I taught them how to use Game Maker (http://yoyogames.com/make/), and they managed to make two games in five days. Although several of them were much more interested in playing minecraft, as can be seen.
However, in a class full of game players, there are always one of two contentious students. This is probably the hardest working student in the class:
Since it was school break, all three kids had the week off. Carmen (aged 8) came in and joined the class for two days, Daniel (aged 10) joined for three days. They were not as fast workers as the secondary school kids, but they were consistent in their work, and rarely (if ever) played games.
Was their work as good as the secondary schools? Almost. Does this mean I could teach game maker to primary school kids? NO NO NO! My kids were well behaved (they didn't dare annoy daddy), but I doubt that a class of primary school kids could be that disciplined, in fact I doubt my kids are that well behaved at school normally.
But just in case there are any parents out there reading this. A 8-10 year old could build a game with some support.
Have a look an decide what you think on the games. They should run on most Windows PC, and were completed by the kids with minimal supervision.
