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.

Internet Power

I love living in the country and working from home. I can work in my pants, raid the fridge and turn my music up loud. I do miss chatting with colleagues in the communal kitchen and wandering into town after work, but I think the advantages greatly out weigh the downside.

The main pain for me is the internet speed. I know it’s a 1st world problem, but getting 100kps makes it feel like the 90s again. It gets even worse around 6 when everyone in my street gets home from work and tries to share in the internet trickle that comes out the cable. (whinge ends)

In App Purchases

Full day looking at in app purchases. Slowly getting to grips with how the system works. It’s tricky learning Obj-C, xcode, Mac OS and in app purchases all at the same time. I find I’m having to jump on Google for basic bits and pieces. Still it’s fun to jump into something completely new and it’s moving forward bit by bit. I’ve added the purchases to iTunes Connect and can query them from the code, with the purchase going through. Next is to get my head around how the callbacks are going to integrate with the game as it currently stands.