How AI Helped Me and My Kids Build Two Games (Even Though I Can Barely Code)

Coding is one of those skills everyone says kids should learn, and to be honest, they're probably right. But what happens when you, the parent, have just enough coding knowledge to butcher some HTML and PHP, but suspect your washing machine is probably more advanced than you are? Well... if you're anything like me, you lean on AI. Hard.

This is the story of how me and my kids used ChatGPT, their previous experience with CodeMonkey and CodeSpark, plus a shedload of trial and error to start building two games from scratch — one of which they proudly named Cookie Cup (which I feel deserves its own theme tune, but we're not there yet). One was a lemonade stand sim, and the other a chaotic cookie-collecting game. Both started as fun little experiments. One began with a beginner-friendly coding game for children, the other ended with cookies flying into the abyss.

Mini How to Start Coding Games With Your Kids Using AI

1. Start with visual platforms like Scratch or CodeMonkey
2. Introduce simple game ideas (e.g. cookie catcher, lemonade stand sim)
3. Use ChatGPT to generate and explain basic code
4. Test, play, and debug together
5. Celebrate the chaos (and the learning)

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Why Coding Matters for Kids (Even If You're Rubbish at It)

I handle the coding lessons during our home ed routine — alongside maths, PE, and occasional life skills like "how not to eat crayons". My son's been into coding for a few years now, and to support that, I've bought him:

• Two different Python books
• Subscriptions to CodeSpark and Mimo
• Access to CodeMonkey and trusty old Scratch

The more he explored, the more he wanted to build. Not just click-and-drag block coding — I'm talking actual games. Proper ones. With logic, movement, scoring systems and enough bugs to keep us laughing for hours.

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I Was the Kind of Kid Who Broke MySpace

I was that kid who spent hours messing around with MySpace CSS back in the long, long ago — usually managing to completely wreck my own page in the process. Fast-forward a couple of decades and I like to think I've improved… slightly.

These days, I at least remember to take a backup before tinkering. Because let's be honest: in my hands, even the tiniest tweak to a line of code is like handing a toddler a chainsaw. I've lost count of the number of times I've made a minor edit in the HTML of my WordPress site, only for the entire database to collapse in on itself like a dying star. I didn't even know that was possible — but now I do.

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Building a Lemonade Stand Game… and Then Something Wilder

So, we started small. A lemonade stand simulator was our first build — basic coin-earning, upgrade-the-stand gameplay (and was there to teach the kids about finance and basic money management skills). It was fun and surprisingly educational. They loved designing how it would work, pricing logic, and of course, exploiting my dodgy maths so they could become lemonade billionaires by round two.

But our real masterpiece? That came next.

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Cookie Cup: The Buggiest Arcade Game You've Never Played

Cookie Cup is a fast-paced, chaotic little arcade game where cookies fall from the top of the screen and you've got to catch them before they hit the ground.

There are invincibility cookies, wild power-ups, and the constant risk of being blindsided by a flying biscuit. It's less "cookie clicker" and more "Flappy Bird meets Bake Off during a sugar rush".

The aim? Get the highest score possible before the chaos catches up with you. And just when I thought I'd written clean-ish code, one of the kids hit fullscreen mode — and the game broke gloriously. Two black voids opened on either side of the play area, and the cookies just drifted into infinity. They were in hysterics. I don't think I've ever seen them laugh that hard while learning.

Here is it in all it's broken glory!
"My computer is off for repair and my laptop doesn't have the right resolution... but here it is!"

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Breaking Things Was Half the Fun

One of the best parts of coding with them? Watching things go wrong. Seriously.

They'd deliberately try to break the game:

• By tapping buttons at the wrong time
• By dragging the window to weird shapes
• Or by rewriting variables just to see what happened

And every time it broke, it was a teachable moment. We'd fix it together using ChatGPT, asking things like "Why does this if statement not trigger?" or "How do we keep it within the screen size?"

We weren't just building games. We were building resilience, logic, and a lot of inside jokes about cookie physics.

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Why AI Made It All Possible

Here's the thing — without ChatGPT, I wouldn't have had a clue where to start. But with it, I didn't just learn alongside them — I kept up.

ChatGPT helped us:

• Fix broken loops
• Add randomised spawn positions
• Set up scoring systems and power-up timers
• Explain tricky concepts in plain language

For a neurodivergent family where learning often happens sideways, backwards, and upside-down, that kind of flexible tool is invaluable.

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So... What's Next?

Both games are still in development, but Cookie Cup has legs (and maybe a cape soon, if we figure out how to animate the invincibility cookie).

Plans include:

• A working score multiplier (it works but is broken)
• Proper win/loss conditions (this works)
• A leaderboard (that can't be "hacked" by changing a text file)
• And maybe… just maybe… a pause button that doesn't reset the whole game

We're also considering packaging up the game into a mini "build-your-own" kit for other parents and kids to try. Because if we can do it with no experience and a bit of AI help, anyone can.

Final Thoughts: Learning to Code the Fun (and Slightly Broken) Way

I used to think you had to be an expert to teach your kids coding. I now realise all you really need is:

• Patience
• Curiosity
• ChatGPT
• And the ability to laugh when your biscuits fall into the void

Coding together has become one of our favourite parts of home ed — not because I'm good at it, but because we get to fail, fix, and figure it out together. And sometimes, that's better than getting it right the first time, and if you're still looking for additional coding resources, then why not checkout Twinkl.