
Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code - ABNWZ
http://www.nick.co.uk/_/code-it/
======
mmastrac
That's cool. Looks like it's using Flambe as well. [0]

Myself and a friend worked for Nick a few years back helping build out some of
the HTML5 game concepts. We prototyped different games using various engines
(PlayN, etc) and ended up along with some other contractors on Haxe-based
Flambe as the best choice for HTML5. We actually launched a couple of games
[1][2], though a lot of our work ended up internal-only.

When we started, the iPad 1 was still considered a current browser. The
performance on that device was abysmal. When the iPad 2 and newer versions of
iOS came around, we finally had access to accelerated <canvas> and could
really start making things work.

The other things we prototyped for Nick were in-game video and multiplayer
gaming. The in-game video was pretty bad for cross-browser support. In the
end, Flambe gave us a tool (Flump) that had the ability to import from Flash
animations that was significantly better than trying to force iPads and
Android devices to play video reliably and consistently.

Multiplayer support was the least painful new ground we worked on -- using
engine.io and Redis on the backend we were able to scale to tens of thousands
of simultaneous users without spending too much on EC2. For the most part it
"just worked".

If there's one lesson I learned from this experience, it's that developing
games for existing properties is tough work. There are so many stakeholders
that things take forever to get done. Considering the value of the properties,
this isn't surprising.

The second lesson would be that HTML5 is moving so fast that you'll probably
have to rebuild your games every few months to support all of the changes that
are happening in the space. Most of the games we launched a little more than a
year ago are already starting to bitrot.

[0] [https://github.com/aduros/flambe](https://github.com/aduros/flambe)

[1] [http://www.nick.com/games/spongebob-squarepants-spongebob-
sq...](http://www.nick.com/games/spongebob-squarepants-spongebob-squared-
multiplayer.html)

[2] [http://www.nick.com/games/data/korra/korra-pai-
sho/](http://www.nick.com/games/data/korra/korra-pai-sho/)

[3] [http://www.nick.com/games/kca-2013-multiplayer-
trivia.html](http://www.nick.com/games/kca-2013-multiplayer-trivia.html) (no
longer there -- probably our most polished release)

------
fnefnmewfn
I really don't understand why it's so critically important we teach our
children how to write the next generation of photosharing apps for cats, to
the point that we're urging them to do it in all forms of mass media and
culture. I can understand trying to get children interested in STEM fields in
general, but why does our society direly need mass quantities of programmers
in particular? Executives like to talk of "shortages" when they have to pay
their workers more than they like, but in reality this meme, _and it is a
meme_ , makes no sense whatsoever.

~~~
Zikes
Technical literacy is not a meme, it's a skill that becomes more essential as
technology further permeates society and its jobs.

The goal isn't to make everyone want to become a programmer as a career, but
for more careers to better integrate modern technology.

~~~
fnefnmewfn
But programming isn't necessarily synonymous with technology, it's only one
relatively minor subset.

Hence the confusion about why we're encouraging interest in programming rather
than an overall interest in STEM fields.

~~~
Zikes
> programming isn't necessarily synonymous with technology

Programming is the applied knowledge of technology. Everything else is just
learning - and being restricted to - someone else's idea of how you're
supposed to operate that technology.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Programming is the applied knowledge of technology. Everything else is just
> learning - and being restricted to - someone else's idea of how you're
> supposed to operate that technology.

All of engineering that isn't programming disagrees with you, for starters.

Programming _is one kind of_ application of knowledge of _one specific area_
of technology. But so are lots of other things.

------
pkfrank
Geraldine Laybourne, who built/ran Nickelodeon for 15+ years, recently joined
BetaWorks' board [1]. She also started Kandu, which is an iPad app that helps
students learn to make games [2].

Not sure if there's a direction connection to the Nick.co.uk efforts, but
definitely interesting.

[1] [http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/05/media-queen-gerry-
laybourne...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/05/media-queen-gerry-laybourne-
joins-betaworks-board/) [2] [http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/18/kandu-is-an-
ipad-app-that-t...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/18/kandu-is-an-ipad-app-
that-teaches-kids-how-to-make-ipad-apps-no-coding-required/)

------
robmcm
Shouldn't there be more of a narrative to this?

What is the goal? I could see kids clicking on stuff for a few minutes, lose
interest and close it.

------
brickmort
That color scheme hurts my life.

