Education is expensive. A good education is very expensive. Nevertheless, the opportunity to get a free and high-quality education is for everyone. Companies and corporations around the world invest in the creation of free educational products. Partly to provide themselves with qualified personnel in the future. Partly, to overcome poverty, to give everyone equal access to quality education.

Everyone has the opportunity to use the Scratch programming environment specially created for teaching schoolchildren, which is being developed by specialists from one of the most prestigious technical educational institutions in the United States and the world - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Or the game Minecraft, for which Microsoft paid $ 2.5 billion a year ago and with the help of which, among other things, plans to teach children how to program. Or learning games that are created by enthusiasts and volunteers around the world.
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An obstacle to the use of such resources may be lack of knowledge about their existence or lack of knowledge of the language. Indeed, English-speaking resources and games are much more. But there are also Russian-language games that teach programming.

Here you can find free Russian-language browser games that will teach you how to write algorithms and even write code. They are placed in order of complexity. The last of the games in this list are for adults. It is hardly possible to become a programmer only by playing. But you can get a positive charge at the start, learn the basic algorithmic structures and logic of programming, acquire the skills of planning actions in solving practical problems.

Learn to program. Learn to think

Code.org

The resource is created for children from 4 to 10 years, but, according to its creators, will suit users of all ages. Learning starts from the very beginning - learning how to use a mouse. A scratch-like language consisting of blocks is used. Playing the child will understand the basics of programming, learns how the algorithm turns into JavaScript code and creates its own computer game.

Minecraft

Minecraft is a joint project of Microsoft and Code.org. The game is designed for children from 6 years old and involves solving various problems with the help of building algorithms. This allows children to learn the basics of programming, to understand how its basic mechanisms work.

Minecraft is really an educational game: it develops spatial thinking, mathematical and logical abilities. And the game also teaches reading and writing, improves general literacy. However, not only Minecraft has such an effect, but any activity that children are passionate about and which motivates them to acquire new useful skills.

Scratch

Scratch is a special visual programming language that was developed at MIT for teaching children. Learning Scratch is in the form of a game. Scratch develops logical and critical thinking, imagination, children learn to solve diverse tasks, they have new opportunities for self-expression and creativity. Of course, it is not necessary that your child will become a programmer in the future. However, teaching children the basics of programming will help them grow faster and more fun.

Blockly

Blockly, like Scratch, creates a program by connecting blocks. But if Scratch is more suitable for extracurricular activities, Blockly can be used in school. This game allows you to create learning tasks, arrange them into modules, passing which the student gradually masters some topic.
Here, for example, looks like the puzzle created in Blockly by countries and flags:

PictoMir

PiktoMir, developed by NIISI RAS on the order of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is our answer to foreign analogues. NIISI RAS has already developed the “Kumir” system, in which older students learn about programming, but there is no game element in it.

The plot of the game: the picture shows the cosmodrome from which the spacecraft are launched, and at the start they burn the surface. And since everything is hot and radioactive there, people cannot be sent to restore coverage, and a Vertuna robot (suspiciously similar to R2D2) is sent there. This robot needs to set a program so that it does not crash on the curb (the robot turns red in this case) and floods everything that has burned out with a protective compound.

The robot paints the fields, and the child learns to make algorithms. All the clues are made using graphics, so PiktoMir can be offered to children who cannot read, the scientists have tried to make the actions understandable even for kids.

The first four levels of the game are available to everyone, the fifth level is puzzles for gifted children, the sixth level is puzzles for parents, so that they are also interested.

zesetup reminds about the game Colobot.

Colobot

Kolobot is a 3d strategy developed by Epsitec in 2001. The game is designed to teach children (10 years and older) how to program in game form. The gameplay is to create programs for robots. The goal is to prepare the planets for settling and mining.

A feature of the game is the ability to create programs according to which robots operate in the game (asking them to work independently and replacing them with monotonous actions that the player himself can do), so it is considered that the game supports learning programming. A programming language built into the game is similar to C ++ or Java, but there is a limit on the size of the program — no more than 20,000 characters, which makes it impossible to write serious programs like artificial intelligence imitations. Each mission is accompanied by an extensive certificate explaining what needs to be done. Also often there is a cheat sheet - a finished program (or pieces of the program) with which you can solve the problem.

There is a Russian localization of the game.

Microsoft Imagine

Microsoft Imagine offers training and development tools from the very first game or application to cloud research projects using big data. Applications are distributed by difficulty levels. The simplest of them are available to children of 9-10 years old, more complex ones are intended for high school students and students. The use of only some applications is available in the browser; for the rest, free software installation and the Windows operating system are required. The Imagine Cup competition is held annually, in which schoolchildren, students and graduate students from different countries can take part. The main task of the participants is the development of the idea of ​​a project or game and the creation of its prototype using modern information technologies.

JavaRush

JavaRush - the study of Java programming in the form of an online game. Each level corresponds to a separate solar system on a star map. Lectures inside the level - the planets of the solar system. Each open lecture is a flight to another planet. When all the lectures are open, the ship flies to the next star system.
The entire Java Core course on JavaRush consists of forty levels. The first 10 levels are available to all, levels 11 and above are available with a paid subscription.

There are 10-15 mini-lectures at each level of JavaRush, so 10 free levels are about 140 lectures and about 230 tasks. Enough for you to decide whether JavaRush is right for you or not.

Code Combat

The developers of Code Combat offer to learn programming, seizing land and defeating enemies in the best traditions of the RPG.

You can start playing from scratch without having any idea about programming. The user can select a programming language that he wants to master: Python or JavaScript. Levels of the game are built as a good programming course with increasing complexity.

You have to become a magician who changes the world around with the help of the program code. At each level, the player has a specific task - for example, to find a mushroom that will help defeat the ogre, lead soldiers into battle, or get out of prison. In the beginning everything is simple, you write the code and immediately see on the screen how it will be executed. Then the tasks become more complex, and you have to think more and more.

The game has 80 free levels and open source code. Hundreds of players from different countries applied their talent to make CodeCombat better. Thanks to this, the world of warriors and magicians was quickly translated into various languages, including Russian.

Need to learn how to program? You do not need lessons. You need to write a lot of code and have a good time doing it. This is the essence of programming. It should be fun. Not in the sense of “wow, badge”, but in the case when “no, mom, I have to finish the level”. That's why Code Combat is a multiplayer game, not a course. We will not stop until you can stop - but this time it’s really good. (from the description on the project site)

UPD After 18 levels in the game, two branches appear - one is paid, the second is free. The game has 80 free levels. For a paid subscription, 60 additional levels are available.

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Colobot and Ceebot