Learn to Code a Game — Video Game Coding for Kids

1. Learn to Code a Game — Video Game Coding for Kids Almost 70% of all Americans play some sort of video game on a regular basis, and their numbers are growing with each passing year. Compared to them, people who have the skills to develop online games and gaming apps are pitifully low. So, if your kids have any interest in video game coding or they want to learn how to create new games, you should encourage them to pursue their dreams. Your kids not only learn how to code a game, but they will also be preparing themselves for a lucrative career path. But every big journey starts with a small step. In this article, you will learn about the basic steps of video game coding and how your kids can learn coding skills via different programming games and platforms like Minecraft, Scratch Jr, CodeMonkey, Lightbot, Hopscotch, and more. Steps to Code a Video Game Once your kids learn proper programming languages and understand the basics of game development, they can try to apply those coding skills to create a game. They can also use the basics of coding they have learned and apply that knowledge to modify and enjoy already existing games, like Minecraft. Let’s keep this aside for now and see how your kid can use video game coding skills to create his/her own game. Select a Game Type This is the first step, where the kids need to figure out what kind of video games they want to create. The kids need to plan how they want the players to interact with their games, use the coding concepts to think of a general game theme, and the victory and defeat conditions for the players. Add Game Visuals Once the planning part is over, it’s time for the kids to use their knowledge of the basics of coding and start the game development process by adding the visuals. These visuals will determine how the game will look on a screen. In simple words, the kids need to design the playing character, the obstacles, the points system, and the background settings. Enrolling in online courses or tutorials that teachvideo game design to kids can significantly help your youngsters finish this step.

2. Write the Game Logic This is the step where the kids will have to use computer programming fundamentals and knowledge to write the actual gaming logic that will run the game. Since most kids are beginners in game development, they might not need to use large code libraries and write the code for their simple games themselves. Finally, Test the Game Once the kids are done with the earlier steps, it’s time to push the button and test the game. In this step, they need to test every part of their video games, including the characters, point systems, enemies, and victory conditions. It’s great if everything works out fine. However, if there’s any problem, it needs debugging. You can sign up your kids for online video game coding courses for kids, for example, Juni Learning online coding classes, to help them learn how to debug their codes. Games and Apps That Can Help Kids Learn Coding Let’s take a look at a few coding games and platforms that will help your coder kids learn to code. Minecraft Minecraft can even help your kids learn Java and C++ coding while they have fun with the game. Minecraft’s creative version allows its users to modify different game elements and even add custom elements to it. And to modify or create new items, your kids will have to familiarize themselves with Java syntax and programming concepts. You can enroll your kids in Juni Learning’s Minecraftvideo game coding classes to make the whole learning process even smoother. CodeCombat CodeCombat is one of the most popular free coding games that will allow your kids to learn Python and JavaScript coding languages while having a great time. In this fun game, the learner or the computer programming beginners can work their way through the game by coding concepts and applying them in the following steps. Young programmers can learn basic programming concepts like loops, strings, conditionals, and many others to slowly solidify their coding fundamentals. Scratch Scratch was released by MIT Media Lab in 2007, and it has become a super popular platform for kids to learn coding concepts. It is a block-based, drag-and-drop programming language that allows its users to learn coding skills by working on fun projects like creating simple video games, animations, narrations, and more. Scratch allows you to use code blocks to solve multiple coding challenges. Juni Learning offers one- on-one and on-demand programming and video game coding classes on Scratch that will allow your kids to gain the best coding experience. Swift Playgrounds Swift Playgrounds is a widely recognized app that can help your kids learn Swift coding languages by solving various fun coding challenges. This application can be downloaded on iPad and Mac to start learning Swift coding lessons right away. Final Thoughts

3. There will be roughly 3.09 billion people who play video games all over the world in 2022, and more than a hundred million gamers are joining the party every year. It makes game development a huge career opportunity. If your coder kids have an interest in game creation, enroll them in online video game coding classes where they can learn coding and video game creation via working on different programming games and platforms like Scratch, CodeMonkey, Scratch Jr, Lightbot, Hopscotch, etc. Apart from gaining coding experience, your kids will also learn thinking skills like critical thinking and computational thinking and develop their problem-solving skills to a whole new level. Source Url https://medium.com/@junilearning6565/learn-to-code-a-game- video-game-coding-for-kids-ad327a2c448c