · Answer

https://godotengine.org/I've heard good things about it, but never used it. When I get around to the project that needs it, I plan to.

Looking for a software to code a game with my 8yo kid

https://scratch.mit.edu/

PICO8 might suit your needs if it is a simple game where the focus is on teaching.

GameMaker Studio might be worth a look. It's $39, but there's a 30-day trial as well. From what I can tell, it's a simpler, more user-friendly alternative to the likes of Unity. Also, it's from the creator of Lemmings (although he's since moved on).
https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker

I made a game for Android. Unfortunately the tooling needed is too hard to explain. But it might help pass the time.
http://daly.axiom-developer.org/apps/MahLetters-release.apk

Construct is a little outdated but still good. Using events instead of code. It took half an hour to make a little race car game with my 5 year old, and she started tweaking things like designing the cars and how the race behaves. There's collision detection, etc, built in.

https://godotengine.org/
I've heard good things about it, but never used it. When I get around to the project that needs it, I plan to.