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Programming book suggestions for my 11 Year old nephew

ShellbackShellback Registered User regular
in Help / Advice Forum
Hello all,

My 11 year old nephew is seriously into video games. He likes to "design" them on paper but would like to learn how to program them into actual games. I've been trying to find him a book or website that would help him learn how but I'm not sure what would be best for someone that young. He's not stupid or anything but I don't want to overwhelm him either. Does anyone have a good suggestion for a beginner's guide to making games? Thanks in advance.

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    CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    I don't know of any books, but with a kid that already likes computers he might do better with software anyway. There's https://www.codecademy.com/ to learn the basics of programming and there's also the free software http://www.alice.org which is probably even better as it's designed with youngsters in mind specifically.

    "If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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    admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Here are three possibilities, in order from least to most ambitious:

    Scratch from MIT has been around for a while. Most kid-oriented, free.

    Tynker was Kickstarted recently. Similar approach to Scratch but with more complexity and therefore more potential power. $6/month.

    Finally, there's Game Maker which is straight-up a tool for creating real publishable games.

    twitter, github
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    DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    Codeacademy is great, but for a kid who wants to make video games I might suggest dipping his toe in via codecombat.

    Basically it's an rpg where you play using basic scripting. It's not as directly real world coding as other suggestions, but it's FUN and a good gateway.

    What is this I don't even.
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    TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    I've never heard of Codecombat, I'll have to check it out. Sounds cool. In a similar vein there's games like LightBot or SpaceChem which are basically programming puzzle games.
    As far as actual programming, Python is usually good starter language, but I don't know any books geared towards kids offhand.

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    MaguanoMaguano Registered User regular
    learn to program with minecraft?

    steam:maguano2
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    ShadowhopeShadowhope Baa. Registered User regular

    K&R!

    ...yelled the old man at the cloud.

    Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
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    Zilla360Zilla360 21st Century. |She/Her| Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered User regular
    edited February 2016
    The poetry of programming, by Linda Liukas.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jRREn6ifEQ

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250065003

    Zilla360 on
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    SanderJKSanderJK Crocodylus Pontifex Sinterklasicus Madrid, 3000 ADRegistered User regular
    Tofystedeth wrote: »
    I've never heard of Codecombat, I'll have to check it out. Sounds cool. In a similar vein there's games like LightBot or SpaceChem which are basically programming puzzle games.
    As far as actual programming, Python is usually good starter language, but I don't know any books geared towards kids offhand.

    I just took a stab at Codecombat because I heard praise about it before from an educator (On the Match3 Podcast), and it's pretty straightforward, and free to try the basic path (It costs $10/month to play the optional levels).
    You have to program a hero walking around a dungeon efficiently.

    Steam: SanderJK Origin: SanderJK
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    RoeRoe Always to the East Registered User regular
    edited February 2016
    Here's a website for free programming lessons. Your nephew should start learning the basics, jumping straight into complex programming would probably be a mistake(only time I did was in college).

    Learn HTML or JavaScript before anything else, it's easy to learn and your nephew will be able to make his own web pages.

    Roe on
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    DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    edited February 2016
    SanderJK wrote: »
    Tofystedeth wrote: »
    I've never heard of Codecombat, I'll have to check it out. Sounds cool. In a similar vein there's games like LightBot or SpaceChem which are basically programming puzzle games.
    As far as actual programming, Python is usually good starter language, but I don't know any books geared towards kids offhand.

    I just took a stab at Codecombat because I heard praise about it before from an educator (On the Match3 Podcast), and it's pretty straightforward, and free to try the basic path (It costs $10/month to play the optional levels).
    You have to program a hero walking around a dungeon efficiently.

    I played it while on a business trip for lack of entertainment, using the python version. I never really missed any paid options. It was pretty great for learning syntax and core concepts like looping, etc

    Darkewolfe on
    What is this I don't even.
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    japanjapan Registered User regular
    The Usborne introductory programming books were legendary back in the 80s, there's a whole generation of gaming industry folk in the UK that grew up with them. The original books are way out of date, but they've recently published a new book focussing on Scratch for kids:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coding-Beginners-Scratch-Jonathan-Melmoth/dp/1409599353/

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    ShellbackShellback Registered User regular
    These are some great resources. Starting at the basics would probably be good for him but I want to give him some options and I know eff all about programming and game design. I think I'll end up going through this with him just so he has someone to learn with. My brother is the construction working hunter and I'm the geeky artist. His kid ended up more like me so they come to me for this kinda thing. Thanks for your help everyone. I really appreciate the help!

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