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Unless you already have, I would introduce him the 5th edition D&D books. He can get together with his friends, learn how to be a DM, and have a whole lot more fun, in my ever-so-humble experience. The books would make a great Christmas present!
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In US I think it's more like this:
Dead Alewives D&D - YouTube
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Now that's just sad 
If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't. — Lyall Watson
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> go north
You stand in front of a dense jungle, the air is filled with the sounds of birds. There is a spooky-looking house to the east.
> go east
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> Run away. Run away fast.
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F-ES Sitecore wrote: > go north
You stand in front of a dense jungle, the air is filled with the sounds of birds. There is a spooky-looking house to the east.
> go east
Aaah, Adventure, 1979 vintage! (That is when I got to know it)
I still have vivid memories of crawling around in a maze of twisting little passages, all alike. Discovering that glittering treasure chest. The hairy little dwarfs throwing their stone axes at me. And that deep, resounding voice declaring that "Unfortunately, you are now dead. I can resurrect you, but it will cost you a hunded points" ... No later game has had graphics and sound effects even remotely similar to this one.
---
In 1979, inspired by Adventure, our university lecturer tried to manage 25 Computer Science students, organized as five teams, in a joint effort to develop a game engine, as The Great Project of our second year as Comp.Sci students. We learned a lot about how coordination of different task forces may fail  , but also how difficult it is to make a truly "new" game. Just replacing the treasures with other kinds of treasures, and making the path turn left instead of right, doesn't make a new and exciting game. We gravely underestimated the required complexity of such an engine, to make it suitable for creating varied games.
Those who provide such game engines today of course know very well about the (required) complexity and richness, lying not primarily in the implementation but in the functions provided to the game developer. Until you truly master a complex set of offerings (and that might take years, even as a full time worker on it), it is difficult going much beyond replacing treasures with new ones, and changing the direction of paths. Or something else at a similar level.
What I try to get through: A kid may easily become very frustrated over how little he manages to make. His dream was to paint the new Mona Lisa, and all he makes is a simple children's drawing... It really IS difficult making a good game, regardless of tools!
---
When I was a dad, we chose other tools (well, game engines were not available then): For our first "books" (at age 7-8), we developed the story together, as a bedtime activity: I wrote down the new chapters as we made them up, and the next days we went through it making adjustments and edits. When she was ten, she wrote some wonderful stories on her own, and at fourteen her stories impressed even adults. (Unforunately, she never wanted to make a career as a writer.)
The (mental) cost of making a text story is a lot less than learning to master a game engine. You have much more freedom, not limited by a tool. The only tool required is simple: A text processor. The chance of success at a medium level comes much earlier and is much greater.
So if it is at all possible to maneuver the kid into devloping an enitre story in text form, based on his idea for a game, that could be an immediate step that could lead to a great feeling of success for several years - maybe with the pronounced goal to later develop it into a game. But as a ground work, make exciting, well developed stories in text form.
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I suggest starting out with GameMaker:
GameMaker | YoYo Games[^]
I checked it out years ago, it has a free trial and is only $99 for a dev license if you decide you want to continue dev after trial.
If your son becomes an amazing game maker then for $299 you can get the advanced and publish games on XBox and PS4 which would be very cool.
Check it out. GameMaker is a nicer,gentler intro to game dev.
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An old article I had read that seemed interesting is this[^].
As mentioned by others earlier, I agree Unity 3D could be a good game engine to start... but as a 9 year old, I'm not sure if your child would have the patience to learn the kind of programming required. I guess with your help it could be fun.
I am a game programmer and I can tell you it might be a lot of fun for you as well if you try and help your kid learn game development.
If you want to get started a little quickly here are a couple of sites that give you free 3D model and animation downloads. Download FBX format since it can be directly imported into unity:
Mixamo[^] - I have tried this for my learning and it is very good.
Fbx 3D Models - Free 3D Fbx download[^] - Some of the models are nice, but mostly quite un-optimized.
Based on what you posted it seems your kid is writing a story, more in the domains of game design.
Again, as someone mentioned above, game development involves a lot of domains, like Design, Programming, Computer Art (2D, and 3D), Concept art (sketching).
Gamasutra[^] is a nice site with a lot of generic game development articles. Some might be a little dated... especially programming related articles but a lot of concepts are still valid.
Specific links:
Design:
Gamasutra - The 13 Basic Principles of Gameplay Design[^]. I had liked the points discussed here when I had read it.
So, You Wanna Be a Game Designer?[^]. Found this from a google search just now... The author makes some very practical and important points.
Art:
Like I mentioned game development can involve both the fine arts and (necessarily ) computer art.
3D art is made using mostly 3DS Max[^] or Maya[^].
A free option is Blender 3D[^]. This comes with it's own game engine, but I have never used the game engine.
All of these are quite complicated and not sure if a 9 year old will have the patience.
Programming: https://www.codeproject.com
"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something."
-Ornette Coleman
"Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently."
-Anon.
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I think GameMaker is a good suggestion. Other than that, have you looked at RPG Maker? Sure, it's a lot more restricted than GameMaker, let alone Unity or Unreal, but it's also a lot easier to handle for a kid, I think, and it requires very little in the way of actually programming. It also has a lot of built-in assets that can be used to make a game.
I have fond memories of messing around with it when I was younger. Back then, there was a pretty big community, which also provided free spritesheets, music and other assets - don't know how it is these days.
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I'll take a look at it. Thanks.
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If you get him started on GameMaker one of the best things you can do for him is to give him the link to
Tom Francis's Youtube Channel
He has made some excellent games using GameMaker and is very good at describing how to do it.
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I was just about to suggest this
I followed the making of Gunpoint from the start when I'd heard about this videogame reviewer, with zero development abilities, who was going to have a go at making his own videogame using GameMaker.
Gunpoint's a really good, clever game - well worth spending a few pennies on.
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Spoon Of Doom wrote: I have fond memories of messing around with it when I was younger. Back then, there was a pretty big community, which also provided free spritesheets, music and other assets - don't know how it is these days.
Man, I think that was what got me into programing at all. I remember spending hours at a time on the brazilian/portuguese forums discussing and learning map making and some light events/scripting. The lengths I would go to make the real time battle system (not ABS, the one that was based on events on a map) do what I wanted...
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I would try Construct 2 (dont get Construct 3 unless you want to pay a subscription!), it has a free version (very limited), and you dont "need" to know programming. It all drag and drop to do the logic.
Here is the website:
https://www.scirra.com/construct2
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GenJerDan wrote: All of that adventure to save mom
From being possessed by a demon
They never want to save father.
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I think that started in Dune. "For the Father, nothing."
(The quote may not be exact, but the sense of it is.)
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Okay, I will admit I don't write games, and like you, I have ZERO interest in doing so.
But at 9 years old, I would hope to drive the creative process with your kid.
Help them organize the game, and learn successive refinement.
Help them Identify the colors/graphics (find out if they have talents here), or
they can search the internet and get "Like this, but bigger... Like this, but scarier" examples.
Take the time to teach about organizing, thinking, and problem solving. Writing the script.
Finding similar games, with similar modes of play.
Is it to publish, or to learn? Or to express? (Why create the game?).
Is it really a game, or a digital story?
Can we tell the digital story first, using powerpoint, and graphics?
Using Flash? (eek)
==
The challenge is that the TYPICAL 9yr old isn't ready to program, and probably does not want to.
But BEING CREATIVE is something they crave.
Sharing something they make is AWESOME.
Making Mom proud. Being Unique/Popular.
Which are great drivers. But so is having fun, and learning in general.
I (and this is JUST ME, who has a daughter that was published by like 14) had to learn that she wants to write, and not always a BOOK or a NOVEL or something I recognize as a goal. Sometimes it is just an expression of art, that gets you a step closer.
So, like Piano Practice... Help them learn to play the chords they will use in future endeavors. This too may pass. Success is just having had some level of experience until they get bored and move on...
Good for you!
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I'd strongly recommend Phaser.js it's a powerful framework that comes with tons of samples, demos and video tutorials.
It's fast, fun to use and all you need is their library, a recetn version of any browser and a text editor to start using it!.
Let me rephrase that, it's free to learn but if you want to sell your game I don't know if they charge you for that, Ihacen't sell anything. The best part is that after completing their first training tutorial you end up with a very cool game to play with and that sparkles creativity and lights the kids enthusiasm. I thaught my nephew to program with that and we both enjoyed it.
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Your best bet for your child is probably "Game Guru" from The Game Creators in the UK.
The Game Creators
It has a very simply interface when compared to Unity or any of the other major engines and has a lot of flexibility.
Unity & Unreal would very likely be over your child's head in terms of complexity.
Steve Naidamast
Sr. Software Engineer
Black Falcon Software, Inc.
blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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You can do quite a bit with Unreal.
They have a visual scripting language called 'Blueprints' built in, which doesn't sacrifice power for ease of use; so even though he wouldn't be writing an actual language, he'd still be learning key programming concepts.
If he ever got far with it, it maintains features of C++ all in Blueprint, so you can inherit/extend classes without ever really touching code.
It can get tricky with things like character AI, but they have some basic functions built in to make it easier. Definitely enough for candycorn cowboys and fire bats.
There's lots of documentation for it, and a lot of video tutorials that he could use to help him along.
Unity is also a good option, but dealing with raw C# and their semi-convoluted component system can be a tricky thing to wrap your head around. That might be jumping a little into the deep end.
There's also 0 help with AI systems (path finding, finite state machines, etc) last i knew, unless you start buying add-ons for it.
Also, fwiw, there's nothing wrong with writing ye olde text adventure in Basic
... Or C# if you care to be current about it.
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No one has mentioned MakeCode[^] Combines Minecraft and Scratch-like visual coding and the ability to view/modify the source as well.
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Cocos2d-x is good for C++ multi-platform games. It's not for a novice though. The strength is the same code runs on almost all device platforms. While Unity is very popular, it is not free to use like Cocos2d-x. Cocos2d-x is a great 2D game engine to work with and it's well maintained. If you are a single programmer, who has no money, but does have some real world programming experience, it is the best option around.
If you have a little money and no programming experience, GameSalad and BuildBox are drag and drop game designers. The support multiple platforms also.
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PRG Maker MV is probably what your son wants:
www.rpgmakerweb.com
This is a 30 day demo.
I just tried it...drag and drop. Looks easy enough.
I'm guessing he just wants to make a game - the creative part - not really interested in coding.
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I was looking at that last night. For under $100, yeah, I can do that. And it looks like it would suit what he really wants at the moment.
But we're pissed off at him right now. He ate a whole bag of M&Ms yesterday afternoon, after being told not to even open the bag.
So I'll make him wait a little bit. 
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