RPG for teaching kids Java programming

Java is considered not very suitable for becoming the first programming language, unlike Pascal or Python, especially for children. However, this circumstance did not stop the specialists of the University of California (San Diego) from a curious experiment, which, according to them, showed quite successful results - they developed the CodeSpell game for teaching Java children during the game process.

The game is a kind of first-person RPG with quite modest graphics today and a very typical plot. The player is a wizard in a country inhabited by gnomes who, for some reason, have lost their magical abilities. The player's task is to help the dwarves with the help of their magic, which is a Java code, the execution of which leads to the modification of objects and influence on the world around us: levitation, flying, destruction by fire, and the like. The game “helps” the player in various ways, ranging from hints and ending with something like code additions, so that irritations about the spell in Java “how to destroy this obstacle” should not occur among schoolchildren.

Gameplay - though in snatches and without much meaning - you can watch the video


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There is also a system of achievements in the form of badges assigned to the player for completing quests. It is indicated that after the child finishes the first level of the game, he will already know the basic language constructs such as if , for, while and so on. It is curious that the game was tested on 40 girls-schoolgirls aged 10 to 12 years, and they found the game very exciting.

The game itself is being finalized by the creators and after a while it will be freely available to anyone who wishes to use it as an educational tool.

UPD : for Mac OS you can try CodeSpell.

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