So when it comes to game development, PICO-8 isn’t the only engine/platform I’ve played with. I got my start with Game-Editor, a tiny little game engine I begged my mom to buy despite being 10 and on the edge of homeless. Looking back on it I’m very lucky to have that investment in my childhood.
Oh god, the game still works... is that... is that comic sans?
Anyway the point is I’ve been playing with game development for most of my life. However, I’ve never played around with 3D Game Dev. (Aside from making 3D tetris using Three.js and shenanigans) It’s been a wild ride to figure out the basics but following some tutorials has gotten me to a point that I feel comfortable enough to continue.
Something I found interesting while learning is the fact that the source I learned this from was a Youtube channel called KidsCanCode, and that is amazing to me. When I was a kid I didn’t have resources like that, I went to libraries and asked if they had really obscure books for coding, even got some on request so that I could check them out, but that was the limits of my ability to find anything, and it was in no way targeted towards kids.
I am incredibly grateful for these types of channels and teachers that go out of their way to let kids take control of their education and learn what they want to learn because that is something I wish I had when I was younger. It’s become so much easier than it was because of people like them.
We need more content like KidsCanCode and I hope to one day get to the point where I can teach more advanced types of concepts and pass it on to the younger generation who will easily outpace me and steal my job in the future.
