Background :

My son hasn’t really showed any interest in computers until now. He’s been spending a lot of time over the last couple of weeks designing some sort of a game (on paper) and now he wants me to help him build it, whatever it is. I don’t want to let him down but I also know how much work that goes into a game (he specifically wants it to be 3D).

I’m a decent developer, although I’ve not done game development professionally I did tons of demos on the 90’s so I feel I know the basics of 3D math but I’m pretty sure he will lose interest if I try to teach him x86 assembler :)

Joke aside, what can I do? This sounds like a great project for us to explore together and hopefully he can grow interest in software design and development.

Are there development kits I can start with (unity?)

How do I keep the project “contained” so he feels that he accomplished something but still feels we developed something close to his vision?

Thank you HN.


There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.

  • averyminya@beehaw.org
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    6 months ago

    I somewhat side with the person saying the kid may not entirely want to learn to code but make a game with the parent. I remember those days, the idea of using a computer to make something was beyond me but I made plenty of games on paper.

    If the type of game fits, and I think now if the interest is truly in playing the game you make and having it come to fruition, I would scale it down as much as possible, make simple assets, then plot it out in tabletop simulator before making it an actual physical board game.