I am sure this has been hashed out somewhere on the forum, so I will apologize in advance....however, I was hoping to get opinions based on personal information if at all possible. I believe the best place and best people to ask would be you.
Thank you.
I would like to get my son, who has his future mapped out in the gaming industry, game making software for his birthday. I found thegamecreators in a search. I've looked at the available software here, and read about others mentioned here. I would like to find a program that is not too hard, but one he will not outgrow immediately. He will be 12. He currently works with sprites and does do some flash movies with them. He has made a few java games, simple ones. He has also had several "freebie" RPG game making software that he has worked with. I can't ask him too much what specific skills he has or he'll catch on to my evil plan.
He is very familar with graphics (mostly 2D - just scratching the surface with 3D), html, dhtml, flash, java, and recently I have been teaching him .php. A top math student in his class and has been proficient in gaming and computers since he was 7, playing online adult games with those much older (RPG and FPS). I know he will grasp what I am reading here in some of your programming questions - but want to be sure that the DarkBASIC Pro isn't "too" much....or that something like The 3D Gamemaker would be too elementary.
Realizing that you don't know him - which program do you think is best for a beginner, but one who'll catch on quickly? Sorry, I would guess this would be hard to answer, I appreciate any feedback you could provide.
Thanks,
Mom 
PS: Should I purchase, is there a parental lockout so that I can not get my hands on the program, hence, restricting my access to game making after work until wee hours of the morning where we would be forced to live on Fruity Pebbles?
