'Hakitzu' Teaches Kids to Code With Robot Warriors

Camille Bautista2013-03-27 19:47:50 UTC

Complete with battling robots, challenging arenas and a little bit of friendly competition, Kuato Studio's new game seeks to both entertain and educate as it teaches children how to code.

Hakitzu: Code of the Warrior, a strategy game, prompts players to type basic JavaScript to control characters. The free iPad app pits two robots against each other in a battle arena, where each user takes turns coding increasingly complex instructions to move and use weapons.

No previous knowledge of programming is necessary and the in-game keyboard is customized with commonly used keys. Kuato Studios takes an immersive gamification approach to pique players' interest in coding. Other organizations, like CoderDojo and Codecademy, aim to engage younger crowds with free courses and open-source software.

At the end of the game, players will have learned variables, functions, core construction of code, and syntax for JavaScript, founder and CEO Frank Meehan explained.

To create Hakitzu, Kuato conducted research at schools in the U.S. and United Kingdom. The game has been tested on students with positive reactions from participants and educators.

"What was very interesting was, for well over an hour, how engaged these students were without much instruction," said Eric Sheninger, principal of New Milford High School.

What do you think of Hakitzu? Do you recommend any games that teach coding? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of Kuato

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