I would personally recommend Game Maker as it was the first game engine I used at the age of 11. I learnt all of the basics of programming and game design using it through the manual and the forums! The community is very friendly and fond of beginners as I have experienced! Although I don't use it anymore, I believe it's a great starting point for anyone looking at getting into game development. But that's just my two cents

Guys, let's remember he asked for a game engine. C#, Python, JavaScript, etc aren't game engines; they're programming languages.

As regards board games, there are actually engines designed specifically for board games. I found this, for instance:

http://www.vassalengine.org/

I would definitely recommend using a dedicated engine; it will lead to less "reinventing the wheel", probably a higher-quality and more featureful result, and will take a lot less time.

For a kid, as a general rule, I'd honestly recommend GDevelop. Never used it, but it seems like a simple one.

Construct Classic might be another decent option.

Love2d also looks like a nice one to me. I know that Lua is nice to work with in the right contexts, albeit a bit unintuitive at first if you're used to other programming languages.

For Python, there's Cocos2d, for instance. Lots of people will point to Pygame, but I would recommend against that because it's quite involved, almost as much as SDL itself. It's not really a game engine so much as a graphics library.

Again, though, I'd recommend giving Vassal a try first. If it fits your use-case, it'll most likely be the path of least resistance.

I'm with "Chillehh", Game Maker 4 through to 7 was my go-to toys when I was 10-14, (mid-2000s). It has some great built-in tools for animation, teaches you about object orientation, (a a simple level), and it just works!
I didn't have internet, so I just looked at the samples.
The beginner level is mostly putting boxes in order, a great way to learn an visualize the code in your head. Then later on you can learn/teach GLM, the scripting language which mostly does away with all the boxes. You have if-statements, loops and other common things to scripting.
Take a look at it, it's(at least was) great!

Coding with boxes(visually) Good tutorial:

More advanced coding:

https://freebasic.net/

As close to QBasic as you get

GDevelop is simple to use... if you want the kid to learn programming, maybe use LOVE engine, it uses lua, yeah, its not that simple, but with video tutorials I think its good to go for kids... there is a structure they need to respect in the beginning, they can use a controller, they can experiment with shape primitives, etc. so yeah, sounds maybe fitting.

On 5/18/2019 at 2:44 AM, Alberth said:

Recently there was an article about making games without heavy programming

This one?

I see no one endorsed Godot. Is it because it's too diffucult for a 10 years old or some other reasons?

On 5/20/2019 at 1:40 PM, vinterberg said:

https://freebasic.net/

As close to QBasic as you get

LOL :)

BTW, have you used  it? Also, does it have some graphical capabilities (draw line, draw image, etc) as old Basics had?

Godot Engine is usually what I suggest for serious developers. It sounds to me like your kid isn't too terribly serious about this, so I'd recommend something simple like GDevelop.

One more possibility I just thought of: Game Editor. Not the best engine in the world by a longshot, but I've used it before and it's pretty decent for a beginner.

50 minutes ago, Julie.chan said:

It sounds to me like your kid isn't too terribly serious about this

I've read the thread and I can't figure out why you said this.

Mostly because the first post is talking about what the poster wants, not what the kid wants:

I would prefer something that forces to learn programming (so not just some boxes you move around and connect) but not something as extreme as C++.

And the only thing mentioned that the kid wants to do is make a board game. It looks to me like the kid just wants to make a board game (or perhaps multiple board games) and the poster is using this as an opportunity to introduce him to programming.