TechFest '07: Boku : Video Games that teach you how to program!

Posted By: Laura Foy | Mar 20th, 2007 @ 3:47 PM

Boku is currently in pre beta stage but it's still incredibly impressive. It's a video game designed to teach children how to program. It runs off an xbox 360 controller and has adorable animations to keep the kids interested- but it teaches REAL programming from coding to debugging. The goal is to attract kids as young as 5 years old by exciting them about the concept and emotional experience of programming. If you have a kid (or perhaps are at the coding level of one) you're going to want to check out Boku!

Tags: Boku, education, programming, Seattle, techfest, video game

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Comments (4)

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Arztek

Very cool concept! Boku reminds me of Viva Pinata at first glance, but more educational in design. Good Stuff. Thanks, Laura.

Erik

In reply to Arztek

#Mar 21st, 2007 @ 5:34 PM

Viva Pinata was the first thing that came to my mind too.

LZIM

Also reminded me of Pinata.

However free range. Where Pinatas could interact with each other and their environment without required user intervention. That reminds me more of Black and White.

Was wondering how easily this kind of UI could be integrated into the CryENGINE 2 Sandbox editor.

Imagine anyone being able to create landscapes, drop in fully dynamic physical objects, then easily code AI (at least with Boku the AI is made even more simple than the out of box CE2 tools.).

Add multiplayer and it could make a standalone retail 360 title at least as compelling as Pinata.

Something to stand against Little Big Planet and just different enough to not be a direct ripoff.

Oakum

In reply to Arztek

#Mar 21st, 2007 @ 5:34 PM

The Boku tiles are exactly like the pecs system, a visual language system used to communicate with autistic children. Very cool, I could see my son totally locking into this and mastering programming quickly. Wonderful!