Parent guide · 6 min read
Coding through game design: what a game-making class actually teaches
A lot of children say they want to "learn coding" because they want to make a game, and that is a genuinely good starting point — games give instant, visible feedback, which is exactly what keeps a beginner motivated through the boring parts. But "coding games" online and a class that teaches your child to build one are quite different things, and it is worth knowing what the second one actually involves before signing up.
Try this tonight
4 things you can do at home
Ask what game they actually want to make
A specific idea — "a game where you dodge falling blocks", "a maze you escape" — gives a class something concrete to build toward from the first lesson, rather than a vague wish to "make games".
Check basic coding comfort first
Have your child read or write a short piece of code with a loop or a simple condition. Recognising the shape of it, even without being fluent, is a better readiness sign than any particular age.
Try a five-minute "what happens next" game
Draw a small square on paper and ask your child to describe, step by step, what should happen if it hits the edge of the page. That is the exact logic behind collision detection, worked out before any code is involved.
Tell apart "playing" coding games and "building" one
Free coding games (block-based puzzle sites) are for practising logic through a made-for-you game. A game-design coding class is the reverse: your child is the one designing and writing the game, not solving someone else’s puzzle.
What "coding games" usually means online
Most free "coding games" are puzzle sites: your child solves a level by dragging blocks or writing a short snippet to move a character through a maze someone else designed. That is a genuinely useful way to practise loops and conditions, and it is a fine warm-up — but it teaches solving a game, not building one.
A game-design coding class flips that around. Your child writes the code that decides what the player controls, what counts as a collision, and what happens when the score changes — the actual mechanics, not a puzzle wrapped around them.
The handful of ideas underneath almost every simple game
Nearly every beginner game, however different it looks, is built from the same small set of pieces: a loop that keeps checking "what’s happening right now" many times a second, variables that track things like position and score, conditions that ask "did these two things just touch?", and simple shapes drawn and redrawn in slightly different places to create movement.
A game-design class teaches those pieces directly, one at a time, and a child who has them can combine them into very different-looking games — a maze, a catcher, a simple platformer — without learning each one as a separate topic.
A worked example: catching falling shapes
Take a simple game: a basket at the bottom of the screen catches shapes falling from the top. The falling shape needs a variable for its vertical position, increased by a small amount every loop so it moves down smoothly. The basket needs a variable for its horizontal position, changed by arrow-key presses.
Catching it is a condition: on every loop, check whether the falling shape’s position overlaps the basket’s position closely enough to count as a catch. If it does, add one to a score variable and reset the falling shape to the top. That single check — comparing two positions and deciding they’re "close enough" — is the same idea behind collision in far more complex games; only the number of things being checked grows.
Does my child need to know how to code first?
Not strictly, but some comfort helps. A game-design class still uses ordinary code — variables, loops, conditions, simple functions — so a child who has already done a first coding course spends class time on the game ideas themselves rather than on the mechanics of writing code at all.
A total beginner can still start and picks up both together, which simply means the earliest classes lean more on the coding fundamentals before the games get more ambitious — worth knowing going in, rather than expecting a finished game in the first lesson.
Signs it’s time for outside help
When home help has done what it can
- Your child says they want to "make a game", not just play one.
- They enjoy free coding-puzzle games and ask how to make their own instead.
- They have done some coding already and are asking "what else can I build with this?"
- They describe an idea for a game in detail without knowing how to start building it.
- They keep tweaking or modding an existing game and are curious how it works underneath.
Questions parents ask
FAQ
Is this the same as the free coding games my child already plays?
No. Those are puzzle sites where the game is already built and your child solves it. A game-design coding class is the reverse: your child writes the code that builds the game itself.
What age can a child start a game-design coding class?
Our Python Game Design course is open from age 8 to 16. A younger child with no coding background will lean more on the fundamentals in the early classes; an older child, or one who already knows some Python, moves to building game mechanics faster.
Does my child need a powerful computer to make games in class?
No. The games built in a beginner-level class are small and run happily on an ordinary laptop, since the point is learning how the mechanics work, not building something graphically demanding.
Is making games harder than a normal coding class?
It uses the same core ideas — variables, loops, conditions — as any beginner coding class, just aimed at one goal throughout. Most children find that having a single game to build toward makes those ideas click faster, not slower.
Classes that fit
Live, 60 minutes, four learners at most or 1-on-1.
Not sure which is right for your child?
Tell us their age and what they have tried so far, and we will suggest where to start before you book anything.