This video is short, but it's the spark for everything that comes next. Eon's dad starts by reminding him just how much of a gamer he already is: he plays a lot of games — Solar Smash, City Smash, "a lot of smashing game" — and he watches "tons of YouTube video" of other YouTubers playing games. Then his dad brings up something Eon told him a few days earlier: he always wanted to develop a game of his own. That wish is the whole reason this series exists.
Two sides of every game
His dad reframes that wish into a big idea. "That's what developers do," he says. "They develop games and apps of their own — and other people will play it."
Listen to Eon's answer: "Yeah. Like me." In one line he spots exactly where he fits. Up to now he has been on the player side — one of the "other people" who play what someone else built. Every game really has two sides:
- Players enjoy a game that's already finished.
- Makers — the developers — build the game first, so there's something to play at all.
That's the cross-over moment of the video. Eon is about to stop being only a player and start becoming a maker. Instead of just smashing planets in a game someone else dreamed up, he's going to build worlds for other kids to smash.
Honest about how hard it is
His dad doesn't pretend it'll be easy. He calls it "a really hard journey... from now on." That honesty matters. Making a game isn't one magic click — it's learning, trying, getting stuck, and trying again, lab session after lab session.
But two things tip the odds in a kid's favor, and he names both:
- A guide who has done it before. His dad is an experienced developer, so Eon isn't wandering in the dark — he has someone who already knows the path.
- AI tools. "With the help of artificial intelligence, AI can do that pretty pretty easily nowadays." Things that used to take a team of grown-ups can now be started by one curious kid with the right help.
Then comes the line every great project begins with: "Let's get started." No game exists yet — just a decision to make one. And that's genuinely how real software begins: a person who plays a lot, notices something they wish existed, and decides to build it instead of waiting for someone else to.
Try it
You don't need a computer for this one — just your imagination.
- Name your two sides. Think of your favorite game. Who played it (you), and who made it (a developer you've never met)? Today, pick the maker side.
- Dream up one tiny game. Keep it small: a catch game, a simple maze, or your very own smashing game. What's the goal? What happens when you win?
- Say it out loud, like Eon did. Tell someone, "I want to make a game of my own." Saying it is the real first step — everything in the Coding Lab builds from there.