How we're making a business and video games as a family, and how you can too.

You don't have to just keep watching video game prices creep up every year and hope the next $70 release is actually worth it. You can build your own games with your kids, even if you're not a huge computer person, and turn it into a shared long‑term project. You can even host them on a website you control so that you can play with your kids in the living room, and they can play with their friends too. Godot plus Wix, combined with some beginner‑friendly online self-paced training like Zenva (no, no one is sponsoring me to say this), makes it super F@#$ing! easy and way cheaper than most people realize to make an online business with your kids, that creates fun video games you get to play all the time with your kids. Video games are one of the few hobbies where kids are already deeply engaged, so shifting them from “just consuming” to “creating together” is a huge win for them because they get an early crack at being an entrepreneur. Instead of arguing about screen time, you turn that time into learning: logic, art, writing, problem‑solving, fast typing speed skills, and even business skills if you decide to publish, and you should publish! Your kids will be super excited when they make their first sale. I know my kids were. The tools to do all of this are either free or low‑cost; you are trading $70 impulse buys at GameStop for skills that will instead make your kids money, and can span months or years of collaboration with your kids working alongside them. Doesn't your own father-son company sound awesome?! Ya, kinda explains why my son and I created yavoz.fun, right? We get to make cheap and free games together, he gets to share them with his friends and the world, building his business at 7 years old, and I get to hang out with my son more. Win Win.

Godot: the free engine that feels friendly

Godot is completely free and open‑source, there's no bull S@#$% royalties or subscription fees, and no hidden F@#$ing micro-transactions. That by itself makes it perfect for your small bootstrap startup company, because you never hit a point where you “have to pay more” just to keep using what you've already made. It runs on any computer, like Windows, macOS, Linux, or whatever. So you can just install it on whatever family PC or laptop you already have and jump right in this weekend. For kids, Godot’s scene system is super easy for beginners and doesn't feel too "computery" or overwhelming.

When we're dividing up the workload and splitting roles between kids and adults, we do it like this a lot of the time. Kids draw sprites on paper or in a simple art tool, you import them, and then you both tweak movement, jumping, enemy behavior, or score systems together. By doing the coding part together, you both learn and grow because you are both basically working together to solve mini puzzles. Over time, they start asking, “What if the character could double jump?” and you turn that into tiny code lessons where you both figure out how to do that together.

Keeping costs low with your own website

Having your own site gives your kids a sense that their game is real, not just something stuck on your hard drive. The second they can show their friends their very own website, and then all their friends join in playing the game, your kids make it feel way more real. It also frees you from platforms that might be too public or have content you do not want them to browse. After all, you don't want your kids to be exposed to some of the crazy stuff on the internet, so instead, if you and your kids build the site together, you know it's safe.

Wix is one of the cheapest and lowest‑friction ways to get this going (no, they're not paying me to say that, it's just true):

• You can start on a free tier to experiment with layouts and pages.

• Drag‑and‑drop templates make it easy to create a “Games” page with thumbnails, descriptions, and links just like we did with yavoz.fun.

• Paid plans are cheaper than most of their competition if you want your own domain and have your URL be custom to your site.

If you are planning on taking things more seriously—selling games, collecting emails, or working under a brand—forming an LLC is a smart move. Websites like LegalZoom streamline the complicated legal side and even bundle website perks. To be specific, LegalZoom has packages where forming an LLC through them includes a Wix website setup, which effectively removes that barrier of “who’s going to make my website?” and replaces it with “let’s customize the one we already got as part of the business LLC paperwork.”

That means:

• You get a legal structure for any future revenue.

• You and your kids can call yourselves the CEOs of your company. I recommend playing Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who is the head CEO.

• You get a ready‑to‑use Wix site tied into that business, which you and your kids can easily customize over time with just some drag and drop.

• You can hire your dog as "Chief of Security," and he can be as "ruff" as he wants because he's the lead of his department.

Now your “family game project” can live on a real, branded domain, and when your kids tell their friends, they’re pointing to your URL, not a random file share. My son always has a smile on his face when he tells his friends about the newest free game on yavoz.fun.

From the Godot project to a web game

One of the most satisfying loops for kids is: build → play → share → get feedback. Godot makes that possible with HTML5/Web export, so people can play your game in a browser instead of having to download and install something.

At a high level, the flow looks like this:

1. Build a simple 2D game in Godot (jumping, collecting coins, avoiding enemies, etc.) or whatever else you want to make; after all, it's your game that you made, so go crazy.

2. Export it as a web build (HTML and related files).

3. Upload those files to your Wix site—often in a static file area or embedded via custom code/HTML widget. Or use itch.io to save file space on your own website because they'll let you upload your games for free there.

4. Create a “Games” page where each project has a thumbnail, short description, and a “Play” button that loads the game so visitors can jump right in and play!

You end up with something similar to our page, yavoz.fun a clean hub, where each game sits side by side, easily accessible, and easy to play when people visit your site.

Learning Godot together with Zenva

The part that usually scares parents is “I don’t know how to code.” That is where structured courses help keep you moving instead of randomly clicking around YouTube tutorial hell. Zenva Academy is the answer you're looking for (no, they're not paying me to say this). It's for folks who want practical, project‑based training without needing a computer science degree first.

For Godot, you'll find step‑by‑step courses that:

• Start with the basics of the editor, scenes, nodes, and signals.

• Walk through building small games from scratch, piece by piece.

• You learn by doing.

• Layer in concepts like physics, input, UI, and simple enemy AI at a pace that works for beginners.

You can turn these courses into weekly “family workshops” like we did in our family.

• Pick a course or mini‑project.

• Watch a lesson together, pausing every few minutes so your kids can guess what happens next.

• Let them handle the steps like placing platforms, picking colors, naming characters, and all the artsy fun stuff while you type the more precise code at first. (mostly because you probably type faster than your kids, but if they type faster than you, then flip the roles).

• Over time, swap roles between lessons: they type, you guide, flip flop, trade, and learn together.

Because the courses are broken into bite‑sized lessons, you can treat each one like a “level” that both of you try to clear as a team. That level‑up pattern matches the way kids already think about progress in video games anyway, so you might as well leverage that.

Turning it into a family habit

To really get the most out of this, treat game dev like a recurring co‑op campaign:

• Set a weekly “dev night” where you work on one Godot project together, or work together on it after Church on Sundays.

• Keep ideas small: a single level, one new enemy type, or a new power‑up per session.

• Use a simple shared notebook or Google Doc where your kids can pitch game ideas, characters, and level concepts.

• Every time you hit a mini milestone (new build, new level, a hosted game on your site), celebrate it like beating a boss, and then go out for ice cream.

Because games are getting more expensive, more bloated, and more overloaded with microtransactions, building your own with your kids is the way to go. You control the content, the cost, the schedule, and they grow up knowing that the games they love aren't magic; they are something they can create themselves and proudly host on a site with your family’s name on it. Just like we did with Yavoz.fun.