First off, I'm not entirely certain this is the proper place to post, but I think given the general audience it makes the most sense. If I am wrong, please relocate.

I just finished work on the Guide to Getting Kids Started in Game Development and I figured I would share it here. The intended audience is parents or younger teens looking to get started in game development. There fore it makes no assumptions about your technical abilities and explains key concepts in some detail. Then it looks at the various options available in a lot more detail.

Please keep in mind, this isn't the traditional "What programming language should I start with?" type document. I already wrote one of those. Therefore you won't see recommendations like C++, C# or Java anywhere within. This instead is targeting a younger or less technical audience. That isn't to say that this advice isn't useful for people of all ages ( it is ), nor that younger programmers can't work with "traditional" programming languages ( they can, sometimes ).

From the more experienced developers out there, I would love to have your feedback. Disagree with a recommendation I've made? Spot an error? Have a suggestion of your own? Noticed something I said that would be confusing as heck to a non-programmer? Any and all feedback appreciated.

I think your article certainly covers a good range of game making products. It's nice to have the screenshots and cost comparisons there to get more of an idea what someone might be getting into and whether or not it looks like something they might be able to handle.
But I think, with the title, I was hoping for an article that was more something that covers a variety of game concepts that could be generally considered across those products. Maybe some basic stuff about screen co-ordinates, animation, collision, events, maybe a little bit about variables and calculations with them. Then taking these concepts and assembling them together to get something resembling a game.

A comprehensive 'how to' for each product like that would obviously get quite lengthy, but I'm thinking more about how things like variables, collisions, events, etc. tend to be common in game development and design and how thinking in terms of these concepts might be beneficial.

Make that a follow up, maybe?

Please keep in mind, this isn't the traditional "What programming language should I start with?" type document. I already wrote one of those.

You wrote that one??

*claps silently*

Pretty much the go-to article if someone ever ask that question.

Thanks :)

That's why I wrote it. I keep intended to update it, but truth is, the advice hasn't really changed all that much. The Lua landscape changed a bit, Unity and Unreal got more popular, C++14 happened, Flash for browser continued to die, Haxe rose a bit, HTML5 got a bit better, Slick2D died and Python continued to stagnate and that's about it. It's odd how the game dev world feels like so much is happening, but at a macro level, things are pretty much business as usual. :)

Make that a follow up, maybe?

I actually thought about doing a site specifically for game dev with kids. This has a few issues though.

1- COPPA

2- already pretty much out of time

I do think I will do a series or two on some of the topics I brushed on though. Gamemaker is already pretty well supported, as is Scratch. I have however considered doing a series on Construct2 or Stencyl, as both were really pleasant to work with while writing this. They are very similar however, to the point I think one owes the other an apology. ;)