Game Design VS Game Development - What's the Difference?

I teach kids who love to play video games how to make video games!

There's nothing quite like having an idea in your head and bringing it to life in a game to let other people see it and play it, too.  I love teaching others how to do that.

I've been programming professionally for over 25 years, and most of the last 12 have been spent making mobile apps and games for mobile and desktop.  I've done it enough and seen the beginning and the end of so many projects, I've got it down to a science on how to teach these skills to others.

I've also been using 3D software for most of that time to create animations, renders and objects to put in my games.  I'm no artist, but I know how to manipulate the 3D to get what I need from it for my games!

The reason I'm doing what I'm doing is because when I started learning how to do programming in the 80's... there weren't even a lot of people with computers, much less people who knew how to program, MUCH LESS people who knew anything about making games -- not that you could ask, anyway.  You couldn't google it, watch a video on it and you couldn't even go to store and buy a book about it, unless you were *really* lucky and they had one that you didn't already have, which rarely happened.  If you got stuck... you just had to keep pressing on until you figured it out.  Help was not coming.

So I'm trying to be the person that I always wished I had when I was learning... not only someone who has "been there, done that" -- but understands what it's like to be stuck and frustrated because nobody can help you.