davidbau.com

I suppose if a 6 year old can learn Python, I could probably learn Java. It's still slow going...

Thanks for this post! Google led me to it when I was searching how to set an icon in a pygame app on OS X. I was delighted to find the 'hdiutil' command as well! I had been creating my .dmg with disk utility--what a pain.

I'm working on an implementation of checkers. Check it out if you want at http://stocksfam.com/checkers/

That is a very cool game. Just downloaded it and played it. Creating games like that at only 6 imagen what he will be able to do when he grows up.

wow. its the best game ever! fantastic sound effects :)
played for an half hour, but only once i have i guessed the number...hehe.

Hi, David-

This is great! It really shows that kids can be active creators, not just spectators, on the computer.

Your son has a very good intuition about what makes a good game. The voice, the timing... all great touches. It took me many tries to finally win the game.

You might be interested in showing SVG to Anthony... it's an open Web graphics standard, it has animation, it works in the browser, you can create graphical content in text or in free apps like Inkscape, and it supports JavaScript, which would probably be easy to learn for a bright guy like him. It doesn't yet have built-in audio support, but that's coming.

My son turns 5 in another few months. He already knows more about computers than his grandparents... he regularly teaches them new things. :P

I am sure in the next year or so we will be writing some simple games. I think he will be combining them with some robots too...

Wow... Thank you for this wonderfull story. I'm 36 and just started learning Python 2 weeks ago. Right now I feel a little like Anthony :-)

That sounds great. I wish my son was old enough, I'm just longing to start doing stuff like this with him.

If you want to try a more ambitious game, the XNA libraries are a pretty good starting framework.

Stumbled across this story by chance while searching for 'old games' in Google.

I found it sort of inspiring. I started learning to program games when I was 9. I'm just about 19 now, and actually haven't progressed that much in game development, unfortunately - I tend to do applications programming now instead.

I really need to get back into it!

All the best.

Hi! I'm a 50+ grandmother who spent a few hours today showing my 8 year old grandson the "Learning Python" lessons you wrote. I wish I had done Vampire first but I have to tell you - he is getting it and he loves it! My biggest hurdle was figuring how to run the script on Windows XP - after googling I finally figured out I didn't need to do anything other than save the program to the Python folder. Thank you for some great material and for helping me to live up to the name "Grandma Zelda" that he gave me several years ago! Now ... how to convince Grandpa that Grandma needs a Mac ... hey! those are my initials!
P.S. I think Hangman will be a great reinforcement for those weekly spelling lists ... thanks again!

Great Game!!! Here the python-Script that is running on Ubuntu. You just have to install python-pygame. But unfortunately it lacks graphics.

#!/usr/bin/python
import random

# Anthony says it is important for the game to pause at the right time
# and to make vampire sounds
import time
import pygame, sys

#import macfont
pygame.init()
pygame.display.set_icon(pygame.image.load("Vampire.png"))
pygame.display.set_caption("Guess A Number")

# Anthony recorded all these sounds with Audacity
intro_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound("intro.wav")
guess_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound("guess.wav")
you_win_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound("you_win.wav")
big_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound("big.wav")
small_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound("small.wav")
i_win_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound("i_win.wav")
last_guess_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound("last_guess.wav")
guess_again_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound("guess_again.wav")
number_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound("number.wav")

# This is the game, written by Anthony.
def play():
secret_number = random.randint(1, 100)
intro_sound.play()
sys.stdout.write("HARRRG! I've got the secret")
sys.stdout.write("it's a number. 1-100")
guesses_left = 5
time.sleep(7)
guess_sound.play()
sys.stdout.write("GUESS!")

while guesses_left != 0:
letters = raw_input()
try:
guess = int(letters)

if guess == secret_number:
you_win_sound.play()
sys.stdout.write("you win!")
time.sleep(5)
break

if guess > secret_number:
big_sound.play()
sys.stdout.write("(TOO BIG!)")
else :
small_sound.play()
sys.stdout.write("(too small!)")

except:
sys.stdout.write("(it's a number!)")
number_sound.play()

time.sleep(2)

guesses_left -= 1

if guesses_left == 0:
i_win_sound.play()
sys.stdout.write("I WIN!")
sys.stdout.write(secret_number)
time.sleep(5)
elif guesses_left == 1:
last_guess_sound.play()
sys.stdout.write("LAST GUESS!")
else:
guess_again_sound.play()
sys.stdout.write("GUESS AGAIN!")

# Daddy added this part to catch errors
try:
play()
except:
pass

Hi there,

I found this series when I searched information to start my son to do programming. Thanks for sharing!

I did a google search for how to add an icon using py2app, and sure enough, this was one of the top hits. I loved the game. Could you add a while True: loop around play() so I can play over and over, lol! I still can't guess that pesky number.

Anyway, here's a little math game I was working on, hoping the next version will have an icon!

http://bitbucket.org/jgrigonis/mathfacts