Need your advice: Teaching my son game programming

[TheBulldog]

Hi,

I could use advice. My 14 year old son has started to learn the basics of programming (Scratch, basics of Python, a few weeks with GameMaker Studio).

I now want to have him spend the summer learning to programming video games, and I'm not sure which to have him use.

I've look at Unreal Engine and Unity, but unclear if that's the right direction.

I'd like him to both be able to create something fairly quickly so it keeps his interest but also want to make sure it's a valuable tool to learn (I understand that they use either C++ or C# to some extent?).

Anyway, I'd greatly appreciate some advice. I'm open to the tools I mentioned as well as a new direction.

Thanks!

BD

 

[skule]

Start with C#, Boo or JavaScript.
Teach him the fundamentals start with an easy clone project for ex Flappy Bird and then add more features.

 

[Sebastiann]

Start with Unity, it's in C# (which is C-easy-mode) and has a huge community for finding answers.

Additionally, their license is Free + a % of anything you make off the game, which is great for hobby projects.

They have a huge asset store (by comparison to other frameworks) which means your son can just pick up a $1 "army guy" asset (etc) to use as the character and some environment assets which are way more motivating than a "default blue sphere"...

There is also a lot of employment opportunity with Unity if he is wanting to make mobile games long term.

However - if he wants to get into "serious" game development (ie AAA games), after he masters Unity, I'd suggest moving on to CryEngine - it's a lot more difficult (so definitely don't start on this) but what you can do with it as part of a professional team blows Unity out of the water.

Edit: Oh, and Unity integrates super well with https://improbable.io which is imo the only way to build out a reliable, scalable, multiplayer game compared to "roll-your-own-server" alternatives.

Hope that helps.

 

[TheBulldog]

Start with Unity, it's in C# (which is C-easy-mode) and has a huge community for finding answers.

Additionally, their license is Free + a % of anything you make off the game, which is great for hobby projects.

They have a huge asset store (by comparison to other frameworks) which means your son can just pick up a $1 "army guy" asset (etc) to use as the character and some environment assets which are way more motivating than a "default blue sphere"...

There is also a lot of employment opportunity with Unity if he is wanting to make mobile games long term.

However - if he wants to get into "serious" game development (ie AAA games), after he masters Unity, I'd suggest moving on to CryEngine - it's a lot more difficult (so definitely don't start on this) but what you can do with it as part of a professional team blows Unity out of the water.

Edit: Oh, and Unity integrates super well with https://improbable.io/ which is imo the only way to build out a reliable, scalable, multiplayer game compared to "roll-your-own-server" alternatives.

Hope that helps.

Thank you. Very helpful! I think I'll go with Unity. Along with your info, it also looks like Unity is a better option for games that aren't "first person shooters" which opens up a lot more possibilities for him.

I've never heard of CryEngine or improbable.io, so I'll check those out for later.

Start with C#, Boo or JavaScript.
Teach him the fundamentals start with an easy clone project for ex Flappy Bird and then add more features.

Thanks. Some variation of Flappy Bird is a good idea

 

[Panther28]

This guy is great for video gaming breakdowns, frogger, doom, tetris etc. only thing its c++, but its still interesting to watch and learn from

 

[NorbGier]

He is 14 years old let him play computer games don't force him into coding.

 

[SonOfBhw]

He is 14 years old let him play computer games don't force him into coding.

I don't think he forced him. It says in the thread that " My 14-year-old son has started to learn the basics of programming". Not everyone likes playing games op someone likes building it.

 

[NorbGier]

I don't think he forced him. It says in the thread that " My 14-year-old son has started to learn the basics of programming". Not everyone likes playing games op someone likes building it.

he also said

I now want to have him spend the summer learning to programming video games, and I'm not sure which to have him use.

Seems like forcing for me.