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Fortunately, video games serve as a terrific gateway to the world of coding for young minds. Being that many kids are “digital natives,” they will already be comfortable in a digital environment, and children are curious by nature, so they are always exploring. Here are 7 games to introduce kids to coding.
7 ColoBot: Gold Edition
ColoBot: Gold Edition by Terranova Team for PC puts players in the space suit of an astronaut exploring a strange, new world. Gameplay has elements of base building and resource gathering, and players have helpful robots they can program with the game’s own programming language, CBOT, which the website describes as similar to C++ and Java.
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The tutorial can be a bit vague at times with how to do all the required tasks in a mission, so patience is required. The title is completely free, and the source code is available on GitHub.
6 Code Combat
No, this is not a Mortal Kombat spin-off where Scorpion does IT. Rather, this browser-based game from Code Combat, Inc., is a dungeon crawler where players guide a character through a series of dungeons and traps using commands. Each character has its own strengths and weaknesses and can be equipped with various tools and gear unlocked along the way.
The actual character and dungeon are on the left, and the command prompt is on the right. Players can just start typing a command, and easily select it from the list that comes up. The free gameplay sample offers either Python or JavaScript as a programming language, but more languages and levels can be accessed through a subscription fee. Different subscriptions are available for educators, parents, and students.
5 Lightbot: Programming Puzzles
Lightbot: Programming Puzzles by Spritebox LLC is a simple game for younger grade school kids. A cute little robot needs to light up all the blue tiles on a game map, and the player needs to program it with instructions on how to get there.
The interface is simple enough. The tiles required are at the bottom of the screen, and players just click or drag them to the grid in the right order. It starts out with basic commands, and then players can create separate subsets of instructions to call upon when needed. It is available on IOS and Android.
4 Human Resources Machine
This lovely game is from the fine folks at The Tomorrow Corporation, the same folks that brought World of Goo to the masses, as well as Little Inferno. Players of this game manage a lowly worker going up the corporate ladder as they sort letters and numbers to be processed.
The gameplay consists of dragging and dropping instructions for saving information, performing mathematical operations on it, and repeating steps in loops. The animations and dialogue are all hilarious, so it will be entertaining for young kids, and it’s just as much fun to fail as to succeed. It is worth messing up just to get the boss fired up.
3 Codemancer
Important Little Games’ Codemancer is a unique take on the coding games for kids sub-genre. The game centers around a young girl, Aurora, who attends her first day of magic school at Lovelace Academy, where spells are the computer programs. Things go great until her father is taken by the robot of a nefarious polar bear, and it is up to Aurora and her Familiar to rescue him.
The game does a great job of easing players into the control interface, with step-by-step instructions. All the dialogue is voice-acted as well, and the art style has a charming children’s book quality to it.
2 Code Card Rangers
Code Card Rangers from Zan Kizuna on Itch.io gives a different meaning to the term “heart of the cards.” In this Ren’Py game, lines of code are represented as playing cards, and the cards in one’s hand must be defined and laid out in the right order.
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The game boasts flashy, circuit-themed visuals, and the game allows players to see what their hand looks like as it would in lines of code. The concept of using cards as stand-ins for code is begging for a real physical card deck.
1 ComputerCraft Edu For Minecraft
Surprise, surprise. Another list, another Minecraft entry. This one is actually cheating a little since this is not a game, but rather, a mod for Minecraft spun off from another by DanTwoHundred, which adds computers to programmable bots, called Turtles, to the game.
ComputerCraft Edu includes beginner turtles with a symbol interface that enables the use of If statements, boolean logic, and loops. They can make day-to-day Minecraft life a little easier by performing menial tasks such as chopping trees, building bridges, and digging tunnels. They can even be used to scout ahead to see what dangers wait.
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