My Child Wants to Make a Video Game: Where to Start?

Most kids loving playing video games, and some of them will even go on to express an interesting in making a game themselves. This could result in your child becoming a professional video game designer; which a great career to have!

But many parents don’t know the first place to start when their child tells them they want to make a video game. From the outside looking in, video game design can appear to be a highly technical and specialist world, which possibly has lots of barriers to entry.

Whilst video game design is certainly technical, there are now apps, tools, and even courses that make it easier than ever for kids to develop their own creations.

So, if your child does want to make a video game and you don’t know where to start, here’s a quick introduction.

We’ll start off with some games they can play which involve elements of customisation, then some games kids can create themselves, plus some more advanced tools. These offer a great roadmap for your child to become a video game designer.

But before you get to our recommendations, one of the best ways you can get your child introduced to video game design is one of the FunTech courses. Running over the summer, there are different game design camps where your child can learn to make their own video game.

How to become a game developer as a kid?

1. How kids can edit existing video games

Many kids first get introduced to video game design by editing existing games they play. There are plenty of games on the market that let young kids edit and mod to develop their own creations.

Some of the games that introduce video game design at its most basic level include the following (with our age recommendations):

• Toca Builders (age 4+): This game offers a sandbox-style environment where children can build their own worlds. It’s often spoken of as a simpler introduction to Minecraft for younger kids.
• Super Mario Maker: (age 6+): Your child can insert their own blocks, items, and enemies from the Mario world to create their own side-scrolling Super Mario courses.
• Minecraft (age 7+): This is the most famous game on the planet that lets kids create and develop their own environments. More advanced users can even develop their own modifications to the game.

2. How kids can make a simple video game at home 

There are now more apps than ever that let kids make their own video games… and most of them don’t require any advanced coding skills. With a little passion and patience, your child could make a video game using one of the following apps or platforms.

• Roblox: This online multiplayer game and video game creation platform lets children design their own games, as is a great introduction toc coding. They can then share and play other users’ games too.
• Codea: This code editor can be installed on iPad and is lets kids develop ideas for their own games and simulations.
• Gamestar Mechanic: This is an online game and community designed to teach the guiding principles of game design and systems thinking.

3. How kids can make their own video games with more advanced tools

For kids who have started to understand coding and have already mastered elements of video game design, the following tools can take them to the next level. These are more professional applications but are still accessible by children.

• Kodu by Microsoft: This visual programming language is designed to be understood by kids. The visual nature of the coding language lets children quickly design using just their Xbox game controller.
• Game Maker by YoYo: It’s possible to create cross-platform video games using a custom drag-and-drop visual programming language. It can be used to design more advanced games too as kids master more complex elements.

4. Your child can make a video game at a FunTech course

And lastly, the FunTech coding and video game design camps we touched upon earlier. We run a range of age appropriate game development camps over the summer holidays.

With video game design potentially leading on to rewarding career (find out how), we’ve structured our camps to be fun, engaging, but completely practical. At the end of the week, your child will have made their own video game on one of the following courses:

• Scratch Coding (ages 7 to 10)
• Minecraft with Mods (ages 7 to 10)
• Roblox Game Maker (ages 9 to 12)
• Indie Game Builder (ages 9 to 13)
• 3D Game Design (ages 10 to 14)
• Python Coder (ages 10 to 16)
• Java Coder (ages 11 to 16)

How does it work?

Our courses run from 9am to 5pm daily, with busy parents able to drop their children off knowing that they are being taken care of in a fun, safe, and Ofsted registered environment.

We also accept Childcare Vouchers which you can redeem against any of our tech camp courses, and here are just a few more reasons why parents choose FunTech.

• Average of 8 students per tutor.
• Ofsted registered.
• Accept childcare vouchers.
• Running from 9am to 5pm.
• Structured learning.
• Over 24 years of experience.

Get your child started with FunTech

To conclude, if your child wants to make a video game this year, there’s plenty of ways to get them started. We believe that there’s no better way than FunTech. To find out more please do get in touch with us.

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