The competition incorporates both student and teacher challenges.

The student competition for the Kodu Kup 2010 is a skill competition designed to recognise students who demonstrate excellence in a diverse range of technical, creative and game play depth and design in the use of Kodu Games Lab.

The teacher competition for the Kodu Kup 2010 is a skill competition designed to recognize teachers who use Kodu for innovative activities in the classroom. Focus for this competition is around curriculum integration, relevance for teaching and learning, impact on student learning, and opportunities to scale Kodu for future learning activities.

The Kodu Kup was launched to better foster a culture of creativity in learning environments. The Educational director for Microsoft Malaysia stated at the Kup launch that “the bigger goal here is to inculcate life skills that include leadership, ethics, accountability, personal productivity, personal responsibility, people skills, self-direction and social responsibility,”

Farad, with some of the teachers and students taking part in the Kup. Image by Sun2Surf

It should be noted, that the Kup competition is only open to students aged 9 – 14 in participating schools across Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, and concludes on the 20th of August.

We’ve had two very busy Planet Kodu members building some fantastic games this month.

Tomy, has uploaded several variations of his Super Trix world, and it’s been particularly interesting to watch the game develop as he uploads successive variations.

One of the key ingredients in developing a great game is ensuring that you test and retest, layering the game with complexity as you progress.

It’s a subject that we explored in the Planet Kodu Course presented free earlier in the year. In week 1 of the course, we explored this process of refinement and discussed how important it is not only to game development, but for the Kodu gaming community.

It’s a good idea to offer up progressive versions of your game creations for the assessment of your peers. With each new version you can more easily see where improvements have been made, and how successful your updates have been.

You can revert to previous attempts if you have to, and try different approaches to find out what the Kodu community thinks of your improvements.

Other users will also benefit from being able to keep track of your progress and understand how you improved your games, enabling them to replicate your achievements in their own games.

SARS2509 is another Planet Kodu member that’s been busy building games. The new series (currently in three chapters) is called the Soviet March and is narrative based. In the first game your challenge as a rookie Soviet pilot is to capture a blimp filled with enemy intel!

Each of the three games are different, with their own unique challenges. Each requires something different of the player, and offer another piece of the story. Drawing your players into the game with a story is a powerful way to ensure they remain hooked! It’s a subject we explored in detail in the Planet Kodu course in week three, and you can access the week three course guide on the site. The Soviet March game series is a great idea, unique and challenging, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next!

You can still access all the course material on Planet Kodu. There are five weeks of videos and instructional material, as well as comments from the participants to explore. Whether you’re new to Kodu Game Lab, or an old pro, you’ll find the course offers a fresh perspective on the art and process of game development.

Information about the improvements in this version are listed on the official Kodu Game Lab blog http://community.research.microsoft.com/blogs/kodu/archive/2010/05/28/pc-build-1-0-48-is-live.aspx

Whether you’re a seasoned professional, with hundreds of Kodu hours under your belt, or new to the game, you’re sure to pick up something new!

Please note that each of these tutorials is around 14mins long.

In this full game tutorial, created by Cracked Rabbit, land tools and basic character controls are explored.

In this second instalment, problem solving in game, and character AI are discussed, as well as setting paths and the notion of pages when programming.

In the third instalment, timers and music are added to the game.

In the final instalment, lighting, glyphs and land types are explored.

Note: You’ll note that it says Xbox in the introduction, but the PC release is almost exactly the same as the Xbox version.

In this tutorial created by Cracked Rabbit, they explain how to build a game with locked doors, and the ‘keys’ that open them.

Note: You’ll note that it says Xbox in the introduction, but the PC release is almost exactly the same as the Xbox version.

You have a base to defend (often an actual tower), your enemy continues to advance and will most often regenerate new opponents. To win, often you must either survive for an amount of time, accrue a particular score,  defeat all enemies, or a selection of these.

Building games like this in Kodu is great fun for a number of reasons. Firstly, you know the rules, and so you can immediately set about considering how you will program them to best effect. You’re still able to be endlessly creative with the format, but with the basic theme of the game already determined – defence – there’s less preliminary thinking time required.

Some of the more interesting incarnations of this game have been ones where elements outside generally known rules influence the game play. For example, if the topography includes hills that make it harder to see oncoming enemies, an additional layer of difficulty is introduced. You may in addition decide to use a fixed camera angle to further restrict what the player can see, adding atmosphere and anticipation to the game play.

Another benefit of electing to recreate a commonly known game like Tower Defence is that you gain the opportunity to determine a new and more engaging storyline. The story is important, it’s not only a way of drawing a player into the game, but it’s a sneaky way of talking about the rules of the game without having to set them down in bullet points at the beginning.

Finally, and most importantly, players know Tower Defence. When you present a game with this title, they know what they’re going to get and will be looking for the things that make your approach unique.

Tower defence games are not of course, the only format that’s worth exploring, there are countless popular recreations being built with Kodu Game Lab, and copying an existing game design is a great way to start if you’re new to Kodu. It’s also a great way of honing your skills if you’re a seasoned Game Lab programmer – focussing on the peripheral elements that can turn a good game, into a great game.

Kodu will help you in some surprising ways however, here are just a few.

1. It will help with basic reading concepts. In the same way that having the ability to read music enhances literacy skills, using Kodu also gives you a deeper understanding of language because you are immersing yourself in a different pictographic language, with its own syntax and grammar logic.
2. It will enhance your creative problem solving skills. Make no mistake about it, Kodu Game Lab will present you with some weird and wonderful challenges, and push you to approaching problems in new and interesting ways.
3. You’re likely to collaborate with people from all walks of life. A very broad range of age groups use Kodu, and in many ways, the growing Kodu community is amongst the most diverse in the gaming industry. From six and onward, people are using Kodu to develop games.
4. Kodu offers teachers and parents the opportunity to better understand what children find engaging about gaming. This understanding can then be used to find new ways of teaching and learning with gaming by leveraging this interest.
5. It can help you understand how to better critique games. By enabling you to construct a game, Kodu gives you the skills to deconstruct other forms of gaming too. What works, what doesn’t and why, these questions are much more easily answered when you’ve had the opportunity to build your own.
6. Video games are one of the most absorbing forms of entertainment we participate in. Studies show we are less easily distracted when playing (and building) games than with a variety other forms of entertainment like TV or a good novel. Why is this important? The critical thinking, problem solving skills you’re building with Kodu are that much better enhanced BECAUSE you are playing a video game!

I’ve been digging for good examples, and wasn’t dissapointed. Here’s a selection of soccer games built by Kodu enthusiasts that will inspire you to head out and create your own!

I particularly loved the shouting spectators on the side lines in one and the balloon/blimp flying overhead in another for that extra degree of authenticity. Those little details really make the game in my opinion.

Kodu Soccer example 1

Kodu Soccer example 2

Kodu Soccer example 3

Kodu Soccer example 4

You’ll find the new version will run seamlessly with the games you’ve already created in the previous release.

You can download the new version on the Kodu Game Lab website, and read up on what was updated here.

Try the new games, take a look at the code behind them, modify and update them. Upload your own versions. Oh, and don’t forget to comment on the games, let game developers know what you think!

PacKodu is a Pacman clone uploaded by Planet Kodu member stuartridout. There are two versions of the game, and it’s worth taking a look at his first attempt before playing the new and improved version, to understand how he’s improved upon the original.

An Ice Hockey game was uploaded by Planet Kodu member pariah which is challenging, and great fun!

Finally, Kodu Invader was uploaded by Planet Kodu member richard. It’s fast and furious, and will test your skills.

Don’t forget to take a good look at the way these games have been put together after you’ve played them. Try making a few changes, tweaking these versions and uploading your own.

These games are great examples of what you can do with Kodu, and we’re looking forward to seeing what else the Planet Kodu community comes up with!