Comment by Benjamin_Dobell

Comment by Benjamin_Dobell 5 days ago

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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 crafts.

For younger kids I've modified Overcooked 2, a traditionally co-op game. I've replaced the second player with a visual scripting platform that allows kids to code their way through levels — worth noting I haven't removed co-op, there's still room for 2 other players:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ackD3G_D2Hc

For older kids I've been making contributions to GodotJS, which allows you to build games in Godot using TypeScript rather than GDScript. GDScript is pretty nice, but I want to be able to teach kids skills that are more directly transferable to different domains e.g. web development:

https://github.com/godotjs/GodotJS/pull/65

I used to be Head of Engineering at Ender, where we ran custom Minecraft servers for kids: 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/. During peak COVID I also ran a social emotion development book subscription service with my wife, a primary school teacher.

homarp 5 days ago

>I want to be able to teach kids skills that are more directly transferable to different domains

would the ability to pick up a new language/syntax be also a skill worth learning?

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  • Benjamin_Dobell 5 days ago

    Yes, absolutely, but we're talking about teenagers. I've no doubt they're capable of learning multiple languages. But teenagers are most constrained by the limited time they have available for extra curricular activities. If I was to teach interested kids a second language (and I'd like to), then it would probably be lower level so kids can learn about memory management etc.

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    • homarp 5 days ago

      I guess I did not explain myself well. the way I understand what you are saying is let's not teach them gdscript but TS instead. the rationale is, so they can do webdev also.

      but my impression of the godot community is a lot of gdscript,some C#. So they would not easily be growing in the godot community and make games.

      as for teenagers learning new languages, if i remember my teens, 200 years ago, learning new computer things was a thrill, not a chore.

      and like I said earlier, I see the habit of picking up a new language a wonderful skill.

      hope it is clearer. good luck with your quest of teaching kids to make their own games with godot.

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