LightBot - Flash game teaches procedural programming in face of memory constraints

addictinggames.com

6 points·pc··7 comments

I've got my son (he just turned 7) hooked on this.

The big problem that I have is that you can't skip levels and the levels get too hard too quickly for his brain.

I know it's just Logo with a different interface but he really enjoys the fact that it's a robot (a more interesting protagonist than a turtle) and the isometric view.

I've been kicking around rewriting this as a game with a more gradual progression of difficulty, a level editor, more goals and a larger instruction set.

While researching similar programs, I was reminded of 'Guido van Robot'. It's view is top down rather than isometric and it's character is a triangle 'turtle'. It has a much larger instruction set and you type your program rather than using icons. I guess what I'm looking for is something in the middle.

It's definitely fun though.

I've been trying it with my 12 year old niece with similar results. It's one of the most compelling "learn to program" games I've seen - I'd love to see a rewrite as you describe, and would pitch in if you've got some code started.

Ha, I got way into this game. It's all about the recursion! At least for me. Here are the videos of my solutions (132 commands, total):

http://toshuo.com/2008/light-bot/

Nice. I somehow had it in my head that the programs had to terminate, but apparently not.

It gets more interesting after you pass a few easy levels.

Patrick, what's your score? :)

I'm gonna have to start again -- wish you could save games.

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