Best way to learn app programming / development for kids? (teens)

[Eskil]

This is a question for all you app developers here on the forum..

My kids (two boys, 12 and 14) are showing an increasing interest in wanting to learn about app/game creation. My youngest has been using a pc actively since he was 8 and my oldest since he was 10. They are already pretty experienced with photo editors, video editing for their Youtube channels, and of course games.

But they want to do more than their buddies do (playing games only) - and also learn about how to make their own games or apps for smartphones. They are showing signs of becoming Fastlaners already. Yesterday my 12 year old showed me that he had set up a Cafepress site to sell t-shirts for his self-branded Youtube channel already, lol. I was proud and impressed at the same time! His 9 year old friend might become his first customer.

They are aware of young, successful app creators such as Allen Wong (here on the forum), and the 17 year old kid who recently sold his app to Yahoo for $30M. That kid was 12 when he started. Both of them, but especially my youngest son, has become VERY inspired by this - and really wants to learn how to get started himself.

He has found a few "drag and drop" app-maker and game-creator programs out there, but I think he wants more control, preferably to learn how to code. The app makers are obviously very limited in functionality - and as we all know here, you will rarely hear about a majorly successful game or app that was created with one of those tools.

So....basically: What should my son focus on first to learn? I ask because this is outside of my realm. I haven't coded in over 20 years myself, and I don't know what sort of programming languages or compilers are used for iOS or Android. Are there any free resources to such compilers? Or would he need to buy some developers kit and learn proprietary code languages?

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

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[drover]

Treehouse is a very good way to learn programming and web design, they started to teach business too which can be interesting for your kids as it is very intuitive. I know there are a lot of free websites around but most of them are not trying to captivate you whereas Treehouse has funny videos and themes, good for kids. There is a rebate for students which is not advertised on their website, just contact them and you will get half off.

 

[Eskil]

That looks great - thanks! Speed+

 

[Nick]

Hi,

Disclosure: I work at Appnific, an app development company, but we are not associated with any of the companies mentioned below, and this is my own opinion, not company's views.

There are three ways of making apps your kids could go:

1- Using app creators (drag and drop, wysiwyg ).

--> Not worth the time i would say. The apps that are created are usually extremely limited in functionality, are very crappy - slow loading, buggy etc, and at least on App Store are getting rejected all the time by the manual reviewers, becoming increasingly hard to place such an app into the system.

Also, since they can be made them without any programming knowledge, your kids will not learn anything by making such apps - and I assume your purpose is to develop kid's creativity and skills, not just to put an app in the app store. Also, no one makes any money with them in app store.

2 - Developing using a third party platform.

This is the most recommended way in your situation i would say (not the best way to develop apps though)

There are plenty of (free) platforms on the web created for people with basic programming skills that enable them to program functional apps.

The way they work is first, the app is created in html/css/javascript -- which are the easiest programming language to be learned by a beginner - or another easy, proprietary framework and then the code is "converted" - it's not the right term, but let's go with it - into the code able to run on Android and iOS.

This is good, since the kids can make functional apps much easier, and they will develop real skills in learning such a platform.

Examples of platforms

Phonegap --> coded in HTML/CSS/Javascript can be deployed to Android, iOS, etc.. - ideal for converting mobile sites into apps or similar
Titanium Appcelerator --> coding done in Javascript, can be deployed to Android , iOS - ideal for utilities apps
Corona - proprietary SDK, programming in Lua, ideally suited for 2d games
Unity 3d - the way to go to make 3d games

Most of them are free, or offer a free version - and i do not mean just "a free 30days trial" by that, something you can actually use unless you are going enterprise level.


3 - Going native

Serious apps are programmed native --> Objective C for iOS, Java for Android.

This is the hardest way to program, but the best in terms of output. Apple releases the Xcode SDK to help develop for their platform while Google releases the Android SDK.

Both are free, no need to pay for anything. Not recommended for kids though, even some experienced programmers take their time to learn them.

If you want your kids to make games, check this out as well, i heard good things about them:

https://www.makegameswith.us/

 

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[Eskil]

Wow... another excellent response to my question. More speed+ on the way..

 

[adiakritos]

To get started with learning programming I'd suggest picking up video schooling (much easier to following along than books) on Visual Basic.

This is the first language I learned to program in and it's great for learning the basics of any programming language like, loops, timers, events, if statements, booleans...etc

I created about 3-4 games in visual basic before moving on to languages like C++ and Java.

It may be best for them to learn how to program games for the web because that would give them access to more users much faster.

I'd suggest starting with Visual Basic to get the basics of programming pinned down, and give them a boost of confidence and inspiration.

In the mean time I'd keep looking around for the technologies people use today for creating web based games. I'm in to creating web applications more akin to twitter so I don't have much knowledge in the realm of game development for the web.

I hope this helps!

Oh yea, and remember to checkout Pineapple · Web Tutorials and Resources That Don't Suck for some of the best tutorials on pretty much anything that has to do with developing for the web.

 

[healthstatus]

Hey Eskil,
I would throw another vote out for the Unity3d engine, as that platform works for mobile, desktop, Wii and other platforms. My son is the project manager and lead artist on Smash Muck Champions (smashmuck.com) and that is the platform they are using and they have about 30 people in their studio.

 

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[HD_edacity]

Well i'm not to sure about advanced stuff but i'm learning some basic coding fundamentals through codeacademy.com. I'm sure others on this forum have talked about it, it makes learning really easy and fun.

 

[Talisman]

Depends what you want to outlay (or what they want to outlay from their earnings from other entrepreneurial activities, haha, I love it).

With Mono - you can actually fully develop an app, you only need to pay for the license when you want to publish. Maybe a good way to get 99% of the way there, and then pay if they are ready to publish. Has the advantage of being able to support multiple platforms (android/ios/etc) from a primary code base, and gives some exposure to each platform.

Game dev.. well unity3d is an option, but again it depends on cost, and what you're after. If you want a free and powerful cocos based engine, that also has cross-platform (ios/android) support, I recommend cocos2d-x.

None of these options is "easy" though, for someone with no coding background/still learning. StackOverflow is your friend.

 

[Stam]

Quote from my stepbrother when we met after a few years: "I always remembered you with all the books on programming." (its like 12-16 years ago)

So I didnt have anyone of my friends programming, and no one else to turn to. So I borrowed books on it in the library, then went on to get my mom to use her VISA card to buy books from Amazon. Learned to install Linux from commandline, and started with PHP, MYSQL and C++. Then went on to make Visual Basic applications in Windows.

I just sucked up all knowledge there was about it, tried, failed, spent hours on finding misplaced "," and ";"

But knowadays you could just Youtube it to find many great videos, and CodeAcademy is a nice start, finished the PHP/HTML/CSS/jQuery there just last month. Easy stuff there, but gets you started.

To get their excitement up, get some books on iPhone devlopment, get them the developer pack from Apple and start making small things. Its way cooler to show off to their friends afterwards

For inspiration watch this TED video I saw last night TEDxManhattanBeach - Thomas Suarez - iPhone Application Developer... and 6th Grader - YouTube maybe there could be a programming group at their school to?

 

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[dknise]

Hey Eskil,
I would throw another vote out for the Unity3d engine, as that platform works for mobile, desktop, Wii and other platforms. My son is the project manager and lead artist on Smash Muck Champions (smashmuck.com) and that is the platform they are using and they have about 30 people in their studio.

+1 to that. Unity3d is an awesome game engine. Not only would they be able to create 2D games, but also 3D ^_^.

A lot of game programming comes down to one thing... math. Specifically algebra and calculus, so using a tool like Unity3d where that all gets abstracted to the user would be a huge plus.

There's also a wonderful support forum and free video and text tutorials to make full games start to finish.

If they need a cheap 3d editor... I highly suggest Milkshape 3D. Even though I've used Maya and 3D Studio Max, I still prefer to do modelling in Milkshape after all these years!

Goodluck to your kids! They sound AWESOME.