Thanks, Robin. Yes, Ren'Py can be used for much more than just games. Honestly, I've never actually used to make a <em>game</em>, but I have used to do some basic Information Architecture/User Experience storyboards and a few other things.
Obviously, to make something with Ren'Py you need graphics, so a school teacher could easily include a mini-lesson on fair use and Creative Commons and then have students search for graphics that are acceptable to use in a project. And believe me, CC licensed materials are very helpful for the artistically challenged, such as myself. (A certain Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor is looking for a Information Architect with story-boarding experience and my lack of artistic skills are reason #1 why the job is in my "very interesting, but probably not for me" pile.) I've used the grab CC material or take photos with a digital camera methods of getting graphics for Ren'Py on multiple occasions.
I'm really disappointed that Scratch 2.0 is a Flash-based web app. It does present a barrier to children who have a computer at home, but not decent internet access. I think is it safe to say that a lot of people learn programming through copious amounts of experimenting on top of other lessons (vs. just classroom learning), so having access to the programming environment at home, without barriers, is a huge boon. Thankfully, Scratch 1.4 is still available to download, even though the two versions aren't compatible. (Scratch 2.0 projects can't be opened in Scratch 1.4, but Scratch 1.4 projects can be shared on the web site.)
And for schools and students using Linux, <a href="http://gambas.sourceforge.net/en/main.html">Gambas</a> is a wonderful step up from things like <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a>, <a href="http://www.squeakland.org/">Etoys</a>, etc. It is a Visual Basic like environment with lots of nice options. It makes for a more gradual introduction to programming, before you start using things like Zed A. Shaw's <a href="http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/">Learn Python the Hard Way</a>. ;-)
Thanks, Robin. Yes, Ren'Py can be used for much more than just games. Honestly, I've never actually used to make a <em>game</em>, but I have used to do some basic Information Architecture/User Experience storyboards and a few other things.
Obviously, to make something with Ren'Py you need graphics, so a school teacher could easily include a mini-lesson on fair use and Creative Commons and then have students search for graphics that are acceptable to use in a project. And believe me, CC licensed materials are very helpful for the artistically challenged, such as myself. (A certain Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor is looking for a Information Architect with story-boarding experience and my lack of artistic skills are reason #1 why the job is in my "very interesting, but probably not for me" pile.) I've used the grab CC material or take photos with a digital camera methods of getting graphics for Ren'Py on multiple occasions.