Creating cool games is fast, easy and free with new coding kits from Microsoft Imagine
Looking forward to the holiday break? All that free time off from school presents the perfect opportunity to do something super fun – teach yourself to code!
Check out the latest additions to our free and short (about 30 min) coding kits from Microsoft Imagine. Learning to code through a game is really effective because it can help remove the intimidation often associated with programming. Plus, you’ll have so much fun, you may not even realize you are learning. Even if you get stuck, the tutorial can help show you what to do.
Learn about the binary number system to get gold in “Binary Break-In;” in “Block Knock,” play around with projectiles to knock blocks off a table; play “Diamond Miner,” to randomly place gems and bombs, but be careful – don’t set off a chain reaction!
Check out December’s exciting coding kits:
Binary Break-In
Crack the binary code, teach a safe the binary number system. Create the code for the safe to recognize binary numbers, apply it with bitshifts and then get the gold!
Use C# in Visual Studio with the Unity editor to complete Binary Break-In, a game where a safecracker needs in-depth binary number knowledge to open the safe. Use bitshifts in the code to convert numbers, and then learn to use Unity’s animation state diagram for triggering specific animations on events.
Block Knock
Play with projectiles and physics to clear the table!
Use C# in Visual Studio with the Unity editor to complete Block Knock, a game with the goal of clearing the table of all the blocks while avoiding the cylinders. Code camera controls, projectiles and use collision detection to learn more about physics.
Diamond Miner:
Sow gems and bombs in the soil to create chain reactions and find diamonds.
Use C# in Visual Studio with the Unity editor to complete Diamond Miner, a game where players must use a limited number of clicks to discover diamonds while avoiding buried bombs. Program mouse click interactivity, create chained explosions, and learn how to randomize the levels for games!
You’ll need Unity and Visual Studio Community 2015, both of which you can get for free. Download these new kits or check out our full selection of coding kits on Microsoft Imagine. We add new kits every month, so come back often.
It’s time to begin your coding adventure today!