Christmas Coding Workshop
Festive fun with First Coding!
Ecology Simulator
We’ve been putting together an ecology simulator in Scratch where the user has to decide when to introduce predators in order to bring balance to the ecosystem. Both the insects and predators follow rules:
INSECTS
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The game will include habitat that insects will feed off
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Feeding insects gain energy
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Increased insect feeding will result in a shrinking landscape
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Reduced insect feeding will result in an expanding landscape
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Insects can only reproduce if they have sufficient energy
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Insects die if energy levels reach zero
PREDATORS
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One predator at a time will be introduced by the player
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A maximum of three introductions at a time
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Predators feed off insects to gain energy
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Predators can only reproduce if they have sufficient energy
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Predators die if energy levels reach zero
Game Jams
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.
PLAY THE GAME HERE
Amazing Competitions
We’re running our competitions again! If you’re in one of the schools that hosts a First Coding computer club, be on the look out for our competition. Over the next couple of weeks pupils will have to code a maze solving (virtual) robot with the fastest times winning some fab prizes.
Free to enter and open to all pupils whether they’ve previously taken part in the clubs or not.
Library Coding Club
The third session of the monthly coding club at Salisbury library took place yesterday and it proved a great deal of fun. First Coding taught the children how to make their own games and hopefully left them with ideas and an interest to keep coding throughout the rest of the Easter holidays. It was nice to involve some of the parents too.
Asteroids!
It’s been another fun day training a young team of coders in the art of making the classic game of Asteroids. I loved seeing all the different ideas for their games, especially the war, food and animal themed versions. Please keep working on your great games over the Easter holidays and if you get stuck, please just drop me a line.
Young Coders
A huge congratulations to all the Young Coders’ school groups that finished this week. It’s been such good fun over the last six weeks building platform and arcade games with you all. I hope the certificates you all received inspires you to keep creating over the Easter holidays!
Happy Hens
After learning that one of our young pupils recently bought some chickens for her garden, we set about designing a web page to advertise the eggs she was going to sell. The nice thing about Scratch 3 is that you can embed your projects really easily and this is exactly what we did here.
By designing an interactive Scratch project to introduce everyone to her new pets, Elsie was able to embed it into her website. You can see the finished result here.
Half Term Certificates
It’s been back to back workshops this half term. For all the younger coders I hand out little certificates for a job well done. Some of the games that are being built are really impressive.
Young Coders’ Course
** NEW FOR 2019 – NOW INCLUDES LEARNING TO CODE WITH MINECRAFT **
First Coding will be running its popular Young Coders’ course once again! Ideal for children aged between 7 and 10 years with an interest in computers and games, pupils will learn how to create colourful and amusing animations and build fun interactive programs, all whilst learning important concepts and gaining confidence in computer programming via the popular game of Minecraft and through the visual language of Scratch.
The cost of the course is £75 and starts on Saturday 2nd February between 2pm-3pm, running for four weeks.
For more information regarding the course, please check out the website: http://
