My eight-year-old son has demolished QBasic for Dummies and wishes to learn other languages. He's very competent with the PC environment and, of course, wants to be a games coder.
Gary Walton
Games coders are usually expected to know the C and C++ languages, so for free C++ tools, click here. However, there is much more to games development than coding. He could try Microsoft's free Visual C++ Express Edition and GDK (Game Developers Kit), or the higher-level XNA Game Studio 3.0, which is free for students, hobbyists, and independent games developers. This can also be used to develop games for the Xbox 360 if you subscribe to the XNA Creators Club. You also have to install Visual Studio 2008 Express, which is a free version of Microsoft's £700 professional software development system.
