Best children computer game books according to redditors

We found 64 Reddit comments discussing the best children computer game books. We ranked the 26 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top Reddit comments about Children's Computer Game Books:

u/[deleted] · 20 pointsr/ComedyCemetery

You know, I'd feel like these jokes would be funnier if the title of the book was "Minecraft Jokes for Autistic Kids".

And I don't mean that in a "ha-ha autism is funny" kind of way, but more as a way to actually frame the jokes in the right perspective, kind of like how horror movies aren't scary when you watch them with a crowd in broad daylight. Personally, I think the jokes are at least tolerable once knowing this.

Of course, I can't imagine many publishers would be okay with that title and the ensuing outrage backlash. I wonder if the book's foreword even mentions this at all?

You can sample more of the jokes at Amazon, some of which are at least a little funnier than the ones sampled here. The reviews are a little depressing, although comically and ironically (perhaps knowingly?), one reads, "I read this book and it gave me autism."

https://www.amazon.com/Jokes-Minecrafters-Booby-Traps-Boo-Boos-ebook/dp/B01AMB3UAS

***
Q: What do you call a cow that eats a bomb?

A: Udder destruction!

Q: What movie do Minecraft players like to watch?

A: The Terminator. (not sure I really get this one other than the fact that stuff blows up)

u/Manager_Cija · 15 pointsr/Competitiveoverwatch

Sounds like you have this well planned out. Your best route to success is definitely the support of your parents and their support and understanding. Having a firm commitment to return to school should this not be viable after one year is smart and a good compromise for their support of you vs you getting a chance to chase a dream. It's easy to just say 'go for it' but of course there are many factors that will have a huge influence on whether you reach you goal (e.g, your location will greatly affect your chances; it will be much harder in some regions (e.g., South America or Australia) than in others (e.g, NA, Korea, EU)).

A simple google search (especially in the 'news' section) will yield you a lot of articles that will be helpful for your parents understanding the viability of this career choice. Keywords such as Overwatch league, Overwatch league salaries, Esports growth, etc. will yield you many options to show your parents. Choose articles from reputable sources they would recognize such as Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/professional-videogamers-get-their-own-stadiums-1529512135 or ESPN http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/20163254/overwatch-league-owl-announces-details-player-contracts-team-buy-in.

As well, there is a reference book series aimed at middle grade students who want a career in esports that presents the information in a very easy-to-digest manner for parents:

https://www.amazon.com/Gaming-Professional-Sports-Teams-sports/dp/1599539659/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549235737&sr=8-1&keywords=Gaming+and+Professional+Sports+Teams+Douglas+Hustad

https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Sports-Industry-Game/dp/1599538911/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549235806&sr=8-1&keywords=Inside+the+E-Sports+Industry+by+Carla+Mooney

Most important, however, is understanding the commitmentrequired in the next year. For Tier 3, where you will start, expect to scrim 4 hours a night (which includes some nights doing vod reviews instead of playing), with two days off. This is combined with also playing extra hours of ranked games several days of the week, ideally while streaming to build an audience who will root for you/give you exposure. These are time commitments which will preclude girlfriends, nights out with your friends, birthday parties, even holidays etc since scrim times for Tier 3 tend to be from 18-24 (6:00 to midnight) and break rarely.. For Tier 2, expect to scrim four hours a day, six days a week. Above those hours, you will also have to spend time streaming/playing ranked and reviewing vods of your performance and analyzing your mistakes. In all, it is a full time 'job' for which it is unlikely you will receive any compensation. T2 hours are harsher: usually 16:00 to 24:00 (between 4:00 pm to midnight), six days a week. WIth only one day off, it can be daunting.

For your parents, you need them to understand you are becoming an entrepreneur - a business owner. And like most business owners, you build up a reputation and create a service/product for free, with the goal of eventually someone paying you for it. This is the same as training to become an architect, being a software designer, starting a photography business or even a vocation such as electrician or plumber. The plus side is you don't have to rack up a lot of student loans for a school - you're learning for free but have to be motivated enough to do it on your own. The down side is that you have to have discipline and work hard - you're on your own. This is the price that most entrepreneurs pay. Along the way, your personality and playstyle will turn into a brand - how well you create and market that brand may be the difference between a career and failure. Unless you are a prodigy, there is much more to a professional career than just clicking heads.

Finally, appreciate that you will need social skills - the greatest opportunities happen to those who are well connected or network. It's come to the point now that there is big money involved with Overwatch due to OWL - and few teams are willing to pay big money on someone with a bad reputation unless they are a complete prodigy. And players are starting to not want to recommend other players who are difficult, unreliable, or toxic - because it makes them look bad when someone doesn't live up to the 'favor' of the recommendation. You can have friends in Overwatch but you have to remember that this is a business - and you can't let friends destroy your busines through their own faults or shortcomings.

So factor in a complete plan with goals and objectives - how to gain a fan following through .e.g, streaming, gaining expertise and networking in ranked games, being reliable and putting yourself out there and being bold (it's difficult to ever get 'discovered' if you are shy), being ready to spend long hours reviewing metas in other regions and your own games to fix issues, and remembering that coaches and fellow players are your best avenues to improvement. Work with them and listen to them since being a pro often comes down to much more than just clicking heads.

For breaking into T3, you can check series of articles: https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/90aw1l/the_path_to_pro_beginnings_breaking_into_tier_3/

More specific advice would likely have to come from knowing your world location (which Overwatch region you reside in), your hero pool, and your personal circumstances. Just remember that there are thousands of top 500s around the world - but only a few ever become pros in OWL. There is a LOT more to being a pro then being good at the game.

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u/TrumpIsABigFatLiar · 12 pointsr/litrpg

With dates in order...

|Date|Title|Link|Format|Post|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|01 Aug|Shade's First Rule (Divine Apostasy Book 1)|AMZ|Book|Click Here|
|01 Aug|Varnoth: The Black Blade: Book One: (A LitRPG Story)|AMZ|Book||
|05 Aug|Hero GO! (Champion is Playing Book #3): LitRPG Series|AMZ|Book||
|05 Aug|Stuck in Mother Faboinging Flower Land - An Odd LitRPG Novel|AMZ|Book||
|07 Aug|Tales from the Dead Man Inn (NPC's Lives Book 1)|AMZ|Book||
|08 Aug|A Second Chance (Invasion Book #1): LitRPG Series|AMZ|Book||
|09 Aug|Bitter: Book Six|AMZ|Book||
|09 Aug|Expedition: Summerlands|AMZ|Book|Click Here|
|09 Aug|Star Divers: Dungeons of Bane|AMZ|Book|Click Here|
|09 Aug|The Dragon's Revenge|AMZ|Book|Click Here|
|09 Aug|The Pyramid Game (Pixel Dust Book 2)|AMZ|Book||
|10 Aug|Eden's Gate: The Ascent: A LitRPG Adventure|AMZ|Book||
|12 Aug|Ball of Light: Evolution|AMZ|Book||
|12 Aug|Dungeons of the Crooked Mountains (Underdog Book 1): LitRPG Series|AMZ|Book||
|15 Aug|Scamps & Scoundrels: A LitRPG/Gamelit Adventure (The Bad Guys Book 1)|AMZ|Book||
|16 Aug|A Mage Champion: (The Chronicles of Herst: Book 3)|AMZ|Book||
|22 Aug|Dragon Heart: Iron Will. LitRPG wuxia series: Book 2|AMZ|Book||
|30 Aug|A Check for a Billion (Galactogon Book #3): LitRPG Series|AMZ|Book||
|31 Aug|Darkness Named (dARkness: Online Book 1)|AMZ|Book||
|31 Aug|Zones of Alacria: The Dragon Gate: Epic GameLit / LitRPG (The Experimental Alchemist Book 1)|AMZ|Book||
||Fifth Realm||Book|Click Here|
||Shadow Sun Expansion: Shadow Sun Book Two||Book||

u/Agathocles_of_Sicily · 9 pointsr/CringeAnarchy

According to the amazon page they're a family of shitty jokers.

>Michele C. Hollow is an award-winning writer who learned about Minecraft from her son, Jordon. She blogs at Pet News and Views and is the author of several children’s books. She has absolutely no sense of humor, which her husband and son find ironic, but she doesn’t get. She lives in South Orange, New Jersey.

>Jordon P. Hollow plays Minecraft every chance he gets. An avid reader, especially on the subject of Minecraft. Jordon loves mac ‘n cheese, grilled cheese, and Tastycake pies. He is a high school student and lives in South Orange, New Jersey.

>Steven M. Hollow is an accomplished writer, actor, storyteller, puppeteer, and teaching artist. He began playing video games with the original introduction of Pong and plans to move on to other video games once he figures out how to move the paddles. He lives in South Orange, New Jersey.

u/bparkerson04 · 8 pointsr/learnprogramming

Here's a link to the book I recommended. I had the title wrong. It's "Learn to Program With Minecraft"

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1593276702/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473618415&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=learn+to+program+with+minecraft

It's a really cool concept and should capture your son's attention and build in him a love for programming.

u/fernly · 7 pointsr/learnpython

Would that be this book? The "look inside" is limited but it does include the start of the index where I see that "Actors" are discussed on page 52.

u/Ch3shireDev · 7 pointsr/learnprogramming

Sometimes I give to my students A Human Resource Machine ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Resource_Machine ), it contains nice set of programming problems. Sadly it becomes hard fast. But it's nice to start. Other game I could advice is Lightbot ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lightbot.lightbot ) - tested on 8yo girl, it had good reception. About programming itself there are books - Learn Program in Minecraft ( https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Program-Minecraft-Transform-Python/dp/1593276702# ) or Build Computer Games in Python ( https://books.google.pl/books/about/Invent_Your_Own_Computer_Games_with_Pyth.html?id=ZPneDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y ).

Sorry for bad formatting, I'll correct that as soon I'll go home.

u/minecraft_fnaf_2008 · 7 pointsr/ComedyCemetery

Well then. I guess I mistook these terrible jokes for other terrible jokes. I'm sorry, I was thinking this was Jokes for Minecrafters: Booby Traps, Bombs, Boo-Boos, and More

u/dustingetz · 5 pointsr/Clojure

Good error messages and bulletproof tool experience will be a priority for teaching unless you wanna be the on-call guy. I've tutored 1:1 for kids and you want them to feel in control right away, making something real that they can show mom ("I made this HTML file with cats in it!") and stay motivated. Something like this <https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Program-Minecraft-Transform-Python/dp/1593276702/> where I can get them set up and then they can teleport their avatar around immediately (nb I haven't used this book before)

u/mynameisperl · 4 pointsr/Minecraft
u/anon848 · 4 pointsr/learnprogramming

You can start with Code Studio. Do all 4 courses. About 3-5 exercises per day is about right, and should only take them a few minutes per day to do. The older one may be ready for the Accelerated Course. The kids can pretty much do it on their own, without your help.

You can then progress to Scratch with this book.

Or you can start right with Scratch.

After that, the older one may be ready to move on to Python, Swift/iOS, C, C++, Java/Android, etc., depending on interests.

u/QuaxTal · 3 pointsr/minecraftinfographics

Source is page 16 of the book Minecraft: Guide to Creative (Amazon).

u/Nezteb · 3 pointsr/learnprogramming

Here are a few books you might enjoy! Check your local libraries and book stores. These are geared towards beginners. I know you don't qualify as a "kid" but these books will give you an easier introduction than most.

u/pogothrow · 3 pointsr/TheSilphRoad

according to the Pokemon "Deluxe Essential Handbook" by Scholastic LAP-rus, TOE-geh-pee, AH-man-ite
edit spelling. heres the book https://www.amazon.ca/Pokemon-Essential-Handbook-Scholastic-Inc/dp/0545795664

u/irishgibson · 3 pointsr/gamedev

To piggy-back on this, my son started using Scratch at 8 and loves it. I got him 2 fairly inexpensive books for his 9th birthday off of Amazon with lessons and ideas on games to make and different challenges. It's an amazing beginner tool. He loves working through them.

Here are the books:

Coding in Scratch: Games Workbook

Coding Games in Scratch

edit: formatting

u/ribagi · 3 pointsr/Civcraft
u/frogandduck · 2 pointsr/simpleios

This is the book we got for scratch and the kids seem to like it:
Coding Games in Scratch
And this is the Python book we have:
Learn to Program w Mincraft

u/mrPablini · 2 pointsr/argentina
u/Swipecat · 2 pointsr/learnpython

This has annoyed me sufficiently that I've submitted a stinking review for the book on the Amazon UK website. It's for the flexibound edition. The review is now being held for moderation, so since it's Sunday, it might be days before it appears if at all. I can't submit a review for the US edition because you need to purchase $50 of stuff during the previous year. Maybe somebody could write something similar there, or just copy the text below?



My Review



This popular book has a huge problem that causes confusion to many of its readers. This is really unfortunate because it would have been a fine book otherwise. If you look at the reviews for the book in Amazon UK, and Amazon USA, and in many online technical-help forums, you’ll find people get lost when they try to run its chapter 5 code. It’s not just children that get confused, but many intelligent adults have big problems at that point.

Essentially, this book is about running Pygame Zero code, but before that it introduces the Python programming language. The problems start at chapter 5 when people find themselves unable to run the Pygame Zero code. Further on in chapter 5, there’s an easily missed line on page 52 that says check back to page 24. Right, you have to remember some easily-missed details in chapter 1 about the Pygame Zero environment to run the code in chapter 5, then you also have to remember stuff from even earlier about installing Pygame Zero.

Similarly, up as far as midway through chapter 4, nearly all the code examples can be typed as-is into the normal Python interpreter and they'll work. In chapter 4, there are example syntax errors that the reader is invited to fix, except that there’s suddenly one that seems unfixable because it’s not Python code but something specific to Pygame Zero (the “Actor” class) that needs extra stuff to run.

Also similarly, on page 20, it recommends the IDLE integrated development environment. Easily forgotten by page 52, where the first useable Pygame Zero code is introduced, is the bit back on page 25 where it tells you that if you're using IDLE then you need to add extra code that’s specific to Pygame Zero to top-and-tail the code.

How to fix the book for the next edition:

Give the book back to the original technical authors. Take the book out of the hands of the non-technical authors and the people concerned with the book’s look and presentation. Re-think the book PROPERLY. This is NOT something that’s quickly patched. The book needs to be restructured competently.

Give the technical authors the task of making sure that the book flows intuitively in a way that guides people through the all-critical task of installing the environment needed to run the code AT THE POINT IT’S NEEDED. The whole book fails without this. Think from the technical point of view how to introduce people to the normal Python environment, then later the Python Zero environment, and remember that nobody has a memory good enough to remember all details of a book from all of its previous chapters.

u/SuperDuckQ · 2 pointsr/learnprogramming

I'll agree with this answer the most, though ooooo5's reply was the one that made me spit-take with coffee.

Cunning is right; there are vast amounts of information available online for beginners. One of the best places to start is gamedev.net.

There are also several books that I would suggest, such as the following (don't be discouraged if you are not a "teen", it just means that it's written for beginners). Visual C# Game Programming for Teens

Look for similar books (your library might have some), and those will give you lots of great information to get started.

u/nothinbuttherain · 1 pointr/raspberry_pi

I bought this book for my 12 year old and I to do together, because I too would like to learn Python and I thought it would be an enjoyable shared experience.

So far he has shown no interest, but I think it will come eventually. :-)

As a result, I have also not gone through the book in detail, but flipping through it, it looks like just what I hoped it would be.

u/akatherder · 1 pointr/pokemongo

I got my 6 year old this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0545795664/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Other than brief interludes of Goat Simulator goats, you'll never not hear about pokemon again.

u/zombomb220 · 1 pointr/artificial

Before my last year in college I sat down and implemented a A path finding program in C#. Not sure if that seems too simple or not for what you're thinking, but in it's own way, it was a great project. I found an "outline" of how A works and built from there.

Also, i've just recently started reading this book it's a great course on developing an RPG in C#, however, it also provides an awesome platform to develop your own AI for NPC's. i'm looking forward to creating a little NPC economy where they buy and sell to and from each other. (as well as developing AI for the monsters in the game) anyway, fun stuff!

u/SoupOfTomato · 1 pointr/scratch
u/BradChesney79 · 1 pointr/IWantToLearn

There is a learn Python with Minecraft book that you can use with a very affordable Raspberry Pi computer.

Between the book and the Pi, you would be down ~$50 maybe...

https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Program-Minecraft-Transform-Python/dp/1593276702

u/TrainCommuter · 1 pointr/Minecraft

There's a book that uses MC to teach kids Python:
Learn to Program with Minecraft https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1593276702/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_yi8wzb5EWA3N4

Just felt like throwing that in here

u/warsage · 1 pointr/TruePokemon

Oh, it's already a thing. Obviously it doesn't have as much data as the Internet though.

u/seifd · 1 pointr/nintendo

Going through Amazon's suggestions, I also found a book that's part of the STEM Trailblazers series and the Innovators series. I can't vouch for their quality, however.

u/gweny404 · 1 pointr/webdev

Check out this fantastic book that is a great way to learn python by coding for Minecraft: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019HRIX2I/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awd_d_DpZsxb0GJQ7FM

Here is a cool video interview they did with the author: https://youtu.be/1v3KRNdYNAs

u/Auion_ · 1 pointr/2b2t

I came across 2b in this book, but I wasn't really interested enough to join, since I was into modding at the time.

u/SquirtMonkey · 1 pointr/learnprogramming

All of these are great suggestions! I'm a private tutor in Manhattan who specializes in STEM. From my experience Scratch into Python is typically the best for a child. It depends on her typing capabilities as to how quickly she will want to / can make that jump to Python.

I believe that your enthusiasm will continue to fuel hers. Be excited when she is excited and be there for her when her programs fail and she is not sure why. You may not have the answers, but her learning how to continue despite failure is a HUGE part of coding! She will be frustrated and mad, but then she will have an "aha" moment and be so excited to share it with you. You'll love it! I'm excited for you.

I'll leave one book that I saw a student of mine buy. She is only 7 and she really loves it!

Coding Games in Scratch

u/Deadgravegames · 0 pointsr/dankmemes