Will Kalif asked:
Video Game making is a pursuit that involves creativity, visual design, writing, logical thinking, collaboration, and many other skills. It is something that your teenager could get very enthusiastic about and it can be done at no cost whatsoever.
Making video games is not about computer programming
Video game making is no longer the pursuit of the cliched nerdy computer programming types of individuals. There are freely available software programs that take the “programming†right out of the process and free the user to explore the creative potential of making video games.
What skills are developed?
When building a video game a person is building a world and this processs entails a wide variety of skills and disciplines that begins with the generation of ideas then progresses into design of buildings, landscapes and characters. During this process the game maker learns writing skills, storytelling skills, graphic design and architectural skills. Then the game progresses into playability where the game maker will learn logic, flowcharting, storyboarding and even the basics of economics and trade. The process for making a video game is a complete creative cycle that starts with the generation of ideas and ends with the completion of a project.
The Feedback and Positive Reinforcement comes quickly and often
The first lesson learned by a game maker is the lesson of persistence. But this persistence is done in gentle steps with frequent positive feedback. A game maker can have his or her first small game up and running in one afternoon. From there the challenges get more complex and more rewarding. The only limit to the complexity, size and creativity of a game is the limit that the game maker puts on himself.
Scalability, the Learning Curve, and growth
Game making is an extremely elastic pursuit that challenges and develops a person from the absolute beginner to the very advanced. Someone new to video game making can actually have a small working game completed within a few hours and this can be developed and expanded into a very large world with challenges in economics, player interactions, complex design of worlds and cities and more. There is always a new set of things to learn and a new set of skills to learn.
Applicability to the regular career world
The biggest gain in making video games is the gain of learning how to manage projects small and large but game making also brings experience in a variety of creative pursuits from visual design to computer skills, writing, and even music. Your teenager, while learning to make video games, will be exposed to a whole host of different creative pursuits. He or she can get a good look at all these pursuits and even if he or she doesn’t want to be a game designer the skills learned will apply to almost any career path imaginable. And all of this is neatly wrapped up in something your teenager can get excited about.