So your kid wants to design games? Here are five practical tips to help them design like the pros

We are in a digital era that is sure to stay. So acquiring computer skills is a logical step in preparing youngsters for their technological future. Coding is one of those computer skills that will pay off for many students in our advancing technological world.   

Nowadays youngsters spend much of their time using their phones, laptops, and other technologies. In particular, they love to spend time with digital gaming experiences, and often wish to explore new games at every opportunity. Youngsters fantasize about games’ creatures and their movements, and quickly develop a curiosity about how the creatures are produced. So, not surprisingly, many of the youngsters in the process of playing video games gravitate their curiosities toward coding games. But to do so, they soon discover that the development of games requires the complicated and challenging skill of coding—a skill which requires high-level computation skills.

The benefits of coding games are diverse and can contribute to successful careers. Coding games help to sharpen perspective and build logical thinking and problem-solving techniques. Coding also allows youngsters to display their ideas and creativity distinctly. As a plus, we know that gaming encourages youngsters to have better collaboration skills, tenacity, and tolerance for trial-and-error scenarios. However, high level coding skills, along with deep insight, are required for designing these games that usually take years to be designed and coded correctly. So it is important that youngsters be skilled with coding techniques right from the start-- during their elementary education.

Here we mention five practical tips to help your child design like pros at home:

• Playing a variety of video games: Playing video games will help the child to understand the movements of creatures, their operations, and how a game is designed. Youngsters, while playing games, get time to analyze the sequencing pattern followed in a game and even get to know the niches in it. Youngsters tend to know which part of a game terrible and which part is reliable, how the bad one can be made better, and so on. Parents can also play a meaningful role in this by repeatedly asking them the problems or issues in a game and making youngsters understand it better. Youngsters eventually know the mistakes in a game and find ways to sort them out. This sorting out of the errors is what introduces the importance of coding.

• Code creation: For today’s youngsters, there are many websites and platforms which provide easy accessibility and sound knowledge about the Coding of games. With these coding platforms, youngsters can start from the basic and can then move to a more complex framing. The designers of game coding need to do extensive programming and write down a series of code. It is hence essential that youngsters start early and practice coding. Various apps provide solutions for determining the coding patterns according to the interests of youngsters. The apps help to determine, for example, the jumping speed, the velocity of a gun, or the shooting speed.

• Challenge, Choice, Change, and Chance (The “4 Cs”): Young coders need to focus on these 4Cs in order to make games enjoyable. Games have to be designed in a way in which the complexity increases with clear, higher standards as they progress. Unique choices should be given to players while they are in the game. This includes different character choices, weapon choices, theme colors, etc.. These options provide an enhanced gaming experience for them. Requisite changes should be there at different levels of gaming. Various and different tasks and themes need to be incorporated into gaming platforms to make them enjoyable. Chance or unpredictable conditions like suddenly exposing the players to different enemy threats can make the games even more challenging and exciting. You can teach your youngsters about these variations, which can develop their creativity, and hence coding skills, accordingly.

• Storytelling Skills: Develop storytelling skills in your youngsters. In a game, one of the essential factors is a story that is told through different stages. A good story with a good theme makes a game exciting and engages a gamer. So if you teach your child how to make a good story first and then frame it as a game, the game is sure to be a success! Proper structuring of a story in the game is an essential element.
• Practice: One of the critical elements in coding is practice. The student should practice enough so that his skills with coding concepts become stronger over time. Young coders need to realize that their first code might not bring the desired result right away. Repeated reviewing and noting improvement needs due to general errors and code execution errors requires patience that can be gained only through practice.

So what is the next step toward helping your youngster learn to code? Check out 98thPercentile’s Coding classes and events, and we believe you will find your trustworthy source for your youngster’s educational need with us. We offer live interactive sessions matching your child’s coding skill level that are facilitated by superb educators! Visit our website for more information and book a free trial class today!