Be part of something spectacular. We’re looking for Minecrafters of all ages to help us with this challenge. If you want to be part of this project to recreate the cathedral, shops, parks, schools and houses, First Coding want to hear from you.
We’re still fine tuning the details (and mining for blocks), but we know it’s going to be fun, free and an enormous event. If this is something you’d like to know more of, sign up to our newsletter where we’ll be announcing the details as soon as we have them (don’t worry you can unsubscribe at any time and we definitely won’t be selling your details on to anyone!) Sign up here: http://eepurl.com/dgVLyT
First Coding would like to share some great news with you all!
We have a year 8 pupil who is fanatical about animation and coding. This summer he worked on a complicated interactive animation built in Scratch and designed a web page around it to really show it off. We then sent it through to Aardman and last week one of their creative directors wrote the loveliest reply…
“I think he has done brilliantly! To do ALL that, and at the age of 12, is fantastic! He has a long and exciting career ahead of him, he can go in any direction he chooses, and to be so dedicated at such a young age is wonderful to see. Well done, I look forward to what he creates next!“
This is a great example of how children can unlock their potential through creative coding.
The coding club at Bishop Wordsworth’s School will be starting again in a few weeks, so parents be on the look out for club emails that are being sent. Every pupil will be getting a welcome pack full of tips and tricks to help any budding young game developer, including First Coding’s guide to coding, how to make money from your Scratch and Python games and tips on distributing your games and getting noticed.
Use handy game design guides to build your own games.
Help your child bring their ideas to life.
First Coding resources deliver creative and fun coding activities for ages 8 and above plus helpful guides and podcasts including game design tips, hacking Minecraft and making money from your creations.
For just $5 a month, get access to the complete resource archive – with more added every month. Take a look for free here: https://www.patreon.com/FirstCoding/posts
This week kicked off the creative coding workshops hosted by First Coding as part of Launchpad 4 Life’s summer activities. Launchpad’s mission is to provide school leavers and young adults with essential support to develop personal qualities, skills and confidence in preparation for their next steps in life. Please do take a look at their website here.
The summer workshops may not be over yet but I’m already so impressed with the standard of work being produced. Whether it’s the young coders who are giving Scratch a go for the first time or teens who are wanting to develop their Python more, along with building their own apps, your ideas and projects have been a great deal of fun. Keep up the great work.
Here are the titles from one of the games to come out of the app building workshop.
The original coding guide that First Coding put together and distributed was looking a little tired after nearly two years. We’ve since updated the guide to give it a refreshing new look as well as making it more relevant to the content we’re currently teaching. You can download a pdf copy of it here.
Weekly game jams such as the one held over at WeeklyGameJam are a great way of getting inspired and experimenting with new game design ideas. It’s also a great way to meet and interact with a community of people who share the same passion for games and coding as you do.
I decided to take my own advice this time and took part in the Can’t Touch It! theme where you have to build a game within a week that fits with the week’s chosen topic. After brainstorming a couple of ideas I got to work building a prototype in Scratch, then I worked on polishing it once I was happy the game mechanics were working. I’ve seen the most fantastic games that were built within a day, mine titled Circles was built in two days. I’ve detailed the process I followed over on my personal blog here.
The idea of the game is to continuously contain the smaller moving circle with the ever decreasing perimeter.
This summer’s app building workshops will involve making a simple pirate game. The aim is to defend your island from random boats trying to invade. As the game progresses, the boats increase in number and speed. Here it is running on the Kindle Fire.
