I never tried it, I don't have a quickly accessible game programming framework. Nor the time, heh. [1]: https://ludumdare.com/#schedule. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago

Sign up for game jams like Ludum Dare 51 and Global Game Jam. Take part in those and learn what it's like to be a hobbyist game developer first. It's a low-risk approach to seeing if this scratches your itch. Source: almost 2 years ago

Once he feels like he knows the engine he chose, have him test his skills in game dev code jams. Code jams usually give a theme and a time limit, and everything must be created in that time limit. Ludum Dare is probably the most famous one, but there are tons happening all the time. Just pick a weekend, pick a jam, and get ready to pull an all-nighter. Source: about 2 years ago

The reason I think it was before #37 is that I think it was in the old site ludumdare.com instead of the new site ldjam.com. Source: about 3 years ago

Whatever platform/engine(s) you end up trying, you both might enjoy looking through the game assets that Kenney shares with the world for free: * https://kenney.nl/assets * https://kenney.nl/starter-kits The asset range includes 2D & 3D and in a variety of graphical fidelity/style from 1-bit to low-poly--including sets which are designed to work together. The "Starter Kits" are a more recent development which aim... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago

These look fabulous. Another great resource for free 2D game assets: https://kenney.nl/assets. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago

Look at kenney.nl/assets, hundreds of sounds and other assets, all free. Source: 12 months ago

Most of the assets came from Kenney, but there are way too many combined sources to list them all here. If you want to know where anything came from, feel free to ask. Source: 12 months ago

Not quite an answer to the question, but there's a bunch of free asset libraries out there! Assets · Kenney. Source: about 1 year ago