Introduction to KoduAdrian Mladenic Grobelnik

What is Kodu?

• Kodu is a programming environment for children• …so that they can make their own games instead of playing somebody else’s

games

• What is the main goal when working with Kodu?• …to learn programming computers

• What is Programming?• …programming is something to tell the computer to do so that it understands

it in a different (programming) language

Where can we find Kodu?• Kodu was made by the Microsoft

company

• Kodu is available from the following Web address:• http://fuse.microsoft.com/page/kodu

How to make a program in Kodu?

• The following steps are needed to make a program:1. Create a world2. Put characters into the world3. Tell characters how to behave (programming)4. Make the program run

How to run Kodu?

• Click on the application “Kodu Game Lab” to run Kodu• …main menu appears

Making our first program (creating a world)• First step is to create a world - we click on “NEW WORLD”• …we get an empty world

Making our first program (put characters into the world – Kodu character)

• First we select the “Object Tool” (the funny alien)• Next, we click on the landscape where we want to put the character• We are shown the menu with many characters and objects• Finally, we select the Kodu agent which gets placed on the landscape

Making our first program (put characters into the world – apple object)• We select the “Object Tool” again• We click on the landscape where we want to put the object• We select the “Apple” object which gets placed on the landscape

Making our first program(tell characters how to behave - programming menu)

• In this step we will instruct the Kodu character how to behave• we call this programming the character

• First, we right click the Kodu character• Menu appears with several functions• We click the “Program” function• The screen for editing the programs appears

Making our first program(tell characters how to behave - commands)

• In this step we program the Kodu character with two commands• Each command has a shape: “When” “Situation” “Do” “Action”• …this means, when the situation appears, the character does the action

• In our case, we will tell the character two commands:1. When Kodu sees an apple, it should move towards it2. When Kodu bumps an apple, Kodu eats the apple

Making the program run

• To run the program, we press first the <Esc> key to exit the programming menu• …next, we press the <Esc> key again to make the program run

Running the programExiting the programming editor Pressing <Esc> to run the program