Game Dev the Next Generation

My 7 year old son has taken quite an interest in writing games and is constantly coming up with ideas for our forthcoming title. Here’s a sketch he did for some coin icons:

He has been fascinated by a couple of packages available for kids, which allows them to create their own little games and at the same time teaches them the basics of programming in a fun and engaging way. 

Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) is an easy package to pick up and play with. It’s visual programming where routines can be built up by dragging and dropping coding elements. Kids can quickly jump in with thousands of example programs and start modifying them to create their own little games. Moving on from that there is Stencyl (http://www.stencyl.com/) – which takes the visual programming to the next level with a much deeper and wider array of programming concepts – including events and behaviours. In fact Stencyl programs can be published on Android (with a license fee).

Also there’s a new initiative in the UK to try and push for coding to be taught earlier in primary schools, which I think is vital to getting a computer literate next generation. Code Club (https://www.codeclub.org.uk/) asks for volunteers to teach programming to 9-11 year olds. I’m hoping to get involved with this in the new year.