Filed under: Developer, Fun, Kids
Teach programming concepts with Alice 3D environment

Through a simple drag-and-drop interface you can build all sorts of animation by attaching object methods to events, giving clear visual feedback in the form of the animations you build, but also stealthily teaching simple modern programming techniques. Even the only slightly nerdy kids you know will fall in love with animating characters while learning valuable lessons along the way.
Takes you back to writing simple programs in BASIC but, with a whole new modern twist. Alice is a hefty download, at 115MB, and you'll need Java installed as well. Still, it's free, educational and just the perfect thing for a rainy spring day. Take the jump to see some shots of Alice's user interface.





So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
nick c said 10:14AM on 3-21-2007
this program is horrible
i used it in my java programming class last year, and it was worse than coding our own 3d objects and movements
it is slow, ugly, and crashes a lot
don't download it
please
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Shunnabunich said 11:13AM on 3-21-2007
>Java based 3D toolkit
>Java based
>Java
I think we found your problem, ma'am. This accounts for Nick's "slow, ugly and crashes a lot" anyway. Why does anybody use Java for anything anymore if they know it'll put whatever they make at such a huge disadvantage?
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taybay said 8:16PM on 3-21-2007
Yeah.. I actually tried this out when it was in beta.. at least three years ago? I'm not even going to bother.
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