yrandom's comments

I think this is a fun and productive way to learn how to code which I why I built https://xcadia.app/ which has lots of examples of simple retro games that you can edit and learn coding from.

I spent countless hours learning to code using QBasic and building games from type-in code books I founds in libraries. I wanted to re-create this experience so built my own learn-to-code platform, https://akedo.app, inspired by the ease of getting started with QBasic.

One of the first examples I built was a clone of Nibbles in only 120 lines of code which you can play at https://akedo.app/play?g=8eolqpn_fk-kr1TLi_WmKw

I'll need to come up with a version of Gorillas next!

I agree and it's one of the reasons I built https://akedo.app

It's a text based programming platform centred around creating games and can be used from a young age and into adulthood.

Thanks, that's a great idea!

It's actually the Japanese translation of arcade (as in shopping arcade). I wanted something short with available domain names.

> 1. Is the language for this open source? If not, is that planned?

It's a language I designed specifically for this platform and is not currently open source. If it proves popular I'm certainly open to it.

> 2. Is the language compiled or interpreted, and what targets? Is it the execution environment a VM that runs in the browser similar to Scratch?

It's interpreted. To improve the performance at some stage I'd like to compile it directly to JavaScript rather than run it through my intermediate layer.

> 3. Is this a charity or for-profit? If the former, how will it be sustainable (i.e. donations, premium memberships, etc.)? If the latter, what are the plans for monetization?

It's for-profit. I'm planning a freemium model so there would be additional features (when I build them!) and access to more advanced tutorials.

Thanks, I spared no expense!

It's a language I designed myself heavily influenced by Python, Lua, and BASIC. I wanted something that was as simple as possible to get started with and could grow with the user.

An entire generation of programmers, including myself, started their programming career with QBasic because it was included on every computer running MS-DOS and was easy to get started.

I have tried to re-create this simplicity with my own site (https://akedo.app) and one of the first games I re-created was actually a Nibbles clone called Python (https://akedo.app/play?g=8eolqpn_fk-kr1TLi_WmKw).

I've yet to create a Gorillas clone but that's next on the list!