Kodu - A Kids 3-D programming world for XBox 360

KODU at IGN

This excert is from Arstechnica

Originally designed as a learning tool for youngsters using Xbox 360, Kodu was released a year ago as service with a powerful programming language that quickly became a hit in academic circles. Since its release, Kodu has been downloaded more than 200,000 times and is used in more than 60 educational institutions across the globe, according to Microsoft. Redmond thinks Kodu's biggest hurdle so far, however, has been that schools needed to purchase Xbox 360s, controllers, and so on to get started. Thus, the software giant has ported the tool to Windows as most educational institutes already have PCs with mice and keyboards.

The game lab is downloadable from the XBox 360 Community Games page inside of XBox Live. Once downloaded (and paid for I might add; 400 Microsoft Points), you are launched into a tutorial that shows you the basics of how to manipulate the Kodu environment. There are three basic editable features: the world itself, the sprites & their actions / reactions, and user input via the game controller. But don’t let that lead you to believe that your options are limited. You have a nearly limitless canvas to fill with your ideas!

You can start with one of the many samples & tutorials or build your game from the ground up. There are a multitude of objects to include in your game’s scenery: hills, mountains, water, trees, and numerous other objects. After getting your world setup, there are more than a dozen different classes of sprites you can use to populate the game board. Each sprite has its own unique way of locomotion, speed, and abilities.

In a nutshell a playable custom version of a cross between Mapforge for Halo, Populous (if you're old enough to remember that!) and Starlogo/ Alice with the common control of Xbox handsets. The good thing here is that this 12 year old girl at the CES conference displays great bravery in front of this audience to demonstrate the speed of development of her world in kodu. This, I think, is a great gauge of where to aim your levlling at should you take this on in your classroom.

Links

Wikipedia Entry: Kodu explained here

Kodu ideas and issues talked about onthese forums: Kodux

Arstechnica review: here

The Age.com.au for Educational Technology links - Kodu write-up

The Microsoft Game Labs and the Research area

Dedicated Blog-like page for Kodu news