Scratch

To start the thread ...

If you want to create games, there are few better programs than GAMEMAKER. It has a freeware version and a registered version (not expensive). It can be used as drag-and-drop or with scripting. There are now two published books which support it and it is MASSIVELY supported across the internet.

One word of warning - if you search for freeware programming software, you will find a lot, but quality is incredibly varied, as is the useability and usefulness of many products.

Decide WHAT you want to program and then look for a program that will help you achieve that. I used to have bookmarks for many useful programs, but I ended up preferring to use

GameMaker
http://www.yoyogames.com/make

The Games Factrory
http://www.clickteam.com/eng/index.php

or (for true turtle graphics) MSWLogo
http://www.softronix.com/logo.html

Take your time and here's hoping other forum members can suggest software that is accessible to young users who want to move on after learning to Scratch. It might even be a nice idea if MIT suggested a few possibilities.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

This has been discussed before in threads like
http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=87
http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=3625
http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=3246
http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=158

Perhaps someone should collect all the suggestions for the FAQ list!

mohlar wrote:

To start the thread ...

If you want to create games, there are few better programs than GAMEMAKER. It has a freeware version and a registered version (not expensive). It can be used as drag-and-drop or with scripting. There are now two published books which support it and it is MASSIVELY supported across the internet.

One word of warning - if you search for freeware programming software, you will find a lot, but quality is incredibly varied, as is the useability and usefulness of many products.

Decide WHAT you want to program and then look for a program that will help you achieve that. I used to have bookmarks for many useful programs, but I ended up preferring to use

GameMaker
http://www.yoyogames.com/make

The Games Factrory
http://www.clickteam.com/eng/index.php

or (for true turtle graphics) MSWLogo
http://www.softronix.com/logo.html

Take your time and here's hoping other forum members can suggest software that is accessible to young users who want to move on after learning to Scratch. It might even be a nice idea if MIT suggested a few possibilities.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

Multimedia Fusion is much, much more powerful then the Games Factory and Scratch, and is also just as simple as Scratch. I currently own a copy and it's easy to use and fun. (It's also made by Clickteam).

Also, maybe VB would work. I've seen many good online tutorials about it.

scratch can be pretty advanced, you only need to make variables to cover up for the mistakes, I am 12 and have already tried out GameMaker, power rating of 6, the C++, the program the pros use. It is good, but it is REEEEEEAAAAAAALLLLLLYYYYYY slow. it takes 5 minutes to just program the stupid peice of rubbish to say "hello!"

(in the edit 'rubbish' was 'cr*p')

Last edited by JoelP (2007-09-30 02:17:35)

For Llamalover,

Looking at your original list (Java, PHP, HTML, MySQL and Modular-1) of  programs you were studing, I thought you might be looking for something a bit more "mainstream" than Gamemaker in the way of computer programs with your question. 

If that is the case, take a look at the tutorials at http://www.dickbaldwin.com/toc.htm . Of the list of subjects, I would recommend looking at  C#, Java, XML (and Java Script) and maybe Python, for a scripting language. Though aimed at the Junior College level, all of the tutorials I've read  should work ok for someone like you who already has a good start.

Some other comments - primarily to start some dialog.  I'm sure there are forum users more current on this than I am:

If you are just starting - start with XML (more powerful) rather than HTML and C#, not C++.  In the latter case, though C++ itself is fine, a lot of the example code is (for historical reasons) largely procedural rather than object oriented.

If you are in high school in the US, use Java for your basic OOP language rather than a C variant since Java is what is used for AP classes and tests. If you really understand Java - C# (or C++) won't be that hard to learn if you need it later (and you probably will).

PHP and SQL and seem like awfully specialized languages for a first step up from Scratch.  Also, for data bases, I'd recommending starting with Access, not SQL and "picking up" the rest of Office at the same time (not a short term project, but useful).

I don't know what Modular-1 is (a Google search came up with a home building company) but, assuming it's a variant of Modula-3, it seems even more specialzed (i.e., it's strongly research oriented, as far as I can tell) than PHP and SQL.  Doesn't seem like a good first step up.

Good luck with whatever you do try. 

Yeah, actionscript would be they best one if you are willing to spend like 300 bucks. I find it simple if the code is like:

if (hitTest(_root.ground)){
y -= 1;
}else[
y += 1;
}

Sorry, messed up the else bracket, but you get the point. It uses    <if><else>    blocks!