video game creation resources

[Julie Layne]

I received the request below from a coworker. She's supporting a student's self directed learning project (which is largely completed outside of school) and has asked me for some resources. I have virtually no coding experience myself, this is my first year in this position, so I'm hoping to draw on your expertise here. What platform would be good for a 5th grade student to create a web based video game?

One student in my class would like to create a digital video game for his Learning Without Walls project. His family doesn't want to download any software to do this, but they are comfortable with him using a free website. Do you know of any websites or resources that might be helpful as we support him in seeing if this project is feasible?

[Nate Gordon]

Scratch is a great tool for this - my fifth-graders are currently using it for video game design.  

On Mon, Mar 16, 2026 at 12:29 PM Julie Layne <rubbi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I received the request below from a coworker. She's supporting a student's self directed learning project (which is largely completed outside of school) and has asked me for some resources. I have virtually no coding experience myself, this is my first year in this position, so I'm hoping to draw on your expertise here. What platform would be good for a 5th grade student to create a web based video game?

One student in my class would like to create a digital video game for his Learning Without Walls project. His family doesn't want to download any software to do this, but they are comfortable with him using a free website. Do you know of any websites or resources that might be helpful as we support him in seeing if this project is feasible?

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[JD Pirtle]

There are tons of ways to do this, but for a 5th grader who is self directing his own project my first recommendation would be Scratch. 

https://scratch.mit.edu/

There are lots of learning resources on the website, doesn’t require any kind of download, and has an amazing community of users and educators. I start students with Scratch in 3rd grade and progress with it until students start running into limitations, which usually happens with a small group of kids in 7th/8th grade who want to use Unity or something more robust. In 5th grade we design game assets with https://www.pixilart.com/ and import them into Scratch, which helps them make more customized, 8 bit looking games that don’t rely on the built in sprites they’ve been using for a few years.

JD

On Mar 16, 2026, at 11:25 AM, Julie Layne <rubbi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I received the request below from a coworker. She's supporting a student's self directed learning project (which is largely completed outside of school) and has asked me for some resources. I have virtually no coding experience myself, this is my first year in this position, so I'm hoping to draw on your expertise here. What platform would be good for a 5th grade student to create a web based video game?

One student in my class would like to create a digital video game for his Learning Without Walls project. His family doesn't want to download any software to do this, but they are comfortable with him using a free website. Do you know of any websites or resources that might be helpful as we support him in seeing if this project is feasible?

[Keith G Braafladt]

I would 2nd, 3rd and 4th the recommendation of Scratch, not only all the support materials but the amazing online community of learners as well. I've been using Scratch as a formal and informal educator for years and I am always amazed to learn how many of my students already know about Scratch and tinker with it (from games to music to robotics to pop culture... and on and on) but also who are so excited to learn that a teacher is interested in providing a space for them to gather and share in person.

Reach out to us for support - always happy to encourage and support

(btw love your email )

Keith

On Mon, Mar 16, 2026 at 11:29 AM Julie Layne <rubbi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I received the request below from a coworker. She's supporting a student's self directed learning project (which is largely completed outside of school) and has asked me for some resources. I have virtually no coding experience myself, this is my first year in this position, so I'm hoping to draw on your expertise here. What platform would be good for a 5th grade student to create a web based video game?

One student in my class would like to create a digital video game for his Learning Without Walls project. His family doesn't want to download any software to do this, but they are comfortable with him using a free website. Do you know of any websites or resources that might be helpful as we support him in seeing if this project is feasible?

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Keith Braafladt

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he / him / his

"Do something, do something to that, and then do something to that."— Jasper Johns, 2008

[Keith G Braafladt]

Oh! I forgot to share my Scratch user accounts - my personal and informal ed account is keithbraafladt and my teacher account is braafladt-teacher

Keith

[JD Pirtle]

Here’s mine, if it helps. It’s basically just examples/demos I made for students: some fairly complete games, demos of how to do specific things (with comments inside to help explain), and ridiculous examples that happen when I crowdsource subject matter from 3rd and 4th grade classrooms.

https://scratch.mit.edu/users/MrPirtle/

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[Keith G Braafladt]

👍

Keith G Braafladt reacted via Gmail

[Brad Wright]

As many people have mentioned, Scratch is great. But, I would also look at Makecode Arcade:

https://arcade.makecode.com/

In some ways, I like it better than Scratch. 

Best,

Brad

[Kathy Giori]

Scratch is likely the best fit for 5th graders. But the easiest tool for building games to run on a mobile phone or tablet is OctoStudio. (You also build right from the phone/tablet, no computer required.)

But if you want to move to inexpensive microcontroller boards with small screens (some like the ESP32-based "Cheap Yellow Display" are ~$20), MicroBlocks is the way to go (imho). Check out this amazing learning tutorial written by my colleague Bernat (one of the two core MicroBlocks developers). The other main developer and founder of the free non-profit project is John Maloney, who led Scratch development at MIT Media Lab for the first 11 years. This tutorial offers many learning opportunities related to "old school graphics" methodologies, which required serious memory optimizations:

https://learn.microblocks.fun/en/activities/old-school-graphics-en/

And older kids can build much more sophisticated games than Scratch if they learn Snap!

Good luck to the student!

kathy

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[Andrew]

I support all of the previous statements  about Scratch, and happily share my ancient folder of Game Templates hewn from years of elementary Scratch classes. 
https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/1751401

That said, I stopped teaching Scratch or Snap! as game creation tools a few years ago, and switched entirely to Pico-8
https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

Pico-8 nominally fails the parent restriction of "no downloaded tools," but the free web-based version is feature complete. 

Live Editor: https://www.pico-8-edu.com/

Description: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=47278

Pico-8 is a Lua-based development environment, with an integrated sprite editor, map editor, along with sfx and music tools. Pico-8 distributes games through "carts" which are PNG files with all of the game code and resources embedded within the PNG structure. This means that Pico.8 games, like Scratch games, are all simultaneously toys to play and models to emulate.  

Advanced Pico-8 games are well beyond novice capability, in the same way that GriffPatch games don't represent the typical student Scratch game.  But the Pico-8 basics are incredibly clear.  

I teach from MBoffin's incredible Pico-8 Game Zine, attached and linked, which has two of the best copy-along tutorials I've ever used.

https://mboffin.itch.io/gamedev-with-pico-8-issue1

--andrew 

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[Dov Lebowitz-Nowak]

As everyone else is saying, yes, Scratch! +1! 

All the reasons I love it have already been articulated, so I won't take more space here except to add another app to think about:

Wick Editor (https://www.wickeditor.com/#/). I originally found it when looking for a free alternative to the app I had been using with an animation class and am obsessed; it's basically like a hybrid between Hypercard and Scratch. Lots of fun!

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[Chris Reina]

What everyone has said +1’s to all!

@Dov - you’ve said a word that fills my heart with joy - “Hypercard” - I miss this app so much - simplicity was key there and I would love to see some [good] form of this return.

Scratch - good intro to block-based coding, great for games and animations

Pico8 -  Looks great for 8-bit coding

Makecode Arcade - great for games - also for “levelling up” as in intro to Javascript and Python

Edublocks - also great to level up - Python, HTML, Micro:bit, RPi, Circuit Python - using either blocks or text

Trinket - good blocks to Python editor

Coding Bat -  Java & Python basic exercises editor

Python Tutor - Python (diff versions); C, C++, Javascript

SonicPi- making music with code

TurtleStitch - embroidery from code (machine not required… but expands remit hugely!)

OctoStudio - absolutely love this for mobile coding (cross-platform)

GP Blocks - basic block-based coding

Microblocks - like Scratch - plugin rich

Honestly - there are so many, @Julie your coworkers student is spoiled for choice. [Almost] all of these don’t require a download. It is worth noting that to save work, almost all require a login using just an email address.

In most cases - these all run fully loaded in the browser. (ie: Once the page has loaded, they will work offline) - but if you close the page, you’ll need to reload initially.

I can also highly recommend : Tinkercad for simple 3D modelling. This allows the user to create 3D objects using simple shapes, then export for printing, or see what they look like in Lego or Minecraft style.

Hope the above list is of help - we’ve used all of these frequently to teach coding and most are winners - depending on the age group of course!

Many thanks!

Chris

> He / him - what’s this?

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[Kameny, Susie]

I just wanna jump in and say that Bill Atkinson, who invented hypercard was a friend of mine.  He passed last year, but he had such a kind heart and such a creative mind.  I miss him as well. 

Susie (:

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Susie Kameny

Visual and Media Art Teacher, SFUSD

Lakeshore Alternative Elementary

Chinese Immersion Elementary