

Minecraft Modding Software To Teach Kids Coding - jcr
http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1682

======
ryandvm
As a middle-schooler I tinkered with QBASIC and Pascal trying to teach myself
programming. I never really accomplished much. I tried learning C, but it was
way over my head at the time.

Then id Software released Quake and the modding engine used "QuakeC". It was
basically just a stripped down, interpreted version of C, but it was enough
motivation for me to finally wrap my head around C.

I can't imagine how many kids have taught themselves entry-level programming
skills by futzing around creating Minecraft mods.

~~~
naner
My first foray into programming was also QuakeC, though I didn't really think
of it as programming at the time.

I lived in a rural area with very poor network access so I actually got most
of the QuakeC tooling and mods from CDs purchased at the mall. Since Internet
access was so spotty my primary hobby was to take bot mods and combine them
with weapon mods I liked so I could play deathmatch against bots with a
grappling hook or self-guided missiles, etc.

------
russnewcomer
I learned how to 'program' so I could write animation scripts for Total
Annihilation mods when I was 13-14. I had always liked computers and my
parents had tried to get me programming books for kids from the library, but I
never made it far enough to do anything worthwhile for the time investment.
Making my own 3d models and then getting them to walk, wings to open, turrets
to track enemies, etc, was the motivation I needed.

This seems to be a similarly excellent gateway for today's Minecraft obsessed
kids in a way that modding many modern games (with their much greater
complexity and knowledge base required) can't offer. Kudos to all at UCSD, and
hoping we see more similar initiatives in the future.

------
hrjet
I am not into gaming/modding/minecraft, but just wanted to share a project I
came across:

[https://github.com/MovingBlocks/Terasology](https://github.com/MovingBlocks/Terasology)

It's an open-source minecraft-clone designed in a very modular way; many game
components are just modules and players can easily add their own. I haven't
actually tried modding, so no idea how easy it is. But this seems like a
better project to build upon, since it is explicitly designed that way.

------
malkia
My son loves Minecraft, but why the price of $30/year - I won't mind paying
$50 for a package that could be used forever.

~~~
Methusalah
I kind of lost interest at that point. I'm not interested in managing another
subscription for this.

Edit: It looks like it includes a hosted server. That makes more sense, but
I'd prefer an option without it.

~~~
TruthSHIFT
It looks like it requires a special modded version of minecraft running on the
server. I wonder if they have plans to release or sell the server code.

~~~
bphogan
All of these third-parry mod systems require a modified version. Bukkit did,
and so does CanaryMod. Right now there's no official way to do modding so I
suspect that this is their issue. And not releasing it allows them to generate
a little revenue. For $30 a year? Sure, why not.

~~~
MarcScott
I'd love to see Microsoft fix this, and create a well documented modding API.

~~~
bphogan
I'd like to just see them fold in one of the existing ones myself :)

------
altcognito
Everyone has some good suggestions...

Scriptcraft is nice, it works along the lines of logo, teaching basic
principals: [http://scriptcraftjs.org/](http://scriptcraftjs.org/)

------
MarcScott
I see Minecraft modding as the gateway drug for my son, into coding. He loves
Minecraft on his tablet, and with BlockLauncher we can code mods in JavaScript
for his Android tablet.

The modding community seems a little impenetrable however, and trying to find
any documentation for the Blocklauncher API has been a stumbling block. We'll
persevere however, and make sure all the code we write is on GitHub and well
commented.

~~~
biafra
Is this the documentation you were looking for?
[https://github.com/Connor4898/ModPE-Scripts/wiki/ModPE-
Scrip...](https://github.com/Connor4898/ModPE-Scripts/wiki/ModPE-Scripts-
Functions-List)

------
danso
Kids have it real nice these days...games that are fun and can teach you how
to code concurrently (Hack 'n Slash is another example). I was able to pick up
programming fairly easy as I got older though, because I learned how to be
comfortable with text files and hack around the internals of an operating
system...which is what I had to do to get Ultima VII to run via its awful
Voodoo memory manager.

------
Houshalter
This is cool because it's not just a mod of minecraft, but actually teaches
you how to mod minecraft.

Another cool minecraft mod is ComputerCraft which lets you make simple robots
and computers in the game, which you can program in Lua. A lot of people have
been exposed to programming through that, and it's really fun.

------
_jomo
Are there some technical details?

The news article states that "Students can even create custom blocks and items
within Minecraft by importing new textures" which would require a client side
modification and can't be done by importing textures. The actual website says
that you modify the server which doesn't allow as many modifications.

There are some bigger cuatomizable server mods around already (hMod, bukkit,
spigot, glowstone, sponge, ...). Does this use any of these servers and their
API?

If so, does this use one of the existing JavaScript plugins or are they using
their own wrapper for the server's API?

~~~
0942v8653
Minecraft has "resource packs" that change the image and label of items. When
the client joins, the server can specify a resource pack for it to download.

~~~
_jomo
Exactly. You can change items labels and looks but you cannot "create" items.

------
shmerl
Should it be better developed for Minetest? Seems more fitting for the
educational effort, since it doesn't attach a price tag for entry.

------
iwwr
There is a feeling among the modding community of maintaining complexity hoops
to keep newbies out. It could just be a lack of patience.

~~~
gizmo686
Where do you see this? I have done some modding for minecraft. There is
defiantly some complexity hoops, but those seem to stem from the fact that the
community is trying to make mutually compatible mods to a closed-source game
under continuous development.

------
ajbetteridge
This looks like something my kids would love. I've been trying to teach them
Python over the last few weeks, with marginal success, sometimes to do with my
time restrictions, but also their lack of motivation at the length of time it
takes for them to see results. This looks like it could remedy that.

~~~
kgwgk
You might like this book: [http://www.stuffaboutcode.com/2014/11/adventures-
in-minecraf...](http://www.stuffaboutcode.com/2014/11/adventures-in-
minecraft.html)

~~~
caoilte
Currently working through this with a couple of 7yr olds. It's pretty good.

------
bcl
It would be even nicer if the mainline version of Minecraft would adopt the
Python API they implemented for the Pi edition.

------
amccloud
Quite a few people I know started coding because of gaming. I started when
modding and building forums for Halo.

------
quesera
Terribly written and edited PRWeb article.

The real site is [http://www.learntomod.com/](http://www.learntomod.com/)

~~~
LiweiZ
Yeah. They even use incorrect year: San Diego, Calif., December 17, 2004.

------
pearjuice
I am sorry but what is with the attempt to get everyone and their petfish to
learn how to code? From everywhere and nowhere initiatives and organizations
pop up to teach X demography or Y culture to learn how to code. For what
purpose? Just because all the big investment money and SV hype everybody wants
to get some piece of the cake? Because we are facing a massive lack in
programmers? Or does it actually have a purpose?

I mean there are hundreds of professions and skills which are more life
critical and/or meaningful than knowing how to write code and could actually
improve society if the same effort and resources were put into it as that
currently is being put in getting everyone to code.

Don't get me wrong, computers are more important than ever but does that mean
everybody should be able to program one?

~~~
falcor84
I tend to agree with this widespread statement of "coding is the new
literacy".

I don't think that everybody should make programming their life's work, just
like not everyone is earning their daily bread by writing. But given that
quite about everything around us is programmable, someone who has no concept
at all of how programming works could be left behind.

~~~
bvanslyke
I don't see how they would be left behind, unless you mean being left out of
the job market for software engineers. And that isn't enough reason to say
everyone should code.

It doesn't seem to me like it's comparable to literacy at all. While I need to
be literate to use anything that was written in English, I don't need to take
CS101 to use anything that was written in code.

e: And while it's useful to produce written English all the time, we would
have to be living in a crazy universe for it to be worth it for the average
person to need to produce code.

------
rilita
Do we need more kids learning to create scripts on top of APIs without any
fundamental understanding of computers in general?

~~~
a3n
Yes.

And some of those will go on to learn those fundamentals, and possibly
discover new fundamentals.

