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Kickstarter project 'Code Hero' teaches you game programming from within a 3D virtual world

Kickstarter project 'Code Hero' teaches you game programming from within a 3D virtual world

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The Kickstarter project Code Hero is a 3D adventure game that aims to teach players how to program their own games using a JavaScript "code gun."

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Code Hero Screenshot 640
Code Hero Screenshot 640

Some games claim to help you learn to play the drums or the guitar, but a new Kickstarter project provides a decidedly meta challenge by teaching you how to code games — from within a 3D adventure game itself. Code Hero is the brainchild of Alex Peake and Primer Labs, and is a type of first-person shooter built using the Unity game engine. Instead of firing bullets, however, the game features a "code gun" that allows players to write and shoot JavaScript at various objects, actually changing elements in the 3D environment from within the game itself. Through a series of different missions — where players are mentored by early computing pioneers Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage — the game aims to teach players to actually code full Unity games themselves.

Those donating get immediate access to a private beta of the game, with Peake challenging players to post their own games to Kickstarter before his team finishes work on Code Hero. It's a creative way to teach programming, and with Kickstarter continuing to demonstrate its ability to reach large audiences, we're excited to see what kind of projects the game's users come up with. As per the Kickstarter norm, there are a variety of donation levels available, with the private beta currently available in Windows and Mac versions, though the team has plans for Linux, Android, and iOS variants as well.