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I have a just-turned-nine daughter who came up with an awesome video game idea a couple of years ago - she is also a Girl Scout. She'll be so excited to hear sh

I have a just-turned-nine daughter who came up with an awesome video game idea a couple of years ago - she is also a Girl Scout. She'll be so excited to hear she can get a badge for it. Of course now we just have to figure out how to build the thing! She's learning to code at the moment so anything that gives her more motivation to head to the Hacker Dojo with Daddy and her Chromebook and get her geek on is good news in my book. Edit: from the video it looks like it is a bit restricted, but it's a starting point. Maybe if she builds one of these simple games and gets her badge it will encourage her to learn the more in-depth skills needed to really make the one she wants to create. Still a great idea. Edit: hmmm trying it now with her and I notice that the first stuff is free but then you have to pay to get the full product. I hope this isn't another bloody affiliate revenue thing by the Girl Scouts - these effectively pay-for-badges annoy me. I already have severe issues with the while Girl Scouts cookies thing where they get only 15% commissions on a product that is twice as expensive as equivalent competing product and wouldn't sell at all if it wasn't for this free labor child workforce and the power of cute combined with guilt.

tomjen3 14y ago
How can you even develop software with a chromebook? I though those were browsing/google docs only.
- richardjordan 14y ago
  No it's a great tool for learning without going to the fully fledged laptop. She's able to work through codecademy training courses, tools like ShiftEdit and Cloud9 IDE are the next step. Tons of tools out there now for using a chrome book - maybe not for a power developer but for a beginner, particularly one who I don't want to trust with an expensive MacBook just yet, it's good enough to begin with.
  - gngeal 14y ago
    "maybe not for a power developer" I'd expect an actual "power developer" to be able to cope with any kind of environment! :-) A proper hacker should be able to make a Chromebook do virtually anything.
- freehunter 14y ago
  There's a developer mode to gain access to a shell, and it's also possible to use SSH or an online IDE.
  - richardjordan 14y ago
    Right. Ssh into a VPS and use vim is another option.
    - alexkj 14y ago
      I am learning vim using vim adventures.
      - richardjordan 14y ago
        and now she's signed up for HN
        dpritchett 14y ago
        Nitrous.io has a cloud IDE and built-in ubuntu server terminals with vim. If you tell them the 9 year old daughter story they'll probably let you skip the line.
        richardjordan 14y ago
        That's cool - need to check that out - will take a look today. Thanks for the tip.
        solistice 14y ago
        Remember the age poll and the <10 option?
- Xhysa 14y ago
  http://beta.scratch.mit.edu/ http://beta.scratch.mit.edu/
  - richardjordan 14y ago
    Don't seem able to create a new account and sign in to the beta any more. Says only accounts prior to 1/26 :-( Edit: Ah, luckily I set up an account I can rescue with an old email so she can use that, if she likes scratch, which I've still not really looked at yet.
    - dpritchett 14y ago
      I got a Scratch teaching comic book from No Starch for under $15 on Amazon. It's a bit much for my five year old but your daughter might like it!
      - richardjordan 14y ago
        Can you ping me a link - my username at outlook.com if you're worried about posting here and getting down voted :-)
        dpritchett 14y ago
        Sure, here's a rot13ed non-affiliate link. uggc://jjj.nznmba.pbz/Fhcre-Fpengpu-Cebtenzzvat-Nqiragher-Cebtenz/qc/1593274092
    - solistice 14y ago
      You guys are amazing. When I was 10, my father gave me a copy of K&R and told me "read that"
- krmboya 14y ago
  I don't have a chromebook, but I suppose one can develop browser apps/games running on the canvas? Recently I started re-doing in HTML5 a game I initially was doing with C/SDL, and I am much more productive now. You only need an editor and your game assets and you're good to go (for a simple game). Unless, of course, Chromebooks are much more limiting than I imagine.
6ren 14y ago
You can install ubuntu on a chromebook, I believe.
simcop2387 14y ago
For her game, take a look at the Love framework. Lua is a fairly easy to learn language, and the framework is easy to use from what I've heard. [1] https://love2d.org/ https://love2d.org/
- Scaevolus 14y ago
  The library names are unnecessarily sexual -- "Hardon Collider", "AnAL", "LUBE", "Polygamy"...
  - richardjordan 14y ago
    That's disappointing. Thanks for the heads up. I never understand quite why some in the programming community don't appreciate how exclusionary their childish or sexist/sexually inappropriate behavior is.
    - rmrfrmrf 14y ago
      "It's just a joke." "Why should I have to censor myself for anyone?" "It's a free country." "I'm so tired of this politically correct society we live in." "I'm a woman and I love dick jokes!" And so on.
      - benjamincburns 14y ago
        Most videogames are written by young guys with lots of programming experience, but little marketing experience. I'd guess they often try to use the code in these sorts of things to market to what they think is their intended audience. And I bet to some degree it works: "Heh - it's called Hardon Collider - I should show my friends how funny this is!" I'd wager that they think the group of people who will find this funny and share it is larger than the group of people who will find this obnoxious and avoid it. "And who cares about those uptight assholes, anyway?" In the end it becomes a very sad, tight feedback loop for these kinds of weird sexism.
    - pervycreeper 14y ago

tomjen3 14y ago

How can you even develop software with a chromebook? I though those were browsing/google docs only.

richardjordan 14y ago
No it's a great tool for learning without going to the fully fledged laptop. She's able to work through codecademy training courses, tools like ShiftEdit and Cloud9 IDE are the next step. Tons of tools out there now for using a chrome book - maybe not for a power developer but for a beginner, particularly one who I don't want to trust with an expensive MacBook just yet, it's good enough to begin with.
- gngeal 14y ago
  "maybe not for a power developer" I'd expect an actual "power developer" to be able to cope with any kind of environment! :-) A proper hacker should be able to make a Chromebook do virtually anything.
freehunter 14y ago
There's a developer mode to gain access to a shell, and it's also possible to use SSH or an online IDE.
- richardjordan 14y ago
  Right. Ssh into a VPS and use vim is another option.
  - alexkj 14y ago
    I am learning vim using vim adventures.
    - richardjordan 14y ago
      and now she's signed up for HN
      - dpritchett 14y ago
        Nitrous.io has a cloud IDE and built-in ubuntu server terminals with vim. If you tell them the 9 year old daughter story they'll probably let you skip the line.
        richardjordan 14y ago
        That's cool - need to check that out - will take a look today. Thanks for the tip.
      - solistice 14y ago
        Remember the age poll and the <10 option?
Xhysa 14y ago
http://beta.scratch.mit.edu/ http://beta.scratch.mit.edu/
- richardjordan 14y ago
  Don't seem able to create a new account and sign in to the beta any more. Says only accounts prior to 1/26 :-( Edit: Ah, luckily I set up an account I can rescue with an old email so she can use that, if she likes scratch, which I've still not really looked at yet.
  - dpritchett 14y ago
    I got a Scratch teaching comic book from No Starch for under $15 on Amazon. It's a bit much for my five year old but your daughter might like it!
    - richardjordan 14y ago
      Can you ping me a link - my username at outlook.com if you're worried about posting here and getting down voted :-)
      - dpritchett 14y ago
        Sure, here's a rot13ed non-affiliate link. uggc://jjj.nznmba.pbz/Fhcre-Fpengpu-Cebtenzzvat-Nqiragher-Cebtenz/qc/1593274092
  - solistice 14y ago
    You guys are amazing. When I was 10, my father gave me a copy of K&R and told me "read that"
krmboya 14y ago
I don't have a chromebook, but I suppose one can develop browser apps/games running on the canvas? Recently I started re-doing in HTML5 a game I initially was doing with C/SDL, and I am much more productive now. You only need an editor and your game assets and you're good to go (for a simple game). Unless, of course, Chromebooks are much more limiting than I imagine.

6ren 14y ago

You can install ubuntu on a chromebook, I believe.

simcop2387 14y ago

For her game, take a look at the Love framework. Lua is a fairly easy to learn language, and the framework is easy to use from what I've heard. [1] https://love2d.org/ https://love2d.org/

Scaevolus 14y ago
The library names are unnecessarily sexual -- "Hardon Collider", "AnAL", "LUBE", "Polygamy"...
- richardjordan 14y ago
  That's disappointing. Thanks for the heads up. I never understand quite why some in the programming community don't appreciate how exclusionary their childish or sexist/sexually inappropriate behavior is.
  - rmrfrmrf 14y ago
    "It's just a joke." "Why should I have to censor myself for anyone?" "It's a free country." "I'm so tired of this politically correct society we live in." "I'm a woman and I love dick jokes!" And so on.
    - benjamincburns 14y ago
      Most videogames are written by young guys with lots of programming experience, but little marketing experience. I'd guess they often try to use the code in these sorts of things to market to what they think is their intended audience. And I bet to some degree it works: "Heh - it's called Hardon Collider - I should show my friends how funny this is!" I'd wager that they think the group of people who will find this funny and share it is larger than the group of people who will find this obnoxious and avoid it. "And who cares about those uptight assholes, anyway?" In the end it becomes a very sad, tight feedback loop for these kinds of weird sexism.
  - pervycreeper 14y ago