CodeSpells
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CodeSpells
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that this game will be confusing for novices, but very compelling for young players that have an interest in learning to program or making games. The exposed JavaScript opens up the hood and encourages tinkering; for certain kids, it'll be fascinating. Kids may need adult help in the first half hour while learning and struggling with the controls, but its compelling concept and free price make it worth showing to children curious about coding.
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What’s It About?
In CODESPELLS the player is a young wizard who arrives in a village populated by gnome-like creatures. The villagers don't have magic abilities and seek help from the player with various tasks around the village. Using his/her spell book -- essentially the programming tool -- the player uses magic spells -- bits of JavaScript code -- to complete quests and earn rewards.
Is It Any Good?
CodeSpells is still in development, but its unique approach to learning to program makes it worth exploring now. The game is family-friendly, challenging, and provides a valuable portal into programming languages for interested players. Some kids may be frustrated quickly, but others will geek out on the ability to see how games work and to design new interactions with it. This is also a great chance for players to have access to a game's development team and to participate in the process of test and offering feedback on an in-development computer game.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why it's important for kids to not just consume media but create it themselves.
Let your kids know that this was a game built by student researchers at a university. Get them to think about and explain how game creation might be a valuable learning experience, or identify what the students who made the game were hoping to research by making it.
Game Details
- Platforms: Mac, Windows
- Pricing structure: Paid, Free
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: Sarah Esper and Stephen Foster
- Release date: July 1, 2013
- Genre: Educational
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy
- ESRB rating: NR
- Last updated: October 25, 2021
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