An educational game for learning programming? [closed]

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Is there any fun, educational game (maybe a flash game, etc.) that help learning the concept of programming and training your brain to think like a programmer?

Actually, I am not the one who will be playing it; it'd be my friend instead. I tried to help out my best friend through the university Java course (at my university, it is a kinda "sucky" course). I have practiced programming for many years, so for me it is not a problem. However, my best friend, whose major is not in computer engineering (but must take this course due to it being required), has a very hard time being introduce to Java by the boring professor and very confusing textbook.

I tried to simplify many context for my friend, but still it seems he gets bored with 开发者_StackOverflowthose confusing context very fast. Therefore, if possible, I'd like to introduce it to him in a more enjoying way such as a game.

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There are several games available, this one is closest to programming and fun I've encountered so far:

light-Bot

light-Bot 2.0

Update Here are the newest versions of the game, which include better explanatory texts and a friendlier drag/drop interface:

Lightbot

And a version for young kids in particular: [ages 4-8]

Lightbot JR

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http://codingbat.com/ It might not look like a game.

But it's a site, that offers easily understandable problems, ranging from complete beginner problems to intermediate problems. Split up into categories based on the subject they're covering.

You write the code on the site, and then it tests it, and shows you the results.
The game part comes in when you complete an assignment and it gives you a point! (In the form of a star).

The constant gratification of being rewarded when you solve a problem makes for a much more pleasing and interesting learning experience I've found... It helped me and my classmates a lot when we had an incompetent Java teacher :p

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Manufactoria

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Just to keep updated, there is a new game CodeSpells which is quite an interesting game.

In the gameplay, the player is a wizard arriving in a land populated by gnomes, which is a group who used to have magic powers but lost it. The wizard has to help gnomes by writing spells in Java. Players have seven spells available to use, including levitating objects within the game, flying and making fire.

See: CodeSpells First-person Player Video Game Teaches Kids How To Program In Java

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there was the game called Colobot days ago

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CeeBot is great.

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What about programming like playing a game:

Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.

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I would suggest implementing hangman, tic-tac-toe ( 2 player version to start with and later can be modified to play with computer).