Minecraft is an open-ended game that encourages creativity and appeals to kids of all ages. ScriptCraft makes it possible for beginners to create Minecraft Mods using Javascript, and bridges the gap between passive play and creative programming.
ScriptCraft uses the CommonJS module system and is used in CoderDojos all over the world to teach kids Javascript programming.
I'd like to talk about ScriptCraft's beginnings, how it's used by CoderDojo mentors as a Javascript teaching aid, and some of the ideas that informed its design. I'll give a quick demonstration of how easy it is to change the rules of the game using just a few lines of Javascript.
Abstract
Minecraft is an open-ended game that encourages creativity and appeals to kids of all ages. ScriptCraft makes it possible for beginners to create Minecraft Mods using Javascript, and bridges the gap between passive play and creative programming.
ScriptCraft uses the CommonJS module system and is used in CoderDojos all over the world to teach kids Javascript programming.
I'd like to talk about ScriptCraft's beginnings, how it's used by CoderDojo mentors as a Javascript teaching aid, and some of the ideas that informed its design. I'll give a quick demonstration of how easy it is to change the rules of the game using just a few lines of Javascript.
Speaker
Walter Higgins is a programmer and author. He works at IBM and uses NodeJS. In past lives he has developed software using Java / J2EE , C, ,C++ and Perl. He is the author of A Beginner's Guide to Writing Minecraft Plugins in Javascript and blogs about programming and other topics at http://walterhiggins.net/blog. You can follow him on twitter @walter