I would recommend Scirra's Construct Engine. V2 was really good, but Windows only, but V3 (https://editor.construct.net/, Public Beta) is completely browser-powered and works on Linux. Drag'n'drop, collisions, scrolling,fast learning curve...sounds like it would fit your bill.

Have you tried the Scratch Game Engine? It's probably in the package manager of your favorite distro. Very simple, graphical programming and you can find multiple tutorials on how to make a platforming game. It sounds like you already know how to program, so, it should be pretty easy to get up and running. While the editor does make it feel less capable, it is actually quite an impressive game creation toolkit. You can just drag and drop your assets over and be done in a matter of hours or minutes depending on how well you leverage your time and the available resources.

Scratch Game Engine
There's the link for more info.

Love2D Game Engine
You might also try love2D as well. I'll warn you that it is almost as complex as vanilla SDL2. There are plenty of tutorials out there and the editor does act a bit like the Arduino environment, so, that does make things a bit simpler. This is not nearly as time efficient as Scratch but I have seen impressive games made with Love2D. Always a tradeoff, you know.

I did a similar project with my son, trying to teach him more than anything that making games takes time.

We used the [url=godotengine.org]godot engine[/url] ( it even has a more or less complete 2d platform demo you can consult if you get stuck at any point, it's in the download section )

He did the visual art asserts with pen & paper - which I then photographed and scaled to fit. Sound fx was done recording him doing them.

That bit and playing the game he enjoyed very much, what he didn't enjoy was the programming and problem solving. ( to be fair he is still only 6 )

So my advice is - regardless of the engine you chose, have the whole thing ready before hand in modules you can easily enable as you get to them. ie;

- lets make a hero ( enable sprite loader )
- lets make him move ( enable keyboard/controller input )
- lets make an environment he can move in
- lets make baddies
- lets add the ability to hurt the baddies

and so on..

With each step beeing playable/testable by the child.

This will make it much easier to keep them interested in the process.

Thanks a lot to everyone for all the suggestions, I think I'll go with Godot

This just made me think about single board computers to create a game. Are they as popular as everyone makes them out to be? Wondering if it's a case of much ado about nothing. But I love the concept of a SBC and looks like people are doing some really cool things. Raspberry Pi seems to get most of the spotlight, but I know there are also alternatives to check out. Would be interested to know if anyone has used them.