https://www.renpy.org/

This does pretty much what you have described. It supports scenes, image maps for point and click, dialogues and is low code.

If you don't mind doing choose your own adventure style stories, I'd recommend Twine. It's a low-to-no code way to write branching stories, and you can add variables and conditional branching if you want to add a little bit of code. It creates a playable website of your story when it compiles.

I do a lot of heavy coding but I still play around with Twine sometimes because it's fun. I also sometimes prototype the branching dialogue and/or story in my games using that as a tool as well, because I don't have to code anything.

https://twinery.org/

There's also a subreddit for discussing twine games: https://www.reddit.com/r/twinegames/

A couple examples of how far you can take the engine: https://pseudavid.itch.io/the-master-of-the-land

And this one is super addicting. I played it 12 times in a row after trying it: https://johnayliff.itch.io/seedship

I remember a few post of games made by children in Scratch https://scratch.mit.edu/

For example:

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23892698

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26050913

(My daughter tried to use Scratch, but it's too difficult to cut&paste and move blocks of code, she preferred a text based programming language, so YMMV.)

Roblox studio. My son is a sound designer for some of the top games there. He's also learning programming in Lua for Roblox platform.

It is a small community of mostly kids aged 15-25 as far as I can tell. It doesn't seem like any professional adult game developers are part of the community (I got an inside view when I took my son to RDC this year).

The top game developers are making millions of dollars per year (they're paid in Robux and converted to USD).

In short, thriving ecosystem with lots of kids having fun doing creative work including creating games, writing code, designing graphics, designing sound effects.

Gamemaker if you want no code. It's free if you're not planning to release games commercially. You can add code later if you want custom behaviors that gamemaker doesn't include out of the box. 2D only.

Godot if you want coding. Coding is required but it uses gdscript which is a python inspired language. The editor is also batteries included, so godot.exe will include everything you need to make a game (aside from assets, but even there some plugins can help). 2D and 3D, but 3D is not "AAA" tier.

I honestly recommend you go for godot. There are tons of tutorials out there to create all kinds of games, specially if it's something basic. It's what I wish existed when I was 11 and had tons of time to mess around.

I'd say look up a quickstart tutorial for both and check if your kid likes any of them.

I see lots of recommendations for niche/toy engines. I don't recommend those because it'll be hard to look up tutorials for them. Having guidance in essential. I also don't recommend your kid get to roblox, sure he might be able to make some money or get lots of attention, but having external motivators can be very detrimental.

When I was that age I made a bouncing ball in Flash (ActionScript, similar to JS).[0]

This is still my "hello world" when trying out a new game dev environment because it covers:

- drawing

- movement

- input

- acceleration

- gravity

- friction

- collision

And all of these in essentially the simplest possible way.

Most of all, it's a lot of fun to have a bouncing ball, and even more fun if you can use the keyboard or mouse to play with it!

For a more structured approach, I'd say draw a circle (or square), then add movement, then make it fall down, then a floor to catch it, then bounce it, etc...

[0] It's not too hard to do in pure JS / Canvas (I am very fond of tiny builds with no dependencies), tho the canvas API is surprisingly unpleasant, so I'd recommend something like Pixi or Phaser.

Roblox Studio is a very powerful system, my 8 year old has played around with it to make simple maps and obbys. People have coded Call of Duty style games on Roblox (such as Frontlines) so it's pretty surprising how far you can stretch the engine.

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade is terrific. It has both a block interface and real Typescript under the hood, and you can switch back and forth anytime.

It's not a drag and drop environment, but it is JavaScript: https://p5js.org/

Basic 60 frames a second canvas and the rest is JavaScript.

Pair that with the excellent Coding Train series https://youtube.com/@thecodingtrain

To get around the "serve a webpage locally" problem, you could either have Python or Node serve a webpage, or I once rigged up a samba share and a small web server on a home server and turned a kid loose on it ... It didn't take, I should have spent more time helping them daily on it.

But that's an idea.

When I was only slightly older, I was part of an RPG maker community. Skills I acquired there regarding image editing/manipulation, writing reviews, looking out for things that seem unnaturally regular, social communication, and whatnot still serve me today. It was a very creative place to be. There was a screenshot thread in the forum and almost every day I would check it out for new posts, reading people's reviews and write some myself. I remember spending hours and hours making a faceset too. Trying to fit those emotions onto the 48x48 pixels.

I would recommend such a community, but I am only aware of one bigger community like that surviving (multimediaxis forum[1], which could be great) and my old community does no longer exist, which saddens me to this day.

[1]: https://www.multimediaxis.de/forum.php

Humble Bundle has a Godot bundle is available for the next day or so. That might be a good one to look at if you're ok with leaning into code a bit (gdscript is very very similar to python). https://www.humblebundle.com/software/learn-godot-43-complet...

Also check out the RPG Maker bundle. That's pretty point-and-click. You can have something basic up and running in a couple minutes (literally just paint your tiles onto a map and click Go and you'll have a little jrpg). If you use the newest version, you can script it in Javascript. One major selling point here is that their "runtime package" (RTP) comes with a TON of game assets to use, so you don't have to track down/make art if you don't want to (you can, but I often get blocked on art when I'm playing with game dev). https://www.humblebundle.com/software/gotcha-gotcha-presents...

GBStudio is another good (free) one to look at. It's point and click for the most part and if you get a flash cart, you can play your game on a real Gameboy. Definitely not gonna be the most flashy, but it's a good exercise in making something fun with limited resources available. https://www.gbstudio.dev

GDevelop is another no-/low-code option: https://gdevelop.io

Defold is another scripting-heavy option (Lua): https://defold.com

I would encourage a bunch of different games where making a game is a game mechanic, so this includes:

  * Little Big Planet
  * RPG Maker (from the PS1 days ... I don't know what the new ones are like)
  * Super Mario Maker
  * Roblox (other comments are saying this is bad? I don't know much, but it was my first thought)
  * Dreams for the PS4

I played RPG Maker a million years ago and liked it, so I imagine that game or its family is still a nice experience.

I haven't played Dreams, but I've heard it's a strong, interactive environment?

There are lots of good suggestions here. My first preference would be pico-8 (already mentioned).

But also I can also suggest another interesting option: GB Studio - https://www.gbstudio.dev It's a quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator for game boy. It also supports visual scripting.

You can try https://make.gamefroot.com/ it’s specifically designed for kids aged 6 to 14.

It’s used by a bunch of primary schools to teach kids programming via games.

It’s drag and drop interface where I believe you can drop into JavaScript as well.

Haven’t used it myself but met the founders at a game conference.

https://microstudio.dev/ - supports JavaScript and Python

We make Construct 3: https://editor.construct.net

You can start with a visual block-based system and move on to JavaScript/TypeScript. We have a lot of schools using it to help teach programming concepts in a fun way. Happy to answer any questions!

Game maker studio might fit the bill: https://gamemaker.io/en

Roblox Creator studio, its amazing, tons of tutorials and its super easy to publish something

https://downpour.games

I had a blast with Klik'n'Play as a kid. The modern version is called Clickteam Fusion. Revisited it a while ago with my nephew, it has a pretty good tutorial.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickteam

My 11 year old cousin loves Scratch. He's made several games and "movies" using it.

Another more powerful alternative is Stencyl: https://stencyl.com/

I don’t think it has been mentioned here, but dot big bang is pretty cool and suitable for young game dev-curious kids.

It has a fairly easy learning experience if you want to do very basic things, but opens up into an impressively capable editor if you want it to.

I worked on it for a year and the team behind it is awesome. Great people who are passionate about what they’re doing, care a lot about the kids using the platform (making it kid-friendly matters a huge amount), and put a lot of effort into making it genuinely fun first (rather than chasing trends for example).

Not sure how it compares to other options but it’s worth checking it out. I often wish I still worked on it.

Not sure if this meets your specifications, since it's code first, but Processing (in it's JavaScript incarnation, p5.js[1]) might be worth looking at.

In terms of games that include content creation tools within them, I've been impressed with Fortnite and Rocket League. Using the in-game editor may be a good gateway to building mods offline.

1 - Examples https://p5js.org/examples/ and on online code editor https://editor.p5js.org/.

Modd.io [0] is a great platform that's relatively easy to get into and start making games. I suspect it would be a fairly good entry point for kids and it has the added benefit that your child can share the games they're making with their friends to play together live.

They have fairly good documentation [1] and if videos are more your child's thing, the founder/developer is incredibly active on YouTube and posts videos [2] and live streams fairly regularly.

They also have templates for a good number of different game types/modes that you can start off with, eg. platformer, tower defense, car racing, MMORPG, etc.

[0] https://www.modd.io/

[1] https://learn.modd.io/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/@baldgamedev/videos

My kiddo want to make game on Nintendo Switch, which is almost impossible at this time, but I recently found Fuze 4 (https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/fuze4-nintendo-sw...) that allows him to do exactly that. Quite happy with Fuze's workflow. We can even connect an external keyboard so he can type on it.

You should definitely take a look at Struckd Studio which is now part of Unity Play - https://play.unity.com/en

It's still a little buggy in places, but nothing that can't be overcome.

You can drag and drop in 3D assets and many of them come with built in and easily changeable behaviors. Then there is a node based programming language that you can use to make alterations.

It's web based, but also has iOS and Android apps available for editing and playing the games.

edit - I'm an educator working in the CS ecosystem, and am playing with Struckd with the intention of making a suite of learning resources.

You could look at Adventure Game Studio: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/. It does require some scripting, but you can get away with very basic stuff. Here's an overview of the scripting language: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/ags/tutorial/scri....

Another option I have not tried myself is GDevelop: https://gdevelop.io/. It looks like you can get pretty far without any code at all, although you do that with an "events" editor that is basically a simple visual scripting language.

A friend of mine works on DotBigBang which is pretty approachable. May be worth giving it a try!

https://dotbigbang.com/

I started with the World Editor from Warcraft 3 around that age, creating custom maps, gamemodes and spells/abilities. It has scripting capabilities that is somewhere between GUI code and actual code. There's also a lovely community around the World Editor over on https://hiveworkshop.com. Picking the latest custom spell updated as a showcase, if you expand the "Spoiler: Triggers" you can see how the "code" looks like: https://www.hiveworkshop.com/threads/frost-field-v1-0-1.3556...

There are a lot of custom maps in that game that has later become their own standalone games, the most well-known is probably Dota 2 that is the successor to the DotA custom map in Warcraft 3. I hear the Warcraft 3: Reforged update brough Lua support, but the "old" way of using the GUI or JASS is still supported so there is a natural learning path from the simpler GUI code to more advanced JASS or Lua code.

Not specifically game related, but adjacent. Sonic Pi (https://sonic-pi.net/) is designed for making music specifically with kids in mind, and they might accidentally learn a whole bunch of programming concepts as a side-effect.

Minecraft can do stuff with command blocks

That's funny, I taught a bit if Basic to my son coding rock, paper, scissor, too.

Download Castle for mobile: https://castle.xyz/

Ive heard good things about gamemaker, as well as RPGmaker. there was one I used to mess around with as a kid I think it was one of those two but cant quite recall. pretty sure it was something maker though. The important thing is to think about the process of making the game. getting the concept together, making a story..

Have you tried iterating your code and gameplay with https:://cursor.com like in this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5uvDZ8srHA ? Total blast.

On a smaller scale, there's an entire genre of 'interactive fiction' text games a la Zork. The scripting / authoring is fairly easy to pick up. https://textadventures.co.uk/

pico-8

Try TIC80 https://github.com/nesbox/TIC-80

Very mice, multi programming language support

Back in my day (was teenager in mid-to-late 90s) I had to figure out how games worked. Thankfully, we had games like Quake which can be modded and had various level editors. Worldcraft, which is now called Hammer, was awesome.

It is this journey that helped me become a programmer today. While not a games programmer, I do make games in my spare time.

Now -- sure.. why mention this? I believe I understand a 11 year-olds mindset that wants to do more than play games - but understand how they work. I also have children of my own and waiting for them to hint they want to learn. Of course the 90s way is a distant memory. There is more access to things in the gaming world... but more options can also be a little intimidating as well.

11 can still be "young" depending on their skill level with computers. For now, you could start off with the basics. For world building/construction, we do have Minecraft (which my 6 year old son plays). We also have things like Roblox (which my 12 year old daughter plays)

We also have Scratch, a "Visual Programming Language" - my daughter has been using this at school and some afternoon/evening clubs at the library.

For me personally, I think 13 (years old) is going to be 'that age' when they start going into more detail with making games. Maybe your child is ready sooner. Only you know.

If they are ready to progress further than the above, I would recommend something like Godot, Unity or Unreal. Whichever I pick is a decision I make at that time... but if I had to choose now, I might try Godot first and go from there.

Yes.. I might make decisions for the child to start with. I would sit with my child and learn together. Once they start doing things on their own I would take a step back and let them play. They will soon ask for help if they want it.

For example, when I was playing with Worldcraft, I was trying to figure out how to move an object around but I just didn't understand how I used the "target" and "targetname" fields. I asked for my Step-Dad to help and he figured it out for me. Once I understood it, and got an object moving in the game, I was able to carry on from there. He gave me space to learn.

The great thing about Unity, Unreal or Godot - is these are used for REAL GAMES... so your child can stay on these and, perhaps, have a career using them. They can figure out if they want to be an artist, level designer, 3d modeler, or programmer, etc. Their interest and decision can also point them to Blender, GIMP/Photoshop, or to write their own games engine (or simply a game) using a programming language.

For me -- I went with the DIY approach as a programmer, writing games in C (but moving to Odin) and I use OpenGL, SDL2, etc. Once you get a window open you can start by making Pong, or a Card Game, etc. So, if any of my children want to learn... learning Godot is just as much an experience for me as well -- but it is also to give them space to learn their way and, like my Step-Dad did for me, to help me when I needed it.

"I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it" - Morpheus

--- All software I mentioned above listed here. I hope this helps. My advice is to go with the flow and make your own learning fun.

- Quake C / Modding / Worldcraft. -- For Quake (old school. Likely avoid for younger gen)

- Hammer Editor for Source/Source 2 -- More modern

- Scratch -- popular visual programming language for kids.. even young!

- Minecraft, Roblox -- Popular world building, fun games

- Photoshop, Gimp -- Popular Paint or Photo editing

- Blender -- Popular 3D modelling (architecture, 3d animation, etc)

- Unity, Unreal, Godot -- popular game engines / editing tools

- Programming language C, Odin... libraries like SDL (making games manually)

The SVG format is easy to learn and you can write your graphics manually inside HTML. I've been using it to make 2D objects in JavaScript that can be positioned, rotated and scaled using the transform style property. You can also animate them with CSS. It's a shame there isn't a similar scriptable format for audio, something like MIDI. Otherwise you can use a canvas, or even a 3D canvas for WebGL.

Have you tried RPG Maker? It’s really fun. I remember using it as a kid. It’s focused on turn based combat.

Love2d.

Construct 3 is awesome.

https://gamemaker.io

You will not find better...

Raylib is really good

Phaser with Claude / LLM to help?

[random parental advice from the internet]

Pick an adult solution and sit with them to provide adult guidance. You are at the stage where your relationship with your child becomes peer to peer.

If game programming stays their jam, you will be learning game programming from them in the blink of an eye. It's joyous and wonderful and only gets better.

Sure you will miss them being a small child, but you will know an amazing adult. (and they will always be a small child sometimes just as we all are).

The platform doesn't matter. Your relationship does. Good luck.

try websim.ai or roblox studio

Scratch

I have good memories of using Alice3D [1] the 3D part is appealing.

11 is young but I don't know how difficult could be to use Unity with some help, I know people without any development background who created games there in their spare time.

[1] https://www.alice.org/

Don't underestimate kids... just give them proper tools, and they will surprise you.

JavaScript is a very forgiving language to learn:

https://playground.babylonjs.com/

Game level designers are also a fun high-abstraction, and won't overwhelm the impatient.

https://levelsharesquare.com/games/supermarioconstruct

Have fun =3