 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Kodu Game Lab
Common Sense Media says
Innovative game creator is powerful but hard to learn.
Parents say
Kids say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this is less a game and more a game design application. It is found in the Xbox Live user community and is only available for download through the online Xbox marketplace. As such, it has not been rated by the ESRB. It allows players to create their own games, which means the content experienced will be different for each player. That said, options are limited to features built into the software. For example, players can make “bots” that kick, shoot missiles, and throw rocks, but they can’t alter how they explode or make them begin to spurt blood. However, there’s nothing stopping a player from, say, designing a piece of virtual land that resembles a human body part. Completed levels can be shared with up to seven people on your friends list; no random strangers are allowed in multiplayer games.
What's it about?
KODU GAME LAB isn’t a game so much as it is a tool used to make Xbox 360 games. Downloadable from the Xbox user community, Kodu provides players with the ability to design their own environments, create simple objectives (which could include activities such as racing, shooting, or platforming), and alter an enormous variety of game parameters, such as the behavior of environmental objects and non-player characters. Dozens of starter levels are available for players to experiment with, and many of them have simple objectives meant to help you figure out what can be done with the software, such as making a character move from one location to another or jump a gap. When you’ve tinkered enough and have something you think might be fun for others to try, you can share it with people from your Xbox friends list who have also downloaded the software.
Is it any good?
The simplest way to describe Kodu is to say it offers the same sort of game-making functionality as LittleBigPlanet for PlayStation 3 but with little of the polish or accessibility that made that game so fun and popular. There are no tutorials and text instruction is limited to just a few pages of general information in the help menu. All of the tools have pop-up bubbles that describe what they do, but they must be manually selected to make those bubbles appear, which makes the learning process long and arduous. It’s a little like teaching yourself how to play the guitar; it’s possible, but it requires plenty of patience and a passion for what you’re doing. There’s no question that it’s a powerful and educational little game making tool kit, but we recommend it only for those who have a strong desire to dabble in game design and are willing to spend several hours learning the ropes.
Online interaction: Players can play the games they make with people who appear in their Xbox friends list. No random strangers are allowed.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about what a career in the game industry might be like. Did Kudo make you think you may have a knack for game design? What kind of training, skills, and talents should aspiring game makers try to develop? What sort of a role would you like to play in a game’s development? Artist? Level designer? Character designer? Game designer? Director? Do you think that the game industry will still have the same sorts of jobs in 10 or 20 years as it does now?
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Better than CSM Review
Unlike the CSM review, I did find a tutorial...essentially a set of objectives that slowly teach you different ways to build and modify pre-existing games. My eight year old was able to build a rudimentary (and fun) co-op game within the first hour he played with it. Agree that it doesn't have the polish of LBP on PS3, but this is a $5 Indie game and with that in mind, its a very, very good value. This also is good for teaching logic, because you can build a lot of if-thens into your game...the designers envisioned what if someone made the equivalent of LOGO for today's kids...and this is it!
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