Scratch is great. I learned Scratch as a ~11 year old and it sparked a love of building things that brings me joy even today.
I think the reason Scratch was good is that it channels your interest in building something fun and interactive and gives you a limited set of tools to figure it out, like "how do I make bullets?" -> understand how the touch event works. But it doesn't force you to do that much of it, unlike a real game engine (Unity/Godot are nice for later but not a first introduction I think).
Also one of the best things about making a video game as a kid is you can show it to your friends! Getting feedback and navigating your limits is a great learning experience ("no, that's not possible because...").
I think the reason Scratch was good is that it channels your interest in building something fun and interactive and gives you a limited set of tools to figure it out, like "how do I make bullets?" -> understand how the touch event works. But it doesn't force you to do that much of it, unlike a real game engine (Unity/Godot are nice for later but not a first introduction I think).
Also one of the best things about making a video game as a kid is you can show it to your friends! Getting feedback and navigating your limits is a great learning experience ("no, that's not possible because...").