I disagree. I’ve been making stuff for Clojure beginners for nearly 5 years now. I’ll be the first to admit that my projects aren’t very widely used – the “market” for novice Clojure tools is incredibly tiny. That never bothered me (i make things for my own edification), but i don’t think it has to do with a lack of outreach.
Think back to when you were a beginner. What made you choose your first language? Chances are, you didn’t really choose it at all. For me, my first was C++, because i took a class in high school. In my free time, i started learning PHP, because the LAMP stack was so ubiquitous i thought it was the web.
If a young person today wants to make games, they’ll probably learn C# (unity) or GML (gamemaker). Beginners aren’t equipped to compare languages. They will come across some framework or tool that decides their language for them. Outreach is great but to get numbers you really need a killer app.
That may happen for Clojure at some point but it hasn’t happened yet. For now it’s the kind of thing you learn to gain a new skill (FP) which means mostly intermediate/advanced devs. I don’t think that spells doom – a lang can be healthy that way. Just keep making cool stuff and who knows, it may end up being our killer app, and i’ll be there reaping the benefits! 