KatRacer Modification Tutorial
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Just wanted to give a quick bit of feedback based on having a look at Fuze for the first time with a 9-year-old who loves Minecraft, but hasn't done any coding previously.
He didn't want to sit down and learn the basic principles/foundations, as the current tutorials are structured, because that didn't produce anything interesting enough quickly enough.
What he did want, as soon as he played it, was for "someone" to "fix" KatRacer so that the kart could not just drive through solid objects like a ghost. Because how lame is that?!
Nevertheless, the unfamiliarity of the code for that game and the lack of any foundational concept of what it might mean, and what the "rules" were, rendered it just intimidating enough to overwhelm any sense of it being perfectly possible to work out how to make simple changes and go from there.
So, even though, "together," just by fiddling around, "we" turned the music off and changed its speed, turned the engine noise on, adjusted acceleration, changed the track to the desert, and even placed a second kart, he still felt frustrated and at sea in the same way that I do every time I try to learn the piano and bump up against the feeling that there's a whole underlying language and structure of music that I just do not understand and nobody is explaining it to me in a way that I can engage with.
KatRacer does seem to me like the perfect starting point, because it's so short but so functional. If there were a YouTube video which talked through the code and gave a sense, in overview, of how it all hangs together and basically what it means, changed a couple of parameters to show the effect, and then, specifically, went on to "fix" the obvious deficiency of being able to drive through things which should be solid: that would be 9-year-old hooked. Because it would combine a clear sense of how this "world" works with a clear idea of exactly what steps are needed to change it in a meaningful way.
The YouTube video doesn't have to be short. It just has to be going somewhere and be clear about what the rules are. Like an LDShadowLady Minecraft video (and, believe me, they are interminable!)
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@DyadyaKper Funny you should post this as we've had a few discussions today on improving KatRacer. That's an awesome idea to make a video out of this - certainly something I'll keep in mind.
With the inclusions of the latest 3D functions,
objectIntersect()specifically - this becomes a whole lot easier. This function didn't exist at the time of release, so we're still working on improvements! -
Ah, I'll have to look into that.
I think Fuze is brilliant from what I've seen so far, and having such good pre-made projects to adapt really helps.
Would be v. inspiring to see more talk-throughs on how :)
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I'll put this on the potential videos list!
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Cool! Here's hoping it floats to the top like the redstone(?) I cluelessly placed under water the other day after insufficiently clear instruction by said 9-year-old :-D
