When I was in highschool, I did a course on games that used this:

gamemaker.io/en

It was free, very simple to learn, and reasonably powerful, you could build 3D games similar to the first Doom with some effort.

~~After that, Unity would probably be the next step up?~~

So yes, a kid can definitely create games with a small amount of effort.

I was teaching myself assembly language and C when I was in 7th grade, so sure. If a kid is self-motivated enough then the sky is the limit.

Kids are capable of some amazing things if given the right tools, enough time and plenty of positive reinforcement.

As others mentioned, Scratch is a good option.

Another one is Hopscotch.

Hopscotch: Learn to Code | Make Games, Animations & More!

© Hopscotch Technologies 2025

^{www.gethopscotch.com}

Yes with enough time and effort. But beware: they become a "wiz" during the pursuit of that goal. Game hacking/modding/making are usually the kid gateway drugs to an IT career.

Tho this isn't always the case. They could focus on game making in the artistic direction, utilizing existing tools and engines without too much deep knowledge

Of course, just... temper the expectations of what the means. A kid can probably do tic tac toe, chess, that kind of stuff.

"Real video games" take a lot of work and I would be super impressed if a "normal" kid who just "sort of likes playing" video games could bring up the dedication for learning and problem solving it needs.

It's like asking if a kid can learn to be a really good painter or musician. Sure. They can. It just takes a lot of practice.

I know nothing about software or game development.

I think it would depend on how old, how motivated and how interested the kid is. Never in history has there ever been a time when we've had this much free resource immediately available to us. My cousin started his son on learning game development at about 11 or 12. He learned coding, used online resources and video courses and pretty much self-taught in the way any student would learn in a programming course. He's making simple Android games and he's been happy jumping on the deep and and doing it "properly".

An underrated place to start is with Doom modding. The various ports of Doom engines have grown to have surprizingly rich feature sets these days, and a lot of indie games have been getting made in these engines. It's easy to get into because you can get started pretty much right away by making mods for existing games.

So for example, you could download the free game FreeDoom, get the UZDoom engine to play it on, the map maker Ultimate Doom Builder to make maps for FreeDoom, SLADE for the other aspects of editing, and then finally the ZDoom wiki should be able to point you toward everything you'll want to learn to be able to make whatever you'd like.

So you can start learning and producing content very quickly by making maps, learn and develop those maps into more extensive mods, eventually learn and develop those mods so far they become "total conversions" - meaning that it's still technically a mod, and still would depend on the Freedoom game you're building on, but has grown extensively enough to replace all assets; and then finally it is possible to convert that total conversion into a full fledged standalone game.

And of course once you have enough experience with this, you can develop standalone games right from the start of a project.

Freedoom

Freedoom's website

^{Free content game using the Doom engine}

That's how I started. When I was 10 years old, I discovered game maker and accidentally gained a lifelong passion for programming.

not the computer wizkid, but the average one

I can assure you that 10 year old me was below average with computers. It's a miracle I managed to figure out how to install gamemaker at all. The only thing that matters is interest, passion, and determination. If the child doesn't have those things, they probably won't succeed, and you probably can't force them to, which is fine. It doesn't mean they won't become a software engineer in the future, just that they won't do it at an early age. I know engineers who started learning programming in college, and are way smarter than me even though I had almost a decade head start.

EDIT: btw, I don't know if I'd recommend gamemaker today. When I started with it, it was simple and specifically aimed at learning. Today, it's trying to be a full-blown commercial game engine and it has gotten pretty complex. Another option might be Godot, but I'd strongly recommend against it. Godot is way too complex for someone's first game engine. Some people like Scratch, but IMO it's pretty lame and feels more like a homework assignment.

Some possible alternatives (haven't used them myself):
* construct.net/en
* gdevelop.io/
* rpgmakerweb.com/

Or just search for "no code game engine" in your favorite search engine. There are probably tons of those today.

Scratch - Imagine, Program, Share

Scratch is a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations.

^{scratch.mit.edu}

Foreign intervention is a danger for our democracy. As well as private intervention.

It should be "1 vote = 1 vote", not "1 euro = 1 vote". Please, make sure to focus on this as well. We have to avoid it.

A democracy where we are constantly spied-on and controlled with #ChatContol while politicians exempt themselves from this law?

You're making a "Secrecy for us and total surveillance of the pleb" law, effectively destroying a fundamental balance of democracy and free society, and then you have the nerve of posting about "freedom of the press" and "democracy"

Claim: Europe is the birthplace of democracy, but we need to nurture it.

Fact: you also intend on it being its place of death, waiting for us to look away.

Claim: 79% worry about voters basing decisions on disinformation.

Fact: 92% worry about the EU ignoring the will of the public and selling out to autocrats.

Claim: 56% are satisfied with media freedom, independence and pluralism.

Fact: how much did it go down since you are pushing Chat Control so hard & wrecking the GDPR?

Then why are you undermining our ability to communicate privately and securely? The ability to communicate freely, without the government looking over your shoulder, is a prerequisite for a functioning democracy, and you seem dead set on destroying that ability, because you fell for the transparent lie that privacy endangers children.

Remember, the Stasi is not a role model.

what timeline are we living in with this schizophrenic EU?

ChatControl: Let's create a dystopian surveillance state and empower the next generation of Big US Tech Stasi/Gestapo

DigitalOmnibus: Let's change the definitions of personal data so that Big US Tech can freely steal all EU citizens' data

European Democracy Shield: No idea yet exactly what this entails but if history is anything to go by it's likely just another ambush of EU citizens' rights dressed up as protection.

Stop trying to impose chat control mass surveillance on us or shred the GDPR in favor of AI slop - you are about to destroy much of what you are advertising here. We're looking at you, EU Commission!

Science knows that it is practically impossible for humans to not communicate. Every politican who promotes chat control mass surveillance sends a strong message that they distrust all EU citizens - each time they try, again and again and again. Think of a big, red alert.

What is #democracy worth without #citizens' #privacy rights? Abandoning parts of the #GDPR for #BigTech undermines democracy and opens the door to 1930s-style #dictatorship and mass #surveillance. Wasn't the EU founded precisely to ensure this would never happen again? Honor your humble foundations or ther is no more need for the #EU.

noyb.eu/en/open-letter-digital…

Open letter: Digital omnibus brings deregulation, not simplification

EDRi, the ICCL and noyb send a letter to the Commission expressing their concerns regarding the suggested Omnibus reform.

^noyb.eu