Game dev books for 10 year olds?
Got this question via Twitter from @eugaet, and realized that I was drawing a blank!
@raphkoster I’m sure you’re busy, but was hoping you could give me some book recommendations. My 10yo son is interested in making games.
@raphkoster Obviously, your Theory of Fun book is on my list. 🙂
Actually, you should vet the book first — because it does include the phrase “blowjob from a hooker” — used in discussing Grand Theft Auto.
When I was ten, I was learning about computers with Creative Computing. I was typing in listings, hacking in MS-BASIC and CP/M, that sort of thing. Books like the Atari computer-based ANTIC ones were something I could dig my teeth into. These days, of course, your computer may not have a programming language on it, and the barrier is higher.
I haven’t had any luck getting my kids to get into programming yet — despite my son’s expressed interest in making games, and the fact that he merrily messes about with ROM hacks and emulators.
So I am unsure what to recommend, particularly in that age bracket. Readers, what say you?
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http://scratch.mit.edu/ is nice and easy
http://www.alice.org/ is pretty complete
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/ seems pretty innovative and well tought. (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/dcr/work.htm)
That said we had a 13yrs on Ogre 3d Forums that was fluent in C++/shader and all so maybe it’s never to early, if the feel is there, there’s no reason to set limitations
I’d get a basic book on programming or graphics rather than something explicitly about games. Kids often equate “games” with “fun on computers”, and as they get older, they might realize that that latter category includes much more.
Or not, but they’ll have learned a lot!
I used Easy Programming with QBasic when I was around David’s age to learn programming basics. I think the QBasic packaged with DOS 6 has a few preprogrammed games, such as a game where you controlled a gorilla and threw bananas at another gorilla. Learning QBasic culminated into my writing of a “How to Create Your First Program” essay in 6th grade that teaches the reader how to program “Hello, World” in QBasic as well. (The essay received the highest marks from four instructors, by the way. The fourth instructor was assigned to grade the essay just to make sure the other three weren’t crazy.) I also learned HTML in 3rd grade by reading NCSA’s A Beginner’s Guide to HTML.
I’d leave out the book entirely at this point honestly, and just get the kid set up with Gamemaker or perhaps Multimedia Fusion.
Making or designing games doesn’t have to start on a computer. In fact, it might be more immediately fulfilling to start with lego or a set of chess pieces and focus on creating the rules. Although I do remember programming games on my TI-83 in math class back in the day…
A little more difficult, but a suggestion I received when I asked the same question for my 9 year old daughter… pick up a bunch of Compute’s Gazettes and a C64 emulator.
In the end, though, I bought her DarkBasic and wrote and taught lessons for her – although that’s a lot more work than some folks can do. On the other hand, she had spinning 3D cubes down in short order and wrote her own MP3 player less than a year later.
Raph,
I tweeted a response to yourself & “@eugaet”, but I’m not sure if they would see it, as they don’t follow me, nor do I follow them? (Yes, still not 100% sure of how Twitter works)
Anyway, here goes:
+1 for George’s suggestion of Game Maker.
It’s a program that starts with logical ‘building blocks’ first, and then you can get into scripting later, for more complex games.
I’ve just finished this GM book: http://book.gamemaker.nl/
..and I heartily recommend it. It’s very step-by-step, and the resulting games are actually fun. It’s also got some great ‘game theory’ chapters for when the child is a bit older, to improve their game.
If they decide to give GM a go, the Game Maker community is large, helpful, and full of kids of all ages/abilities.
Game Maker + “The Game Maker’s Apprentice”
http://www.yoyogames.com/make
http://www.worldcat.org/title/game-makers-apprentice-game-development-for-beginners/oclc/262691709
Well, when I was a little younger than that age I was puzzling about with 6502 machine language, on a KIM-1, but I don’t know that I would actually recommend that path…
Depending on the kid, I might actually download XNA and a number of the starter games for him, and then try to do some sort of collaborative thing – take one of the sample games, build it, and then talk about what would make it better, or at least different, and then go do it.
People, including kids, learn much better by doing than reading I think. But I’m honestly not whether or not the current kids ‘starter’ languages provide any real benefit in the end.
Game Maker is buggy. Try making a Jezzball clone. Guaranteed freeze.
Well I’ll second the gamemaker’s apprentice. http://www.amazon.com/Game-Makers-Apprentice-Development-Technology/dp/1590596153/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271129663&sr=8-1
I gave it to my 11 year old for our summer family project last year and we had a blast. But in general it seems like the upcoming generation has a hard time learning how to teach themselves.. if there isn’t a tutorial on youtube or a plugin they get discouraged.
This year we’re tackling level building and basic lua scripting in Garry’s mod. But the real goal will be to encourage him to dig and explore for his own answers. He’s already got a pretty good grasp of subversion which surprised the hell outta me when I found him mucking around with Tortoise.
Also the amount of fun you can have making a board / card game and playtesting it with the print on demand services at thegamecrafter.com is pretty awesome, and it gives kids something they can work on with their friends.
Antic was great, but I was an A.N.A.L.O.G. guy myself.
I would recommend the starter tutorials for Unity3D and then the one with ‘Lerpz’ and the 3D plaformer:
http://unity3d.com/support/resources/tutorials/3d-platform-game.html
No books required IMHO.
>>> These days, of course, your computer may not have a programming language on it, and the barrier is higher.
Any web browser these days has Javascript, and the newer ones support the Canvas tag for painting stuff. Given that web-based games are currently a hot market, a web browser can be a great platform for learning real-world programming skills.
I just happened to stumble across this yesterday – http://www.codinggeekette.com/post/Hello-World!-A-Friendly-Intro-to-Programming.aspx
There was an old book called “Invent your own computer games” that taught BASIC. The book has recently been updated to use Python instead of BASIC, and is targeted at the 9-12 bracket:
http://inventwithpython.com/
It worked for me 20 years ago — maybe it will work for you today. 🙂
Moorgard — I couldn’t remember the name of A.N.A.L.O.G.! I preferred it too! 🙂
What about books on games? like “The Boardgame Book” by R.C. Bell (a joy both visually and exposing one to a wide range of games), any of Sid Sackson’s books, David Parlett’s books, if he’s a bit of a reader, etc.
Thanks for posting my question, Raph! And maybe I’ll just get the Theory of Fun book for myself…
Thanks for all the recommendations! I plan on checking out each one.
A couple years ago, I had started teaching the kids how to program adventure games w/ Inform 6 (http://www.inform-fiction.org/inform6.html). My son had just started expressing interest in creating games, but all he had ever seen was the end product. I dropped him in front of Zork to see if a non-graphical game could hold his attention and he took to it, so… At any rate, it only lasted for one afternoon. I couldn’t get either of them to want to work on it after the first day…but they did pick up on the basic structure really quickly. They both had written enough Inform code to have it compile so that you could move around a simple floorplan.
I suppose my idea at the time was that if he was interested in making games, he needed to be exposed to code to understand how games are made (at least on the programming side of things). In retrospect, it may not have been the best idea, though. The few times I’ve mentioned it since then, he’s responded with “making a game is too hard”.
But then, you know…he’s only 10.
Everything I ever needed to know about writing games I learned from MUDs. 🙂 Not really but I seriously learned quite a bit of game development, production and management from MUDs.
10 years old isn’t an excuse. I know a few people, including myself, that started programming in the third grade. (Comodore PET for me) If the programming side of games is what he wants then start small. Learn programming. Even simple games are complex code loops to someone that doesn’t know programming.
As for Raph’s book, I’m afraid the vast majority of it will sail right past a 10 year old’s head. Most 10 year olds are not that self aware yet to realize the point that Raph is making in the book. They’re still learning through play and not yet old enough to reflect on how they learned through play, let alone figure out how to use that reflection to make great games.
Game Maker looks really interesting. And I just realized Spelunky was made with GM…both of us love that game!
In addition to the Game Maker’s Apprentice book, has anyone read this one: Getting Started with Game Maker. One of the reviews states it’s basically a rewrite of the Apprentice book, and that you shouldn’t need to buy both.
GM initially hides any of the complexity of code from you, but this may be a good way to (re)start with my son. The reason I went with Inform 6 was to immerse him in code…and maybe he wasn’t ready for that.
I picked this book up recently. http://www.amazon.com/Challenges-Game-Designers-Brenda-Brathwaite/dp/158450580X
It’s non-digital game design for video game designers.
At the core, game design is not Game Maker, Unity, or Python. It’s Checkers, Blackjack, Chutes and Ladders, and football. If you want to program learn python, if you want to design games, design games.
The book will challenge your creativity and make you a game designer as a matter of course.
I actually did purchase Kodu for the xbox and I have to say it’s pretty neat. It’s very child-friendly in it’s basic interface (lots of rounded edges and kindof “boing!” “zing!” sound effects, for example)
Most importantly, it’s insanely simple to “program”. My four-year-old likes to play it and just input random behaviors/actions for the little avatars and then just tool around bumping into things, jumping, and blowing things up. (He also really likes how easy it is to shape the play space, and regularly makes mountains and valleys to tool around in.)
Now, he hasn’t ever made a “game” this way: no bounded set of rules or anything. But it seems to me, Raph (and eugaet), that this is exactly the kind of start a young programmer would be interested in: start with unbounded play that introduces you to the nature of programming and design, and eventually, if your interest is strong enough, you’ll create your own challenges in terms of learning those topics in more depth and rigor.
What’s best about Kodu is how quickly it gets you up and running making things happen in your play space.
Flash. Flash gives some quick results (which is good for anyone, especially anyone who might be after a fast result), and if taught well could be a good inroad to any language. Considering how popular it is amongst teenagers (that might be my bias from hanging around the Newgrounds forums showing) it seems well suited. Well, about as well suited as Game Maker and MMF, which are always cool choices (I used Klik n Play and TGF when I was thier age…)
A few years ago I’d have recommended “Flash MX04 Games: From Art to Actionscript” as the go-to book for a beginner flash game creator, since it touched on so many good concepts for any game and flash developer, as well as some entertaining pictures for a child. Covered a huge range of topics too, and gave some introduction to 3d modelling and online games. Assuming the reading age is high enough (and hey, they want to do programming, so I hope it is), it shouldn’t be a tough book with parental supervision – the first few chapters especially should be solid grounds for any programming language, introducing conditionals and loops.
Now with AS2 being a little out of date, I’m not sure what the equivalent Flash book would be for a ten year old. I’d say “Actionscript 3.0: Flash Games University”, but OOP is quite a lot to throw at any beginner programmer.
Outside of development and more on the navel gazing/design side of things, the Game Guru series does well at collating a lot of screengrabs together with some introductory theory at game design.
When he’s a bit older, Understanding Comics, Crawford on Game Design, Bartle Designing Virtual Worlds, Swords and Circuitry, Trigger Happy and a full set of D&D core books. Oh, and a For Dummies or O’Reilly book on Java or whatever smartphone language has won the cross-platform arms race by then.
A follow-up: Looks like I’ll probably get him one of the Game Maker books (either Apprentice or Getting Started). He seemed pretty interested in GM, we just need to get it installed. I’m also getting him WarioWare DIY [DS], I’ve heard good things about it from a game-designer viewpoint.
I ordered Challenges for Game Designers for myself and plan to go through the online course (http://gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com/). I’ll see if it looks like something my son might be able to take part in. Also planning on picking up Theory of Fun and Understanding Comics soon (was recommended as companion texts for the online course). Also ordered the Inform 6 Manual just because I’ve been wanting a bound copy for so long. Plan on getting the Inform 7 Manual when it is finally released.
Books we already have on our shelves: Rollings/Adams on Game Design, various D&D core/expansion manuals (mostly 2e/4e), and various books on programming languages (C/C++, Java, VB…).
We also have plenty of card and board games. Everything from chess and checkers to Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne.
I had a spiral-bound book on writing text adventures that I bought in the 80’s when I was a kid. For the life of me, I can’t recall what it was called. I’ll have to check my parents’ house to see if it’s still around.
Again, thanks for all the comments!
For what it is worth, after this thread, I got the Game Maker’s Apprentice book for my son for his birthday. 🙂
Umm… Javascript in a browser? Not to say this is the easiest way to start programming, but there is plenty of reference and turorial books out there and on the web. I even one called “Beginning Scripting Through Game Creation” (although I don’t know anything about it to recommend it or not).
Can we expect a review soon, Raph? 😉
I still haven’t decided between the Game Maker’s Apprentice or Getting Started with Game Maker. I’ve got a little time left to make up my mind.
Good suggestions. A couple peripherally related books that I think are good:
“Inside the personal computer” – http://www.kimpallister.com/2010/04/vintage-book-win.html – You’ll have to find it on ebay, but well worth it. Not games, but good book for kids on how a computer’s innards work
“Media Meltdown” (http://www.kimpallister.com/2010/01/book-review-media-meltdown.html) – More of a book about thinking critically about media and its sources. Help kids see things through different lenses.