Teach yourself how to program by making computer games!
"Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" is a free e-Book that teaches you how to program in the Python programming language. Each chapter gives you the complete source code for a new game, and then teaches the programming concepts from the example.
IYOCGwP ("eye-yawk-gwip") was written to be understandable by 10 to 12 year olds, although it is great for anyone of any age who has never programmed before.
Quick Download Links
- Download the Python installer (for Windows)
- (download other versions)
- Download the book's PDF (or view the web page version)
- You can also download the source code or the executable versions of the games (the executables don't require Python to be installed.)
Python is the new BASIC
I learned how to program with a book similar to this one when I was 9 years old. That book covered games programming in the BASIC language. Python is a much more modern language that makes programming even easier. At the same time, Python is a serious language that is used by companies and organizations such as Google, NASA, Industrial Light and Magic, and many others.
Unfortunately, BASIC is not nearly as widespread as it once was, so it's hard to find materials for kids to teach themselves programming. There are many software "game creation kits" that are simple to use, but do not teach real programming languages and are limited to making only a few specific types of games. IYOCGwP is designed to teach real programming in Python. Python has a very gentle learning curve (moreso than BASIC) and has a large online community that contributes to it.
IYOCGwP is not a book for making professional video games, but rather a book to teach computer programming to non-programmers by making simple (but fun) games.
Have something to say?
Leave a comment on the blog page for this book.
You can email the author at al@coffeeghost.net.
Other programming guides for kids:
Here are some other free resources to learn programming (in Python and other languages):
- Hackety Hack (programming in the Ruby language)
- How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python
- Snake Wrangling for Kids: Learning to Program with Python
- Python.org Documentation
- Hands-On Python: A Tutorial Introduction for Beginners
- The Guido van Robot Programming Language (a simplified form of Python, designed as a kid's tutorial)
- Greenfoot (programming in the Java language)
IYOCGwP is free to copy and distribute under a Creative Commons license.
Copyright 2008, 2009 © by Albert Sweigart
"Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
