I would imagine the reason kids are likely to prefer graphics is because the games they play involve a lot of graphics so that's what they expect.
I remember in the early 90s plugging away writing various text games in QBASIC then excitedly showing them to school friends who's reaction was mostly "too much reading, not enough guns. Let's play Doom instead".
Of course this was somewhat disheartening and put me off programming for a few years.
The closest thing that I've seen to a comprehensive game creation "kit" is Unity3d but that has a pretty steep learning curve.
One sort of introduction that could potentially work well for teenagers would be to create a mod for an existing game that they already enjoy.
I don't think those kids would enjoy programming a game even with a good kit. They want to play games, not code them, and thus why I said no amount of graphics will get them to.
That is true, although I think one of the main motivations to learning to program (at least for me and I guess many teenagers) is to have something impressive to show off to friends.
Having said that I think you are right to encourage people to use code as a "secret weapon" rather than an end in itself. It is a great "awesomeness multiplier" to other skills.
I remember in the early 90s plugging away writing various text games in QBASIC then excitedly showing them to school friends who's reaction was mostly "too much reading, not enough guns. Let's play Doom instead".
Of course this was somewhat disheartening and put me off programming for a few years.
The closest thing that I've seen to a comprehensive game creation "kit" is Unity3d but that has a pretty steep learning curve.
One sort of introduction that could potentially work well for teenagers would be to create a mod for an existing game that they already enjoy.