Getting kids (6-10) started witg programming and game dev (programming.dev)

submitted 3 days ago by somegeek@programming.dev to c/gamedev@programming.dev

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Hi. I want to get my little cousins into computers, and since they're kids, making games are really fun for them. I made a game with them with Love2D and they had a blast (I put their faces on the characters) but I think Love2d is a bit too hard for them.

My main motive for them is to make something and be creative. Programming is just a tool for that.
So something simpler with less code and mental load that let's them create stuff more simply is good.

What do you guys suggest?

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[-] fubarx@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

Microbit was designed for just this: https://microbit.org/
There's a whole ecosystem of addon peripherals to make fun, tactile games: https://microbit.org/buy/accessories/
It even runs scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/microbit
Once older, if still interested, they can graduate to Arduinos or Raspberry Pis.
Especially for smaller kids (< 12 according to Python researchers), coding abstractions may be a bit hard to grasp and they may get discouraged. A little more of a gentle ramp might be physical kits like Snap Circuits: https://elenco.com/snapcircuits/

[-] mapto@feddit.bg 2 points 1 day ago

If this is about age (and it might not be), the age range in question is very sensitive. A typical kid at 6 can't yet read or do simple maths. On the website I found these indicative ages

[-] somegeek@programming.dev 1 points 3 days ago

Thank you these seem great.

this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026

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