Anybody heard of this?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/primerist/code-hero-a-game-that-teaches-you-to-make-games-he

You shoot javascript at things in order to manipulate the world.

I'm mildly intrigued, but I'm actually having trouble actually working out what the different reward tiers are...

This actually looks very intriguing. I've been struggling terribly with learning programming for nearly 20 years now, and have been enjoying a surprising amount of success with learning JavaScript through Code Year thus far. At first, the idea of an FPS that lets you shoot code sounded ludicrous, but reading through the page, it actually sounds like they might know what they're doing here. It's also much more assuring to know that they've already done a lot of work on the project and intend to finish it even if they don't reach their goal. I'm not sure I fully understand the wording here, but unless I'm mistaken, it sounds like they're saying they'll refund pledges if they're unsuccessful. If that's true, that's also very reassuring.


Either way, it looks and sounds like it could be very good, and I really like what they're doing enough that I intend to donate some amount regardless. For $1, why wouldn't I want to get into the beta? I'm going to stew on the idea for a while and look into the project more thoroughly. First I'll put in the $1 and check out the beta.

Ultimately, I'm seriously contemplating donating anywhere from $15 for the Elite Hacker Name Your Price Edition, which includes access to the full game in addition to the beta, as well as access to the "1337 club", up to $45 to get the Elite Collector's Edition, which comes with a copy on a USB drive in a signed box with a "scroll full of codefoo secrets" and a t-shirt.

That's just the way Kickstarter works. No money changes hands unless the 'asked for' amount is met by the time the counter runs out (I think it said 10 days left). That's why it's a pledge rather than a donation (that's to say it only becomes a donation if enough is pledged).

Did you watch the video? It illustrates much more clearly how the code gun idea works.

This is the first time I've ever actually used Kickstarter. I'd been playing around with the idea of funding Double Fine Adventure but have yet to have done anything regarding that. I watched some videos on the site, but nothing pertaining to the gameplay yet. I've been doing some reading, setting up my account, getting the beta downloaded and whatnot.

Unfortunately, at the moment they only support Windows and Mac. I don't know why they chose to prioritize Mac over Linux, since there are probably a lot more people interested in coding and educational tools using Linux than there are using Mac, but oh well. Also, Kickstarter apparently requires payment through Amazon, but I suppose it's because implementing a pledge system is presumably easier than, say, Paypal or directly using your card information.


I've put down my $1 placeholder pledge, at any rate, and I'll see how much I'm willing to fund it after I've toyed around with the beta a little and read some more about the project and the people behind it. Thank you very, very much for sharing this Kickstarter project. I don't know a lot of people to tell (I had no luck getting anybody but myself to sign up for Code Year...), but I'll tell them. Keep spreading the word. :D



Edit: I've watched the 20 minute presentation and tried the beta. Unfortunately, even on low settings, the frame rate is much too low to be playable. It doesn't look that intensive, but it managed to bring my system to a crawl, I'm surprised. I'll have to try playing it on a friend's computer.

I decided to pledge them a small amount and have a look at the beta, downloading now.

Gah.. now I want to make a game.. for the lab coat!

damn... doesn't look like these guys are gonna make it

50,000+ dollars left to be funded, and only 4 days left :(

They made the majority of that in the last couple of days so there's hope yet...

I decided to go for the lab coat.

Going to write down the game mechanics tomorrow and make a start on the coding. Should be interesting :)

I kind of like robocode for learning how to write basic AI routines. It's kind of cool, programming the little tank and watching as it does combat with other AI characters.

I've already pledged $41 to them. I hope this works out for them. This looks revolutionary.

Plus their $41 package looks super cool.

It got funded!

+1

Did anyone else buy the $41 package?

I personally went $31 on mine. I was going to go with just a $13.38, but decided to splurge a bit.

I can't buy much here because of how inconvenient things are for transfers, but I like what I'm seeing. I just wish they could have added hacking the Gibson instead of multiplayer.