[Shane Hudson]

The Matrix + Portal + Minecraft + Javascript + Unity = Code Hero.

I am not a fan of teaching kids to program by making them make a game... it rarely works. But after watching these videos on Kickstarter (and backing them), I think this might well work. I am looking forward to receiving the game!

Quote

Steampunk Computing: Babbage & Lovelace

One of the worst investment decisions in human history was cutting funding to the inventors of computers, Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace. Computers turned out to be a pretty keen idea after all, yet less than 1% of humans can code.

Code Hero includes steampunk missions where you help Ada and Charles Babbage construct a 3D replica of the Difference Engine whose replica is actually built and working in its entirety at the Computer Histroy Museum.

To find out more, check out their KickStarter page.

This post has been edited by Shane Hudson: 16 February 2012 - 05:45 AM

[modi123_1]

I'll pop this over to the lounge. Regardless of how nifty this might be it's not really industry news.

[Shane Hudson]

modi123_1, on 16 February 2012 - 02:49 PM, said:

I'll pop this over to the lounge. Regardless of how nifty this might be it's not really industry news.

Heh I was not sure where to put it!

By the way, I have started playing the beta... the first boss level seems to be live space invaders. I tried object.destroy() but they killed me before I could kill all of them... so maybe I need to think of something more clever... create a shield or something lol

[jon.kiparsky]

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One of the worst investment decisions in human history was cutting funding to the inventors of computers, Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.

Nonsense. Babbage was nowhere near a working machine. Every time he got close, he scrapped it and redesigned it. Continued investment would have been pure loss.

The irony is, a disciplined team could have made that machine work, if they'd been able to strangle the innovator.

Dunno about the game, though. If a kid doesn't want to write code, I don't see how making a game out of it is going to help. Seems to me like it'll just make for more WTF coders. Point and click coders are bad enough - now we need point and shoot? I think this project needs to die in a fire, frankly.

[WolfCoder]

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Dunno about the game, though. If a kid doesn't want to write code, I don't see how making a game out of it is going to help. Seems to me like it'll just make for more WTF coders. Point and click coders are bad enough - now we need point and shoot? I think this project needs to die in a fire, frankly.

You'd be calling me a WTF coder. You do realize that in 2003, I typed simple lines in the console while inside a first person environment to learn how to write games?

Telling this project to die in a fire isn't very constructive.

This post has been edited by WolfCoder: 16 February 2012 - 09:49 AM

[jon.kiparsky]

WolfCoder, on 16 February 2012 - 11:49 AM, said:

You'd be calling me a WTF coder. You do realize that in 2003, I typed simple lines in the console while inside a first person environment to learn how to write games?

That's your call, I've never seen your code. I'm just saying if a kid wants to learn to write code, it's not hard to do. If you have to trick them into it, they're probably not interested.

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Telling this project to die in a fire isn't very constructive.

Maybe not, but neither is this project. And when was "constructive" a requirement in the lounge, anyway?

[Craig328]

Um...I'd say that NOBODY ever woke up one day and declared "by God, I wanna write code". No, more likely they saw the cool things that code can be compiled into (such as games) and said "by God, I wanna learn how to make something like that".

Whatever it is that generates initial interest in learning how to do something seems like a laudable activity. I'm pretty sure nobody is suggesting that the end result of kids giving this a try will be point and shoot coders...simply because it doesn't work that way. I think it's fairly clear this is meant as a motivator and not as a serious new means to create software.

Just because the attempted motivator fails to impress some doesn't mean it's useless for all. Different people have different motivators.

This post has been edited by Craig328: 16 February 2012 - 10:58 AM

[modi123_1]

Once again - let me present offer a board game might be more up some people's alley.

http://c-jump.com/

[Shane Hudson]

I have now played some of the game.. it won't teach anyone to program properly... but it is REALLY fun!

Personally I have never been very interested in game dev, but a lot of people are. In fact, my two newest books are Applied Cryptology and Learn Cocos2D Game Development, the former is much more interesting in my opinion! Although the game dev one is very good for teaching that specific library.

Actually, although one of my first programs I made (aged 6) was tetris... I much more enjoyed making a pretend shop and playing imaginary games with my sister using the software I created.... sad XD

[Blue.Buri]

I think this is a great idea. Just looking at code, but having no idea where to start is kinda confusing for a beginner. With this it already gives you a start, and while keeping your attention with something fun it teaches you small things about code here and there. I think its a great idea!

[dawmail333]

jon.kiparsky, on 17 February 2012 - 03:44 AM, said:

That's your call, I've never seen your code. I'm just saying if a kid wants to learn to write code, it's not hard to do. If you have to trick them into it, they're probably not interested.

I am an aggressively objective based learner - I need to hit goals to learn something, which always hindered my learning of Python (until this recent project), and is the reason I haven't learned Java - I just haven't had a goal to reach, other than 'learn Java'. If I were starting programming, this would give me a goal - finish the game. Then I would have learned about Objects, arrays, all the other useful things that would have stopped my first program from running off a 48-way if statement.

Craig328, on 17 February 2012 - 03:58 AM, said:

Um...I'd say that NOBODY ever woke up one day and declared "by God, I wanna write code". No, more likely they saw the cool things that code can be compiled into (such as games) and said "by God, I wanna learn how to make something like that".

I took up programming more because I felt like it, not because I wanted to make 'x'. I was under no illusions as to my ability to write a game or other 'cool program'. Am I just weird?

[frostyraver]

Shane Hudson, on 16 February 2012 - 05:07 AM, said:

I am not a fan of teaching kids to program by making them make a game... it rarely works.

Why wouldn't it work? OOP is very easy to learn and is easy to put into a game perspective, XNA tutorials are tied around people not knowing a thing about games programming, check out 3D Buzz tutorials.

I started programming because I love games, and have a certain drive that say I must program, I get really bored with non game related programming, but put into a games perspective and I'll pick it up really easy.

You still have class files, varibles, learning to make a downloader to update your game, importing images, learning client/server programming, learning about data packets and regex to name a few .etc.

Why would you ever thing that someone who's game centered, wouldn't learn as much as someone not game centered?

I'm failing to see this. And if a kid wants to make a game, you can make console version of pokies, black jack, hangman .etc.