Code Your Own Games On Switch With The Return Of Petit Computer

Create your own shovelware! Nice!

@NaviAndMii That no one will play

Well.... let's see.

Keyboard support is a must for this.

Is it a good tool for teaching basic programming skills that would transfer to more advanced programs?

I tried working with my son through unity on my crappy laptop and got nowhere. He wants to learn but unity is not a good 1st step.......at least not on my 7 year old laptop

I’m interested, but I feel like keyboard support would be a deal breaker.

@Gerbwmu I've tried this on 3ds and I wasn't a huge fan, although having a keyboard and mouse could be a game changer.

If you're looking to teach programming on an old laptop though, check out pico-8. It's a simple Dev environment for retro games - the original Celeste was made in it! I love it a ton and there are tons of beginner resources.

Gamemaker studio is also a good starting point, unity is more complicated. I haven't tried any of these before but it sounds interesting being able to develop straight onto the console though would hopefully have keyboard support for writing out code!

Part of me is super excited, as I've always loved Petit Computer/SmileBASIC, but another part of me realises I don't really have the time for it anymore. I currently have a pinball game I'm working on that's coming along better than ever before, I want to start working in Unity one I finish that, and now I have NES Maker to look forward to later this year. Regardless, SmileBASIC is fun just to mess around with and play other people's creations, so I'll definitely pick this up once it releases.

"NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDS!" -Homer Simpson, 1993.

If you could share and play games online, I would absolutely love this.

@Gerbwmu How old is your kid? When my kids were little they spent a lot of time messing around in Kodu.

https://www.kodugamelab.com/about/

They also spent time playing Project Spark until MS shut it down.
Here's a list of coding software I bookmarked after that but have little experience with.

https://alternativeto.net/software/project-spark/

I know Roblox is huge, and there's some coding in there, not sure how much, just seems like a step up from Minecraft to me, but I grew up learning COBOL, Pascal and Fortran in the 80's so my view of coding is different than most.

https://www.roblox.com/?v=rc&rbx_source=3&rbx_medium=cpa&rbx_campaign=1474692#WhatsRobloxContainer

They've been making a very long game in RPG Maker VX for years now but as the name implies it seems to be more about making RPG than coding.

On the bright side, Nintendo Labo w/ Labo Garage in a couple of months, seems like a nice very basic programming introduction.

Great, now there can be even more indie games with a top down view and microscopic characters doing mundane actions. Maybe they can have an 8-bit aesthetic or have each model be 3 polys for a "stylized" look. It will be completely groundbreaking!

@Gerbwmu Have you tried RPG Maker? It's a pretty simple tool to make oldschool jrpg.
You can make simple games with it without having to script at all, although scripts are supportet so that opens up a lot more options you could explore over time.

Might be a good starting point and
If it is in a Steam sale, it can be very cheap.

Can't say anything about Petit Computer though

Nice! This should be interesting!

Allright, since Vlambeer hasn't shown any interests in the Switch at all, I'll take on the responsibility of making my very own Nuclear Throne for Switch!

Errrrr, I'll stick with NESmaker.

@Gerbwmu There are some great suggestions here already to look into by others.

I'll just mention that starting with a couple tabletop games like Robot Turtles or Code Master is a way to introduce some core concepts of programming. Those would be for someone on the young side maybe.

There's also Human Resource Machine which is available everywhere including Switch which sneakily teaches you some great fundamentals.

Code Combat on the web is another way to get things going. (Use Javascript)

Rather than jump right to game making, I'd find a nice intro language and just get some coding with results going on. There are many options. If your old computer is a Mac, you might look into Swift Playgrounds. It's one of the best programming introductions I've seen. 7-year-old computer might limit your ability to do this though.

It's surprising how rewarding just getting text to output in a certain way and simple programs can be and it can happen much quicker than working with a game engine.

Once the fundamentals of programming are fun for someone, you can apply that skill to a bunch of places. Something like GameMaker Studio, or some of the simpler solutions mentioned above will be a better place to start than Unity or Unreal Engine, which are complicated tools to start with because it has to scale so far up.

Just a note: Be sure to let the person you are helping make all the decisions and discoveries.

As I am studying for game development and design, I could really use this just for fun and practice.

@Kirgo @aaronsullivan @rjejr @Rococoman

Thank you all for the suggestions!

I'm not the programming force at my studio, but back when I was 12 I taught myself an amount of BASIC.

I've been beating around the bush concerning previous PetitComputer releases, but this time it might really be my day!

Oh so this is what happened to the WiiU one

@teoulas @SimplyCinnamon53, agreed. Keyboard support is needed. It was neat to get access to DS controls, but typing code on the touch screen was painful. I made a Simon-like game, but even that took a long time to code.

With access to program inputs from the joy cons, this opens it up to a lot better multiplayer games than the DS/3DS versions.

Pong Clones, here I come! (with HD rumble)

It would also be nice to have a cheaper version that was just a game player app. So people could play the games made without having to purchase the programming tools.

Better English documention would also help.

@rjejr

Borland Turbo Pascal, some Basic, attempted C++, and some Visual Basic, that was 'programming', not sure I understand what 'coding' is, other than a buzz word for programming.

I wrote a couple of games in PetitBasic and enjoyed the coding, but the media asset creation and integration was dire. Hopefully you'll be able to import assets this time. I bought SmileBasic too, but never actually used it.

I can't wait to once again download this and never use it

@Dom Uhm...it's "Smileboom", not "Slimeboom". Hah.

@Bod2019 Programming serves a purpose, coding is for fun.

I just made that up now but I like it.

On a more serious note, I think kids today would view programming as getting some hardware to work - you program your car or your TV or your phone to do something. Coding is for software only. My kid is on his high school robotics team and has taken several Java classes and I've noticed he always talks about coding for his class work but programming the robot the do something.

Not saying it's cut and dry or right and wrong, just what I've noticed listening to him.

Construct 2/3 is a good tool for game development as well, you don't even have to write code. I played around with it and made something functional, but I wasn't able to finish. The Next Penelope was made with Construct 2. Construct 3 is improved in many ways, but I didn't dive into that one since the company went with a subscription model instead of a one time purchase, but they still support Construct 2 for now.

Bring it out in the UK a little quicker, this time, please!!
This could be a decent way for me to get my games onto Switch!

SpikeDislike on 3DS Smile Basic : VDVQS3QJ

Woah nice!

Well, I guess I'm getting a switch now.

@Meowpheel Looks like it. The Japanese version released about a year ago, though.

@Prof_Yoshtonics Your comment needs more sharpen to beat my edgelord ways.

If it wasn't for the limitation of what was allowed on the SmileBasic servers (copyright and all), I probably would have ported over MM2PTC onto it for the 3DS (though it lacked palette animation, and the original game and project heavily used that). I imagine the same will be for this version.

@Gerbwmu
You could try Scratch. It is made for kids and writing the code involves snapping blocks together. I've been teaching my kid and he is enjoying it. There is a really good book for getting started.

@Gerbwmu It is a great tool! I would recommend getting your son into lua, it is a part of C/C++/C# but works on its own, and there is a modification for minecraft that he can use,
http://www.computercraft.info/
http://www.lua.org/

Sooooo.... Is this thing happening?
Anyone?

@Pod The Japanese version has been released a while ago, and the localized English versions will hopefully be finished and released soon(tm).
If you're itching to play, you can buy a JPN eShop card and use the points to buy SB4 with a JPN profile, since the Switch is region-free. When the English localization releases, the Japanese version will receive an English language option as well, so it's not a bad choice.

@fennel
That does sound reasonable!