12 hours ago, Ramendik said:
A classic-style RTS (like my old favourite, WarCraft II) might be tricky to develop on one's own AI
It has more problems even without smart AI, there are lots of autonomous concurrent movement going on, and stuff like path-finding, it's a difficult genre to program.
What we usually suggest to beginning programmers are games like pong, tetris, space-invaders. Much easier to program, yet plenty of challenge to get it all done. Maybe your son should start even simpler, with hangman, fifteen puzzle, 2048.
Don't aim for the high-end until your son can handle it.
13 hours ago, Ramendik said:
One idea I had right now is to make a WarCraft-like PvP RTS with a scripting mechanism, so that anyone (ourselves included) could develop a full AI or "assisted play", with AI vs AI play a possibility. But the idea sounds a tad too obvious. Someone probably already did this?
So who is programming here? Dad or Son?
Why does it have to be "new"?
13 hours ago, Ramendik said:
Also, one still needs a server for non-massive PvP over the 'net, but this might be doable (especially if one piggybacks on a protocol like Jabber and the server is just a standard thing; one would need one of the clients to be the master, enabling cheating, but really who cares).
Right, a 12-year old doing networking and servers, piggy-backing over jabber. Sure, tbh I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to program games too, that's fine, by all means go for it, it's fun! Programmable RTS by Jabber sounds like a fun project even if it was already done.
However I think it's a bad idea to apply your capabilities and your standards onto your Son. Give him room to do things his way and let him make his own choices, be an enabler, be a guide, be a supporter, even if the result is not what you expect.
13 hours ago, Ramendik said:
Despite all this talk, an RTS based on freebie graphics is likely to look like that much garbage.
He isn't anywhere near an RTS, I think. Also, whose standards are speaking here?
Objectively, no doubt you are correct. I suck at graphics too. Truth is, getting good at graphics is as much work as learning to program, and I never spend the time. The question is, does it matter?
If you aim for selling the game, yes it does. If you aim for a 12-year old doing random programming and having fun, exploring the world, and finding his way around challenges, it does not, imho.
Let him find a solution for it. Maybe he'll draw something. Maybe he grabs something from somewhere, maybe he gets inspired in pixel drawing. Whatever it is, it works for him, be happy for him.
If stuff looks like it's going to be serious, buy him some art for his birthday or so.