PureBasic Forums - English

I love PB!

My son (13) wants to get into programming games and is convinced he needs DB/Gamecreator. He's been thru an on-line demo and now wants me to purchase the product for him.

Based on past performance (he tends to move onto something new quickly, if he's unable to make sufficiently fast progress), I'd like him to at least begin with PB and then maybe move to DB once he's developed some skills and decided he wants to stick with it.

On the other hand, I don't want to impede his development and have him become discouraged if PB is not the correct tool.

Would someone who has some game development experience on one or both platforms offer some advice for me? Possibly something I can pass on to Bob (my son)?

Appreciate any advice.

cheers

If he has never programmed before, I would suggest: http://gamemaker.nl/. It can be used as "point and click" and he can slowly build some programming into it. If he has the interest to stick with it, then I would consider other, more costly, options.

That being said, DB is not an option I would recommend due to it being rather buggy. However, I would really try and steer him into 2D games, which PB is perfect for. Kids often do not see the whole picture when it comes to making 3D games. Programming a 3D game is the easy part, the hard part is developing the skills necessary to make models and textures. Not everybody has the artistic skills necessary for 3D media creation. 2D artwork for 2D games is much simpler

With Game Maker you can make some 3D, such as an FPS which would give him a good intro to 3D stuff.