PICO-8 [1] might be a good choice. I always consider that kids want their friends to try their games, and so being able to easily distribute to the web is awesome. They can link their game from the site [2], or with some parental help they could even serve them from their own website, which could be very empowering for a kid.
Another vote for Pico-8. It’s such an incredible little package.
The simple IDE and forced constraints makes you really focus on the basics like fun gameplay loops and minimal graphics, and the fact you can do the code, graphics, sound effects, and music all in one little program is a really smart way to teach you all different aspects of game dev.
It’s also so ridiculously easy to share your creations, outputting a simple HTML/JS combo that works perfectly on mobile and desktop even if they don’t own the program.
The simple IDE and forced constraints makes you really focus on the basics like fun gameplay loops and minimal graphics, and the fact you can do the code, graphics, sound effects, and music all in one little program is a really smart way to teach you all different aspects of game dev.
It’s also so ridiculously easy to share your creations, outputting a simple HTML/JS combo that works perfectly on mobile and desktop even if they don’t own the program.