Kid wants to build an app... how?
October 14, 2018 6:52 AM Subscribe
My 10-year-old wants to build her dad a racing game app for Christmas. What is the best way to do this?
She doesn’t want to long-hand code, if possible.
She wants to make it personalized to him. This would not be a commercial venture.
Can you recommend an app building tool or something else that can enable her goal?
Thanks!
Seconding Scratch. Avoid the BETA version you can opt in to for now - my students have had problems saving.
posted by chr at 7:02 AM on October 14, 2018
posted by chr at 7:02 AM on October 14, 2018
Response by poster: She says she hates Scratch... I think that comes from a lack of patience
posted by FergieBelle at 7:12 AM on October 14, 2018
posted by FergieBelle at 7:12 AM on October 14, 2018
Scratch is my first thought too. It might also be possible to do this in Roblox. Many games also have the ability to set up a custom racetrack. No Man's Sky has a whole system for this, for instance. You could probably do something in Minecraft but driving physics is not that game's strong suit.
posted by Nelson at 7:41 AM on October 14, 2018
posted by Nelson at 7:41 AM on October 14, 2018
There are javascript examples of racing games out there. If she wants to download the code and replace the internal images, or some of the behaviors, she could start there and tinker things out.
https://codeincomplete.com/games/racer/v4-final/
posted by nickggully at 7:58 AM on October 14, 2018
https://codeincomplete.com/games/racer/v4-final/
posted by nickggully at 7:58 AM on October 14, 2018
RPG Maker
Really easy, but may not be an aesthetic match for her vision. Some code is needed to make things work though, but you don't generally have to write code by hand unless you want to. Most of the code is added by clicking on various options. I've done game dev badge workshops for Girl Scout troops about her age, and they loved RPG Maker. It's also not mobile, if that's a concern.
Game Maker Studio
It's more full-featured than it used to be, and thus might require a little more coding, but still has a drag-and-drop interface that might work to get most of what she wants done. Bonus is it can be multi-platform, and there's lots of help out there.
MIT's App Inventor is still a thing. Android only, I believe.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 8:06 AM on October 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Really easy, but may not be an aesthetic match for her vision. Some code is needed to make things work though, but you don't generally have to write code by hand unless you want to. Most of the code is added by clicking on various options. I've done game dev badge workshops for Girl Scout troops about her age, and they loved RPG Maker. It's also not mobile, if that's a concern.
Game Maker Studio
It's more full-featured than it used to be, and thus might require a little more coding, but still has a drag-and-drop interface that might work to get most of what she wants done. Bonus is it can be multi-platform, and there's lots of help out there.
MIT's App Inventor is still a thing. Android only, I believe.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 8:06 AM on October 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
You could try building a car and/or track for the open-source Speed Dreams game. This might be a bit on the advanced side still, but it at least should avoid having to do much in the way of programming, from what I can tell.
(Disclaimer, not super familiar with the game, but thought I'd offer a suggestion that approaches the problem from a different angle.)
posted by Aleyn at 2:54 PM on October 14, 2018
(Disclaimer, not super familiar with the game, but thought I'd offer a suggestion that approaches the problem from a different angle.)
posted by Aleyn at 2:54 PM on October 14, 2018
Blockly is google's version of scratch. Its also beginner friendly, and might be worth a try if it addresses some specific element of scratch she didn't like.
If she wants more control then scratch provides, Python is often a good language for getting started, and there is a well documented platform for making games called pygame. There are a good number of tutorials around for getting started, and you can probably find some examples of making a racing game. Python and pygame are going to be more complicated then scratch, but give her more control as well.
posted by nalyd at 4:13 PM on October 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
If she wants more control then scratch provides, Python is often a good language for getting started, and there is a well documented platform for making games called pygame. There are a good number of tutorials around for getting started, and you can probably find some examples of making a racing game. Python and pygame are going to be more complicated then scratch, but give her more control as well.
posted by nalyd at 4:13 PM on October 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
My 10 & 12 yo have been working with tynker lately. Here's a build an app guide. I haven't used it myself and frankly have no idea how they are doing what they are doing but games seem to be coming out.
posted by Cuke at 6:42 PM on October 14, 2018
posted by Cuke at 6:42 PM on October 14, 2018
There's also PyGameZero that wraps pygame to make it require less "long-handing" code. My son enjoyed this book which used it.
posted by Poldo at 9:22 AM on October 15, 2018
posted by Poldo at 9:22 AM on October 15, 2018
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posted by Faintdreams at 6:55 AM on October 14, 2018 [5 favorites]