Want to make your own platformer games? This kit can help! Use the game board and blocks to design characters and maps, and then transform those physical creations to real games via the Bloxel app. It’s very cool, and it works on our Kindles, so we love it.
Game
Run Marco!
Run Marco is a web-and-app-based game for kids to learn programming basics. It’s cute, with nice graphics, and relatively easy to use. Non-readers can use it, but might need help. The interface is pretty intuitive, but some of the kids we have worked with weren’t quite sure how to get the “code” to run without some help. My only big issue with it right now is that they don’t yet have a “girl” version available. It says it’s coming soon, but until it’s there, we’ll be more likely to use games with non-human characters, because a lot of the girls we work with don’t want to use a “boy” avatar.
The Foos
We used The Foos during Hour of Code with many of the younger kids. It’s available as an app, on the web, and as a downloadable application for Macs. We found that the Kindle version was a bit clunky, but the kids had much better luck with the web version. Unfortunately the web version appears to be limited, so they won’t be able to get as far as they might in the app. They really enjoyed it, regardless, so we’ll keep this in our toolkit!
Littlecodr – Kids Coding Game
Littlecodr is a fun, active card game, that teaches kids 4 and up very basic programming concepts. The cards each have actions, which kids can use to program each other, with simple commands.
Robot Turtles Game
This fun board game teaches kids as young as 4 the fundamentals of programming. They play “Code Cards” to move their turtles around the board, with the goal of reaching a jewel. It’s simple, easy, and fun!