Programming and software development have quickly become essential skills in the digital age, and education in computer logic is an increasingly important topic. It not only helps in understanding the digital world, but is also important for young people interested in joining the teams that shape how we interact with and design the future. Enter the Rabbids!
Rabbids Coding is a game created to be a fun and engaging educational experience, giving people the tools to get excited about learning to code. Players are tasked with cleaning up a spaceship that has been overrun by the Rabbids, which can be achieved by either providing simple instructions to a Rabbid wearing a mind-control device, or by dropping sausages in their line of sight. The game doesn't require any previous knowledge of coding at all; instructions are simple and can be dragged from a menu, placed in order, and tested with the play button. Didn't get the results you were expecting? Don't worry, just see where it went wrong, move some things around, and try again!
Rabbids Coding has been created to allow you to play with the concepts of coding, without constant supervision or instruction from a teacher. It gives you the independence to learn at your own pace, whatever your age. Your goal in each level is to provide the simplest instructions possible to get the task done. Once you've proven yourself in the basics, a sandbox environment becomes available, allowing you to explore and play with the instructions to see what you can do.
You will be able to get your hands on Rabbids Coding for free starting October 8; just head over to Uplay and download it! If you're old enough to read, you're old enough to play Rabbids Coding. It's Ubisoft's hope to see the game being picked up in classrooms and educational environments around the world!
Some helpful programming terms
Programming can seem like a very mysterious topic to the uninitiated. Well, fear not! Here are some top terms to help you get started on your journey:
- Code – Written instructions you can use to give instructions to a computer.
- Programming language – Your PC can't talk (well, not really, anyway) and you need a way to tell it what to do. A programming language is just that: a language your computer understands so that you can speak with it.
- Loop – No need to repeat yourself; with a loop, you can write some instructions then repeat them as many times as you need to in order to get the job done.
- Algorithm – A set of instructions that solve a problem or perform a task. Think of these like useful little phrases.
- Condition – These are quite specific instructions. They tell a computer to only perform a certain action when a condition is met. For example: "Computer, if I click on the web browser app, open my web browser."
- Optimization – Computers only have so much memory, and so the goal of many programmers is to provide the simplest instructions possible to get the job done. The simpler the instructions, the less memory they take to run, and the more efficient your program will be.
- Rabbid – Rabbit-like creatures that ruin spaceships, but fortunately can be tamed with mind-control devices and dropped sausages.
Stick to Ubisoft News for more on the Rabbids and other Ubisoft games.
