CC-licensed book on learning games programming for kids

Al Sweigart sez,

I've written a book that teaches programming to kids (and beginner adults) that I thought might interest you. The book is Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python and it is available in full for free under a Creative Commons license.

I began writing it when a friend who nannies a 10 year old boy asked me for any good programming tutorials. Most of what I found seemed to be either boring textbooks or books for software engineers. My book uses a different approach: Each chapter focuses on the source code for a small game (Tic Tac Toe, Hangman, Othello, an encryption program, etc.) and explains the concepts as they come up in the program. While sometimes concepts are introduced in an unorthodox order, they are always based on actual programs.

The first three chapters covers the basics of installing Python and using the interactive shell. The next several chapters covers games that use text and ASCII art. The last four chapters introduces the Pygame library for graphics and sound.

The print edition came out a couple months ago and has about a dozen reviews on Amazon. (I've priced it at $25 to qualify for free shipping and but still cheaper than other computer books, and it's still free online.)

Buy Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python on Amazon

Teach yourself how to program by making computer games! (download and information)

(Thanks, Al!)

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