GDevelop

[MrBrownPr]

Anyone using GDevelop with their students?

 

I run an after-school coding club once a week and originally started the students off using a local version of MightyEditor (MightyFingers | HTML5 Game Editor | Web Based | MightyFingers) which was going fine until we got to the actual coding part. The amount of complaining I got from them when I asked them to type in 2 lines of Javascript code was almost deafening and it took me most of the session to go round all the computers fixing all their mistakes! I then tried setting up files containing all the other snippets of code we needed for our game for them to copy and paste in, but even that was fraught with problems with students pasting things in the wrong order, or missing some lines when copying, etc. Aaaaaaargh!

 

I decided we needed something a bit simpler and looked around at alternatives. I liked Construct 2 (https://www.scirra.com/construct2) having used it before so was planning to put in a budget bid for a site license, but then I realised we wouldn't be able to use it on the Linux laptops we have.

 

That was when I found GDevelop (GDevelop - Create games without programming - Open source HTML5 and native game creator). It's free and open source and runs on Windows and Linux with a Mac version in the works. Even better, they also have GDevApp (https://gdevapp.com/) which is a browser-based version which you can use on iPads, tablets, Chromebooks, etc.

 

So far the students are finding GDevelop much easier. It has a visual-coding element similar to Construct 2 (and to a lesser extent, Scratch) which I'm finding a little bit less restrictive than Construct 2. I'm hoping that next year we will be using this in coding lessons, I've already started installing it on all the student laptops!

 

Definitely worth a look.

[LosOjos]

Anyone using GDevelop with their students?

 

I run an after-school coding club once a week and originally started the students off using a local version of MightyEditor (MightyFingers | HTML5 Game Editor | Web Based | MightyFingers) which was going fine until we got to the actual coding part. The amount of complaining I got from them when I asked them to type in 2 lines of Javascript code was almost deafening and it took me most of the session to go round all the computers fixing all their mistakes! I then tried setting up files containing all the other snippets of code we needed for our game for them to copy and paste in, but even that was fraught with problems with students pasting things in the wrong order, or missing some lines when copying, etc. Aaaaaaargh!

 

I decided we needed something a bit simpler and looked around at alternatives. I liked Construct 2 (https://www.scirra.com/construct2) having used it before so was planning to put in a budget bid for a site license, but then I realised we wouldn't be able to use it on the Linux laptops we have.

 

That was when I found GDevelop (GDevelop - Create games without programming - Open source HTML5 and native game creator). It's free and open source and runs on Windows and Linux with a Mac version in the works. Even better, they also have GDevApp (https://gdevapp.com/) which is a browser-based version which you can use on iPads, tablets, Chromebooks, etc.

 

So far the students are finding GDevelop much easier. It has a visual-coding element similar to Construct 2 (and to a lesser extent, Scratch) which I'm finding a little bit less restrictive than Construct 2. I'm hoping that next year we will be using this in coding lessons, I've already started installing it on all the student laptops!

 

Definitely worth a look.

 

This is a new one to me, looks very interesting particularly for younger students. Thanks!