Video games are a favorite among kids. There's no doubt about that. What if they could make their screens passive and more productive? Tynker makes it possible. Kids can become creators instead of just consumers by learning to code their games. Besides having fun, programming has been proven to accelerate children's academics in math, science, and even reading, as well as provide them with a skill that will open up countless job opportunities in the future.

Tynker allows kids and teens of all ages and skill levels to design and develop video games usding programming activities, tutorials, online support, coding puzzles, mini-games, and more. You can even attend a LIVE online coding class to help you get started.

Making Video Games with Tynker: 5 Great Reasons

1. Platform with Awards – Our unique video content exceeds 600 hours.
2. Self-Focused – Your child will make games by themselves, at their own pace.
3. Services – How-to videos, step-by-step instructions, and online classes.
4. For Everyone – From block coding to text codings, such as Python and JavaScript.
5. Mobile Apps – Explore Tynker Junior, Tynker, and Mod Creator wherever you go.

*All at a great price! Tynker charge just 33 cents per day for an annual plan.

Creating games with Tynker

Introduction to Coding:

1. Glitch Manor – Ages 7+) Escape to a haunted mansion, fight zombies, solve mysteries, and more with 80 programming activities and 16 coding puzzles.
2. Turing’s Tower – (Ages 9+) Repair a flying tower to kill a robot dragon in this steampunk-themed platformer game. There are over 56 activities and 16 coding puzzles included.

Games for middle schoolers: Ages 8 to 13

1. Star Runner – Create 8 fun arcade games to improve your coding skills and learn 2D motion, pen drawing, and animation.
2. Goblin Quest – Master code to explore secret worlds, handle dungeon puzzles, and command armies with your commands.

Designing Advanced Games: Ages 14+

1. Drone Menace – Make an arcade game with multiple levels, a winning system, and special effects.
2. Gravity Sling – Create Angry Birds-style catapult games while learning how to program gravity and collisions.
3. Ninja Runner – Program a platformer game with your hero and enemy A.I. utilizing advanced physics engine commands.

Game-building is a way for kids to learn to code

In designing and programming a game, a variety of left brain (logic) and right brain (creativity) functions are required. All of the planning that goes into making a game increases kids' ability to focus for long periods and see projects through while enhancing their critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

• Place characters, add animations and add effects to interactive scenes. With the use of multiple frames, children can even draw and animate characters.
• Sound – Music can set the mood for any situation. Kids can choose from a variety of music clips and sound effects from our library to create a dramatic intro sequence or an exciting duel. With our built-in MIDI interface and Tynker's Synth Blocks, they can even compose their music.
• Character Motion – Create loops to program the movement of characters on the screen and use coordinate geometry to achieve this. Children program games like Pong and Brick Breaker to control the paddle and the ball using angles and speed.
• Game Play – Detect whether arrow keys or mouse input is being used, and write code to handle them. You can jump by pressing the spacebar or pop a balloon by clicking and dragging. Example like Spacebar counter games can also be easily developed using this course.
• Keeping Score – The score, health, and some lives can be tracked using variables and counters, which will increase and decrease based on key events during gameplay. Users with advanced skills can even create leaderboards to rank players in the community.
• Detecting Win/Loss Conditions – Decide if a player won, lost, or tied the game using conditional logic.

Global Tynker Community

You can see how kids are creating stages, animating characters, and creating sound using block coding from our global community in the projects below.

Learn how to design your own platformer game using a couple of the great tools on our Tynker Toolbox blog:

1. In the Level Editor, you can drag and drop game elements visually and quickly create fun levels.
2. You can code platformer actors to move left and right with the Platformer Blocks. Level Editor includes prebuilt code for many props and characters, which can be customized as needed.

Summer Tynker Code Jam

As part of our Summer Code Jam, young coders from around the world compete to create their projects for prizes up to $10,000.

FAQs

Is there an app that you can make your own game?

A feature that sets GameSalad apart is its ability to create a first game in under an hour using one of their tutorials. Start creating it right away by downloading it for free. Besides iOS, Android, Windows Phone, HTML5, and Amazon Fire, GameSalad is built for multi-platform publishing.

What is the hardest part of making a video game?

Video game design is primarily concerned with making the game fun for the player. Implementation is expensive, but ideas are cheap. You can only try a concept so many times before you have to move on or sink the ship. Accumulating a lot of experience is the best way to overcome this.

Can I make games without coding?

No coding is required! Adventure Creator is the asset you need if you want to create 2D, 2.5D, or 3D games in Unity. Using its visual scripting system and intuitive Editor, beginners can create entire games without writing a line of code and programmers can plug in their own functionality.

Is gaming programming hard?

Game development is not for every programmer. There are long work hours, stiff competition for jobs, frequent layoffs, and the pay in other industries are often higher. In addition, many people think that developing games is not a job for adults.