Geekyteach recently pointed me in the direction of a really interesting games design application called Scratch.
This was devised by a team at MIT and they have designed it in such a way that when the designer ids putting a game together, the commands that can be used need to fit together in the way a jigsaw might. This helps contextualise and represent the text driven code world in a more accessible iconic world. I have a feeling that this might just help to lower the skills threshold for games design. The code looks something like this when you create it Something like this:
I haven't yet got in to this as I am still working towards getting to grips with Thinking Worlds, Missionmaker, Gamemaker etc...
If anybody out there is using it then let me know how you are finding it. In the meantime I have joined the Scratch blog and hope to get clued up on how to use it via that establishing community.
This is another interesting games program. I was wondering when MIT would get out there with this kind of thing. You're right it looks like the little kids will be able to manage this one and we know 10 yr olds can game make and game author. We have joined the blog to follow developments as well, in downtown Sydney.
Posted by: Gail Dyer | March 04, 2007 at 11:25 PM