Computer Coding Python Games for Kids (DK Help Your Kids With)

The book contains a number of computer games that you read about and type into a python code editor. The books shows you how to set everything up. The book explains programming concepts as you go. There's a lot of great skills your child is learning by working through each chapter. The learn about the filing system, improve their familiarity with a keyboard, how to use a simple text editor and basic programming concepts. The games included are very well thought through as they don't require much code but each does something interesting and will teach your child some new programming concepts and give them a sense of achievement.

Ref the previous reviews saying the code doesn’t work. It’s now June 2020 and perhaps the book has been revised (though not mentioned in the front), but it is clear on page 53 for the first game how to run it. The instructions on pages 24 and 25 are clear. There are no errors with the “shoot the Apple” code given on page 198. The code is written for pygame zero so many packages are pre bundled into that eg Actor. If you are running within the idle editor then yes you will need to add references to packages that don’t need to be mentioned if running via pgzrun command. This is a very clear and concise introduction to pygame zero and gives opportunity to develop and enhance the games that are included. Negative is you have to type everything, the source code is not made available for download from DK.com, just the graphic files.

I like this series of books and have a library from maths to English. The python book is no exception it appeals to children walking them through sample apps. It gives clues to the logic of different kinds of games. There is a strong reliance on the gaming library which can be tricky on some devices and means that you don't see immediate results this can be a bit off-putting for beginners. It does not take long to get past this stage with some help. All in all useful for getting started with games.

This book is brilliant, and you you would expect no less from DK and Vorderman one or two things though to get you started because time has moved on and the software isn't quite as plug and play as you might hope, you have to download stuff so here it is (this works for windows 10, it may also work for 11 but I don't know for sure) 1 - don't just blindy download the latest python release, search specifically for version 3.8 2 - when installing look at the options and make sure it is set 'for all users' and 'integrated operations' or whatever the other option says (if in doubt tick all) 3 - after that ALSO go to microsoft store and 'get' python 3.8 from there as well, it obviously adds in something else that makes it all work 4 - run command line in *ADMINISTRATOR* and use the commands 'pip install pygame' and 'pip install pgzero' it will be obvious it it works, you should not be seeing any long warning messages in orange 5 - go to the dk website and download the images resource pack as detailed within the book page 52 point 4 you should now be ready to get on, click on the start menu and type IDLE to find the right compiler tool (right click and create shortcut for ease of access) make a little folder next to that on the desktop called python projects and if you use the start and end code from page 25 on each project, you will be able to run the program direct from IDLE or simply by double clicking your .py file in its folder now just enjoy having fun with it you're welcome :) my kids are 8 and 6, the 6yo in particular is autistic and very good at maths, he is all over this, and also codes already in minecraft, spends his whole life looking for bugs in nintendo games so im trying to get him away from playing and more into creating

Great kick start for a child to learn coding.

It was delivered promptly and is as described. It was also a very reasonable price. Perfect. Thank you.

Very well written, easily understandable an entertaining way to learn about a subject I knew very little about. Topics were fun to read about and try. Illustrations were excellent and amusing. As an introduction to coding for games it would be difficult to beat

bought this for my 11 year old nephew. He loves his computer games, and is brilliant at Maths, but hates reading. I am happy to say that within an hour or so of receiving it, he had already downloaded python! Looks like it’s going to be a winner!