My son is 13 and, like so many, is very into gaming. He also started to build a few of his own Minecraft maps. I want to encourage him to do more than just play the games, so I'm thinking of getting him some software / books to get him started. This will be a Christmas gift

So my question: if I'm just looking for something for my 13 year old son to get started, what should I choose?

Based on this I would say, don't push him into game creation but instead give him games that have great & easy modding tools.

Be the best dad in the world and buy your son Doom 2016 for Christmas.

One other thing, Snapmap is frowned upon by a lot of modders because it is so simple and doesn't allow for complete control. This shouldn't be an issue with someone starting out.

Snapmap is a great idea, +1 for that. Same goes for Little Big Planet, if there is a ps4 around.

He also have to figure out, what does he want to do when it comes to game development. Lots of the answer here automatically expect him to be a programmer in the future, but that might not be true. So I suggest starting with something, where coding is very simple, so he won't have any problems learning it. Game Maker is the perfect choice, Unity requires a bit more abstract thinking, and it's less of a drag and drop system. Also, programming interactions in a 3d environment is significantly more complex, than in a 2d one.

Switching from game maker to unity is always simpler, than convincing him again, if unity doesn't end up being his thing. Same thing goes for c++ coding.

Also, you don't need to buy game maker. The free one is perfectly enough to experiment, and it's a straightforward upgrade later on.

Stupid question but has your son shown any interest in making games? Its hard work and if he isn't motivated its pointless. But forgetting that I'll vote for gamemaker as a good way to introduce someone to game development. At the same time I agree with Promit in that full fledged development tools are within the grasp of a 13 year old. However I would only suggest that if he has shown a interest in game development. In that case I would suggest C++ and SFML and some good books on them.

Thank you all for your inputs.

In answer to Infinisearch, he has shown interest, in that he got into designing his own levels for some xbox games. Which is why I think developing/building is more his line than programming.

To be plain, it's very hard to buy for him. He really doesn't want much other than an Xbox One (which I can't afford). I see doing this as a relatively inexpensive way to offer him a chance to explore building games, so that if he doesn't follow through I haven't spent a bunch of money

Right now I'm leaning towards getting a good beginners book on Game Maker Studio and downloading the free version for him to try. If he really gets into it, I can move up from there.

On a related note, does anyone know of a way to get a full ISO of the Game Maker Studio free version? In other words, something I can download so my son can load it if he doesn't have access to the internet to load it from there? The download from the GMS site seems to just be a loader program that goes on line to actually get the content.

Thanks again, all.

On a related note, does anyone know of a way to get a full ISO of the Game Maker Studio free version? In other words, something I can download so my son can load it if he doesn't have access to the internet to load it from there? The download from the GMS site seems to just be a loader program that goes online to actually get the content.

I guess, you'll have to setup an internet connection for him, at least temporarily. Since, after the initial installation Game Maker Studio needs to update itself for some reason. I tried to search for a standalone installer but didn't find any. And still, he would even need to register for a Yoyo Games account initially.

So, maybe you could set up Game Maker Studio for him with an internet connection and then remove it later? :(

On this point, I join fleabay idea, if your son have not said himself that he want to make game, it may be a better idea to get him some game with available and easy moddings tools (the good thing is that you have a choice and with a lot a genre, with Doom, Counter Strike, Divinity: Original Sin, Neverwinter Nights, Skyrim, etc...). That will give him a game, and in addition something to play with when he will want to add himself some content in it!

Game Maker like almost everybody suggested is a good idea too, but if you are able (financialy), I suggest you to get one of this games with modding tools included (of the genre he prefere) THEN to include with it Game Maker and the book about it to add some value about the possible creation of a complete game. I have not seen any suggestion about it, but another option if he is into RPG may also be to take a look at the RPG Maker series, they provide some nice tools to start game making too

I have to disagree with several of the comments above, having started myself at about the same age. It's not necessary to dumb things down at age 13, and indeed the "fake" stuff can be discouraging. Let him loose on real tools and see if it sticks or not.

This would be my preferred method, too. Everyone is different, so I don't know how your son will receive this. I prefer to learn things as is, rather than a dumbed-down version that only has very little things to it, only having to unlearn everything I have learned when it comes to the real thing. Although, I wouldn't go with C++ unless that's something your son really wants to do himself. Unity, or any tools that's using C#, should be a good enough entry point.

I'll preface this with it's taken me a very long time and a lot of back and forth to decide on a workflow for my coding and game dev.

I started on BASIC when I was eleven. But unfortunately that was obsolete even then which is why I used an emulator. The cool thing about BASIC was that you could copy source code for games from books, and you could learn what things do just by watching the code do its magic and altering bits at a time until you are confident enough to try and build your own game - I built a pong game with creepy faces for the balls - didn't finish it. Python is very similar to BASIC but not likely to become obsolete any time soon. there are also other forms of BASIC - libertyBASIC, Dark Basic, etc. But I think python is more accessible - more resources, more widely used.

My suggestion would be Python and a game engine. Game engine equals fast results, python equals long term results. A free game engine and python wouldn't cost anything and you could get him the sololearn python app which one of the guys on here turned me onto (it's free) and a book for the game engine (I would advise absolute beginner in the title) - there are also lots of cheap python ebooks - and some designed for kids.

If you don't want to do both, I would suggest starting with a game engine. I chose Construct 2, but game maker or unity are the most pushed on here.

My personal opinion is "start em young" :)

I started into gamedev at age 13 using a second hand 8 bit computer and basic, but this was a long time ago.

A year or so ago my six year old daughter was watching me make a game in c++ and wanted to know how to do it. Being six I couldn't explain object oriented programming to her so I broke out an old 8 bit computer with basic on it and showed her how to type simple commands she could spell and get instant feedback e.g "COLOR 4". she had hours of fun with simple commands like colour, sound, etc.

The thing im getting at here is all kids can pick up programming and other creative skills but the younger they are the more important instant realtime feedback is. When it comes to having to key in a long program before seeing any results and the being presented with a litany of errors, well, "ain't nobody got time for that"... :)

Install the free version of GameMaker and see what he thinks. Also a few games that have very good mod tools to let him play around with.

Also it may be that he has no interest in programming but just likes designing stuff and modelling stuff.