31
Getting kids (6-10) started witg programming and game dev (programming.dev)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/gamedev@programming.dev
39 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
[–] 3 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I am not too deep into the topic but I'd suggest like any game engine over a framework like love2d. Isnt godot like only dependant on coding for optimization (fact check me on this one)? If you want to stick with lua there are also a few options for game engines

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    In what sense do you mean Godot only needs code for optimization? How do you think it... becomes a game? Especially a particular game versus any other?

    Maybe you're using a different definition of coding though? Like maybe GDScript is scripting, and it's only coding if it's from the coding region of C#?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    I haven't used godot, so I only have some surface knowledge of it. One thing being that there are nodes, and that they are quite a powerful tool. Maybe these nodes can store some functions, in which case you only need to be able to write a function, but the structure and overall concept are not reliant on code (MAYBE, I do not know).

    but op was mentioning love2d, which I have tried and it is only a framework based on the lua language. if you want to create an object, you have to code it. Which is why I refered op to an actual game engine which implements features to reduce the complexity of coding, being able to draw an object or node or whatever and give it function x as a property is way easier than using a framework.

    Godot only needing code for optimization is just oversimplefied and not actually me knowing the engine. As far as I know the nodes lack performance compared to optimized code for the same task

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Godot's nodes do lots of stuff, but also nothing. They're very modular, and from their tree structure and scene structure you can get away with not having to do a bunch of instantiation, which is nice. But they still only provide pieces of functionality, like animating some properties or detecting collisions, etc.

    They're handy, but they don't contain any game logic in them, they're just functionality. If you want to make a game, then you need to hook the collision detector to a function in the script for your node, and the function in the script needs to trigger a particular animation, etc.

    The scripting language is similar to Python but different.

    I like Godot, I think it's a great visual editor for the visual stuff, but there's definitely still programming in there. But it's typically gentle programming, as much as it can be, with good editor integration and pretty good error messages and debugging, etc., in my experience.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent