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Fuze Code Studio will let kids use the Switch to code their own Switch games

Fuze Code Studio will let kids use the Switch to code their own Switch games

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Of the hundreds of noble efforts to teach kids to code, Fuze is one of them. Fuze has created its own programming language, Fuze BASIC, a riff on the classic BASIC programming language that was the foundation of Microsoft as a company and a formative experience for anyone who typed a program into an Apple II or Commodore 64. And now Fuze BASIC is coming to the Switch.

The Fuze Code Studio, as seen on Nintendo Today, will let you write 2D and 3D games using Fuze BASIC, with access to the Joy-Con sensors and controls, along with a pack of included game graphics and sounds and the ability to make your own. For typing you can use Fuze's touchscreen keyboard or plug in a USB keyboard — like that new official Nintendo Switch keyboard, for instance.

It's hard to tell how much creative freedom we'll have without actually testing it out, but there's a sample screenshot of a Breakout game, while the code visible on the image up above appears to be a text-based adventure where you eat apples until you run out of apples.

I'm stoked to try this out. Apparently people have managed to make great stuff with similar systems, like SmileBASIC on the 3DS. But really I just wish Nintendo would make it easier for hobbyists to put their own Unreal and Unity games on the Switch, without having to jump through hoops to get into the developer program.

Fuze Code Studio is supposed to launch next summer on the Switch eShop.