Kodu Game Lab

By: Derek Yu

On: July 2nd, 2009

Microsoft Research has released Kodu Game Lab to Community Games ($5). It’s a game-making tool with a very high-level iconographic programming language for making simple games using only the Xbox 360 controller as input. Geared towards kids and non-programmers as young as seven, Kodu allows players to modify terrain and preset objects to create games. The games can then be shared to with friends on XBLA.

To get an idea of what Kodu can do, check out this video from CES 2009, or this post on the Kodu blog. Sounds pretty nifty, actually! If only they could somehow combine this with the editors in Spore…

Update: Here‘s Rob “Oddbob” Fearon’s take on Kodu. (He really likes it but is worried it will get buried because of the 8-minute-long demo!)

Posted in Community, Developers, Xbox 360

http://www.stegersaurus.com/ Stegersaurus

I played with this when it was in playtest phase on XNA creators site. It’s a really nice idea, but I felt that it was a bit lacking in functionality. Every demo in it I played the controls felt extremely slidey, and I got pretty skeptical when I was playing slidey frogger and breakout style games. Again a novel idea, but I’m not sure if anything really “big” will be made from it.

That said, the interest and advertising is enough that at least it will trounce all those massage and other apps on XBLCG.
http://www.glaielgames.com Glaiel Gamer

Ya I won’t bother trying this but it seems pretty cool. First time I ever tried “programming” it was a rule based kind of thing like this, I was 10 or 11 at the time. It’s a great way to get a kick start, provided you don’t view it as a professional tool and more of an educational toy.
Shoo

I love these kind of things! I totally agree with the Spore editor idea. The ability to customize the art seems to be the only missing feature.
avoidobject

Things like this are always bit limited. The only purely visual based game creation tool I’ve seen that works is The Games Factory/Multimedia Fusion (and its derivative Construct, made by ex MMF extention devs). But of coarse those are an evolution of Klik and Play which itself was pretty limited.
avoidobject

That being said, I do wish that a visual game editing tool in 3D someday reaches the flexibility of programs like MMF. It’d be cool if this could evolve into a fully featured program capable of making much more than just simple games.
Mooseral

I must say that for “educational” game making type pseudo programming stuff, Game Maker has struck me as the best program.

It’s got a decent beginner interface, but to me the most valuable part is that it also allows for a transition to code-based programming. It bridges a fair part of the gap between tile programming and full languages, and also allows the output of fairly professional games at the same time.

But yeah, toy-game type things like this are, at least, highly amusing. Had a few hour’s fun with some friends playing with the LBP editor the other day; you can get some decent logic going on there with their wire system, at times.
Sparky

This seems like it could be a great introduction to game development for a lot of people, or at least allow people to dabble a bit.

I’m really interested in how toolkits aimed at non-programmers will develop in the near future. It’s easier than ever to make games as a non-programmer, and I think that’s a really great thing.
unimportant

There’s a typo in the text (“Kudo”)
Gog

Won’t somebody think of the children!?!?
Noyb

OmniLudiConsole?
Khai

@Mooseral
Yeah, the programming aspect is what got me hooked on Game Maker. I really wished every game creator software has something like that.
F

The game ‘Iji’ is the most amazing example of what can be accomplished with game maker. when i played it, i couldn’t believe it was game maker.
JoeHonkie

This is really interesting as a teaching tool (which is what it, and to be fair Game Maker, was originally developed as). I’m pretty interested in seeing more stuff like this, Alice, and Microsoft Small Basic and if they have any impact on people actually knowing what their little computers do inside.
Quazi

construct is simple as hell to work with, but ever since using it ive never, and i mean never been hindered in what i could do by the limits of the program, and i do pretty complicated stuff if youve ever seen some of my stuff on the scirra forums .The event editor system is just as powerful as any high level scripting language. kodu seems to have very limited control, and whats up with only being able to use missiles as a projectile lmao. the lack of control and ability to edit graphics makes it useless to anyone serious about making games.

@F
lji honestly isnt that great, i dont see why everyone loves it so much, the games clunky and feels very unfinished to me. i think the game “spelunky” :D is a great example of what can be accomplished in game maker.
http://www.glaielgames.com Glaiel Gamer

this is not meant to be a tool this is meant to be an educational toy
Krux

I think this could be cool for rapid prototyping even for advanced people, because you already have all of the things you need, you just have to click it all together.
Flamebait

[naysay]
To be honest it looks less intuitive *and* less expressive than, say, Klik n Play. And a “createable” flag? Shouldn’t every user-modified object be instantiable by default? Seems like a pointless stumbling block, especially since this seems intended for children. Of course that alone isn’t significant, but it makes me suspect there are others.
[/naysay]

Still, I’m interested in any new, supposedly easy to use game implementation software. Because I personally believe that in time they will make the commercial game industry redundant. And props for the demonstrator referring to “programming in Kodu”- I cringe when I hear of software that you can make games in “without programming”, which is absolutely impossible. Rather the nature of programming varies.
RobF

I think there’s another layer to be considered too though and that’s *why* should people need to know what their computer does on the inside?

Sort of terrible analogy central but if I want to draw a picture, I don’t need to know the inner workings of a pen or what paper does beyond “it sits there on the table and I draw on it”.

And that’s what Kodu does. Like if I doodle a picture of a hat on a napkin in a restaurant, I’m not then expected to go on and learn about in depth composition skills or whatever, we shouldn’t want nor expect people using Kodu to go on and grasp the internal workings of a compiler or how to code up a platform game.

We should just be happy that people have an outlet to be creative they wouldn’t have had before.

If they get the bug for something else, acey beans! There’s plenty of packages they can “graduate” to. If they just want to mess about in Kodu forever, heck, it’s not my place to frown on that is it? It shouldn’t be anyone elses either.

If it gets people doing stuff, s’all good.
nullerator

Community games are still not available in my region. Oh, how I love Microsoft.
shmuckosoft

community games are the least of microsoft’s sins.
Jay

Looks like those guys can finally “tighten up the graphics” using just their controllers. ;)

The game looks pretty interesting. With a little more work, I can see it competing with Little Big Planet.
John

Microsoft Research has launched Kodu Game Lab on Community Games for $5, offering a game-making tool featuring a high-level iconographic programming language. Designed for simplicity, Kodu enables users to create basic games using just the Xbox 360 controller as input. Targeted at children and non-programmers, even as young as seven, Kodu empowers players to modify terrain and preset objects to craft their own games. These creations can then be shared with friends on XBLA. Similarly, Telegram mod apk provides a platform for creativity and sharing, offering a space where users can create and share content, fostering community engagement and collaboration.
John

Microsoft Research has launched Kodu Game Lab on Community Games for $5, offering a game-making tool featuring a high-level iconographic programming language. Designed for simplicity, Kodu enables users to create basic games using just the Xbox 360 controller as input. Targeted at children and non-programmers, even as young as seven, Kodu empowers players to modify terrain and preset objects to craft their own games. These creations can then be shared with friends on XBLA. Similarly, Telegram Mod APK provides a platform for creativity and sharing, offering a space where users can create and share content, fostering community engagement and collaboration.