31
Getting kids (6-10) started witg programming and game dev (programming.dev)
submitted 4 days ago by somegeek@programming.dev to c/gamedev@programming.dev
40 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Pretty sure you might want Alice.

[-] somegeek@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

Ah this seems cool! Thank you

[-] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

It is. When I was in grad school I did some outreach involving kids. Alice is great because not only can you create movement and stuff with the characters on screen, but it's fully interactive. You can essentially make little video games and stuff.

[-] somegeek@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

I could't find it's docs tho. Syntax, semantics, API etc

[-] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I just went to the resources page and they appear to have a number of how to use, lessons, etc. Is that what you're talking about?

By the way, you're not going to find too much documentation into things like syntax. Unless it's changed dramatically I believe it's a visual language. Drag and drop.

[-] mapto@feddit.bg 2 points 2 days ago

Wow, great! Didn't know Alice is still a thing. I've remember trying it out when I was a kid when it was little more than a syntax highlighting IDE (or at least that's how I remember it). I see with Alice 2 and Alice 3 it has leapfrogged. Still, scratch/squeak feel more accessible to small kids to me.

[-] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I've talked pretty young kids to use alice. Scratch may have an advantage for extremely young ones, but 6-10 is a perfect age group for it.

this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026
31 points (94.3% liked)

Game Development

6382 readers
4 users here now

Welcome to the game development community! This is a place to talk about and post anything related to the field of game development.

Community Wiki

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Ategon@programming.dev
Frank@programming.dev
LiquidityC@programming.dev