Animation Program for a 10-year-old

Monolithic_Dome

So my fiancee's 10yr old little brother really looks up to me, seeing as I will actually engage him about things he likes: lego, video games, toys, etc. Anyway, he heard that I've worked on some video-game related stuff in college, and it seems he has the inspiration to "make a video game."

The last time I was over there, he even showed me an adorable 10-year-old version of a design document for a megaman clone: character sketches, story outlines, descriptions of various weapons you could get and what they did, what all the bosses would do. The kid is inspired.

And I feel like it's my obligation as a good brother-in-law to help him realize this dream, as much as is feasible. I think that he'd really get into it if I got him started on some 2D animation, maybe showed him how to do simple looping sprites.

Anyone know a good, simple, preferably free, 2D GIF animator or something that will run on an old-ass computer?

Figgy

TakeONE: http://www.take1.de/

That's all you'll need, and it's definitely useable by a 10 year old.

Very easy to use, very easy to save animations, etc. etc. etc.

The only downside is that it is as old as shit and only supports 256 colours (unless they changed that from when used it 10 years ago.) But, that shouldn't matter for this kid who just wants to mess around.

Jimmy King

Have a look at Scratch. This is the successor to Logo. I had a play with it a few months back before recommending my sister check it out with her kid. It has a neat little drag and drop system for the different programming structure that interlock like a puzzle, some built in sprites that you can animate, etc. For someone with some experience programming it takes maybe a couple of minutes to put together a very simple animated program.

Monolithic_Dome

Don't have time to give them a full-scale run through right now, but both of those look super fun.

Szechuanosaurus

It would be really cool if you had time to sit down with him and actually build the game in Flash. I don't think he'd be able to do it himself, but there are parts he could do (like arting the sprites etc) and it would be a huge motivational boost to see his concepts turned into a working game even if he had to have his brother-in-law help him. Five years from now, he will probably be able to build the sequel himself.

HalberdBlue

If he is smart and motivated enough, he could definitely program a game in Flash himself, given enough time (speaking from personal experience, though I used a much simpler language (BASIC), but was also a couple years younger, so I think Flash could be within reach of a 10 year old).

Gihgehls

Yeah, kids these days have grown up with computers from infancy. You'd be surprised what a 10 year old can do on a computer, especially given some direction. I find that kinds in this age range are far less likely to get frustrated and give up. They can beat their head against a problem for a long long time before fatigue sets in.

Monolithic_Dome

Well, we went over there Friday, and I totally forgot that "his" computer is old old old. We're talking windows 98.

So flash and scratch are right out for the time being, but he's having a great time with takeONE. Great suggestion.

xeviq

I want to play this game when the kid's done.