scratch-www VS stencyl-engine

and https://codecombat.com, which has been around for a while now.

I think this paradigm (navigating a character using "move" function invocations) is good but kind of exhausts its usefulness after a while. I question whether my daughter learns coding this way or just is playing a turn based top down platformer. The most code like thing is when you use 'loops' to have characters repeat sequences of moves. I think when kids grok these things these apps become just types of glofiried education flavoured video games. There are a lot of things in kodable for instance that I feel are just basic web games with coding terms slapped on it.

https://scratch.mit.edu/ is more like 'programming' imo, even at the level of the objective -- having a blank canvas to create something. It seems a little advanced for my kids right now though.

+1 Scratch! My son started with it, then expanded into Roblox/Lua.

Children can download other people's games and experiment there. Scratch also has pre-made art, sounds, music.

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Scratch.mit.edu is a highly-recommended place to start [1] https://scratch.mit.edu/

> Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children and a coding language with a simple visual interface that allows young people to create digital stories, games, and animations. Scratch is designed, developed, and moderated by the Scratch Foundation, a nonprofit organization. [2]

1: https://scratch.mit.edu/

https://scratch.mit.edu/ (Scratch version 2)

Someone who uses scratch.mit.edu (like me)

Now that I think of it, I did start game development on scratch before going right into java (because of minecraft).

I'm looking for the best systems to help a 4/5 year old get the basics of programming. My daughter has shown interest in what I do, and loves puzzles and building things. Looking for something visual and fun that can start her down the path of logic and creating with computers.

I have a passing familiarity with Scratch [1], which I'm now looking into more, but am hoping others can share their knowledge and experience in this area.

[1] https://scratch.mit.edu/

as for my 2D engine I am using Stencyl as it has a way to use blocks for programming and you could write out the code if you wanted to, it can create games that can be put in market places as well.

Stencyl is a really easy game engine to use. https://www.stencyl.com/ you can probably bang out a few quick games with it as you follow their tutorials.

Try Stencyl .

He used Stencyl

Stencyl! Build on Scratch but way more capable.

For an easy start in game developing, I would suggest to try GDevelop or Stencyl. Both are an easy option to start from 0. Once you get a grasp on programming logic and how to do some basic things, you can move to other engines if you want to do things in 3D.

Never heard of stencil.. but I have heard of stencyl. Maybe it is a variation of it?

If you're not the sociable type (you'll have to work on that because game making is first and foremost team work, but I understand it might be hard if you feel like you're not skilled enough), a lot of solutions exist to easily make your own games on your own, like Stencyl, or Adventure Game Studio. They'll barely require any technical knowledge, but if you really want to focus on writing, then you can even go with text-only tools such as Twine or Ink/Inky.