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I'm working on tooling to turn kids from consumers into creators. I'm focusing on game development initially, but have plans for video production and hands on c
by Benjamin_Dobell 1y ago
I'm working on tooling to turn kids from consumers into creators. I'm focusing on game development initially, but have plans for video production and hands on crafts.
For older kids I've been making it easier to write games in Godot using TypeScript:
https://breaka.club/blog/godots-most-powerful-scripting-language https://breaka.club/blog/godots-most-powerful-scripting-lang...
I'm building tooling using this technology which allows kids to create their own games, this is itself presented as a game kids can play through. Basically, imagine if Roblox actually delivered on its promises to kids.
Most of what we're building will be open sourced, so that older kids / young adults will be able export their projects and share their creations stand-alone.
Of course, telling kids they can create their own game is only relevant is kids want to do that. We're not locked into one way of thinking. We've also modified Overcooked 2, a traditionally co-op game and introduced a visual scripting platform which allows kids to code their way through levels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ackD3G_D2Hc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ackD3G_D2Hc
Overcooked 2 won't be the only game for which we do this. Introducing coding to existing games is a fun way to teach kids to code, without yet burdening kids with too much creative freedom. Kids already want to play these games, so this approach allows us to bring educational tooling to kids rather than vice versa.
I used to be Head of Engineering at Ender, where we ran custom Minecraft servers for kids: https://joinender.com/ https://joinender.com/ and prior to that I was Head of Engineering at Prequel / Beta Camp, where we ran courses that helped teenagers learn about entrepreneurship: https://www.beta.camp/ https://www.beta.camp/. During peak COVID I also ran a social emotion development book subscription service with my wife, a primary school teacher.
- bhu1st 1y agoI have interest in this space, but as you wrote the software will be only useful if kids want to create games and there aren't many kids (I think) who want to create their own game. Kids mostly want to play for fun. My kids play Roblox for pure entertainment, but I think the experience can be improved. Making a platform like Roblox that's fun to play and has ability to extend (the learning and game creation) it easily would be great. Atmosphere was great but it vanished.