Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Squally – A Game to Teach Low Level Computer Science

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 36 posts

Re: Show HN: Squally – A Game to Teach Low Level Computer Science

#21

Post by jvvw »

madhadron wrote: post #17
setr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the attraction isn't that it saves time, so much as it saves thinking. At least for me (kid-less), it's really hard to imagine the difference between something appropriate for a 5 year old and an 8 year old; particularly things that straddle the line Things are a lot easier if the producer just tells me the intended audience, which I can take with a grain of salt and decide from there

The gap between what is appropriate for a 5 year old and what is appropriate for an 8 year old is surprisingly large if you don't have kids or otherwise deal with them day in and day out.

Agree - I have a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, and yes, enormous difference even though only 2.5 years apart. Suggested age range is definitely helpful for parents even though I often take them with a pinch of salt. Also if a developer hasn't tested enough to know what is a good suggested age range, then they haven't tested enough full stop!

I'm certainly happy with idea of a game teaching low-level cs concepts, although I don't tend to spend too much money on kids' games unless they have really good recommendations/reviews (or they have enjoyed other games from the same developer e.g. we have all the DragonBox games) as I can't guarantee what my kids will decide is interesting. I also don't think I'd get early-release stuff for kids as their tolerance for non-finished products tends to be limited.

Re: Show HN: Squally – A Game to Teach Low Level Computer Science

#22

Post by baud147258 »

zcanann wrote: post #20
hsolatges wrote: post #19

Hey! I love the idea but I just registered to HN to tell you that my 5yo would actually be too scared of your caracters to enjoy! Also the universe feels strongly masculine and won't bring girls in CS.

I don't think we anticpated people wanting younger children to try this game, originally we were thinking 12+. Clearly we were wrong based on the posts in this thread, so we'll have to think about a path forward. The storymode of this game was intended to have RPG elements, which tend to be branded as masculine. I wish more girls were encouraged to play RPGs, but I get that this isn't the world we currently live in.…

> RPG elements, which tend to be branded as masculine

It seems weird that RPGs tend to be branded as masculine, since, if I remember right, there's more female players (in proportion) than sport and FPS games

Re: Show HN: Squally – A Game to Teach Low Level Computer Science

#23

Post by userbinator »

lquist wrote: post #4

Honest question: why? Why is low level computing the right thing to teach kids? Most people take the exact opposite approach to the extent they create very high level languages

In my experience, those who start teaching with HLLs are aimed more at producing developers that have some minimal level of competence to enter the industry, rather than ones who actually understand what computers are and how they work. While the former is perfectly acceptable for a lot of things, the latter are important because they tend to be the ones who can easily debug difficult problems. IMHO teaching kids HLLs does nothing to dispel (and if anything, furthers) the notion that computers are mysterious magical devices rather than machines that simply follow a list of instructions and manipulate bits. The latter is particularly important as computers become more prevalent in society, people who know nothing about how they work will be less inclined to present good arguments for the issues of privacy, encryption, etc.

Re: Show HN: Squally – A Game to Teach Low Level Computer Science

#24

Post by korla »

baud147258 wrote: post #22
zcanann wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think we anticpated people wanting younger children to try this game, originally we were thinking 12+. Clearly we were wrong based on the posts in this thread, so we'll have to think about a path forward. The storymode of this game was intended to have RPG elements, which tend to be branded as masculine. I wish more girls were encouraged to play RPGs, but I get that this isn't the world we currently live in.…

> RPG elements, which tend to be branded as masculine It seems weird that RPGs tend to be branded as masculine, since, if I remember right, there's more female players (in proportion) than sport and FPS games

Is it really any wierder than gaming (almost) exclusively targeting men? There's some data here on what kind of numbers we are talking about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_and_video_games#Genre_pr...

Re: Show HN: Squally – A Game to Teach Low Level Computer Science

#26

Post by remlov »

zcanann wrote: post #12
remlov wrote: post #3

I'd love to try this out. However I see Linux isn't supported. Will there be Linux support in the future? I wonder if this game would work through Proton.

Yes! Linux support should come by the end of this week.

Thank you for the update. Looking forward to it!

Re: Show HN: Squally – A Game to Teach Low Level Computer Science

#27

Post by zapzupnz »

zcanann wrote: post #20
hsolatges wrote: post #19

Hey! I love the idea but I just registered to HN to tell you that my 5yo would actually be too scared of your caracters to enjoy! Also the universe feels strongly masculine and won't bring girls in CS.

I don't think we anticpated people wanting younger children to try this game, originally we were thinking 12+. Clearly we were wrong based on the posts in this thread, so we'll have to think about a path forward. The storymode of this game was intended to have RPG elements, which tend to be branded as masculine. I wish more girls were encouraged to play RPGs, but I get that this isn't the world we currently live in.…

Consider giving it the ol' "Crash Bandicoot in Japan" treatment, with an alternative version or special mode in the game that just loads different, cutesy resources — but the game is otherwise identical.

Western games localised for Japan is a great resource for making things kid-friendly since that's the aesthetic over there.

Re: Show HN: Squally – A Game to Teach Low Level Computer Science

#29

Post by gnulinux »

pitzips wrote: post #14
lquist wrote: post #4

Honest question: why? Why is low level computing the right thing to teach kids? Most people take the exact opposite approach to the extent they create very high level languages

For what it's worth, I struggled for so many years understanding what higher level programming actually is, while simultaneously doing it. It never felt complete. I went through Crash Course Computer Science (from John Green / PBS...) and it really helped me feel grounded. Maybe this is attempting the same, just starting at one end of the abstractions.

High level, low level formally refers to the level of abstraction of the virtual machine of the programming language with respect to the "target" model of computation. We say assemblers are "low level" since it adds very little abstraction to the von neumann machine it's intended to run on, on the other hand, python programs compile to a long set of instructions. One can formalize this concept using Kolmogorov complexity. (i.e. what's the size of smallest assembler program implementing python)

Re: Show HN: Squally – A Game to Teach Low Level Computer Science

#30

Post by rubenhak »

hsolatges wrote: post #19

Hey! I love the idea but I just registered to HN to tell you that my 5yo would actually be too scared of your caracters to enjoy! Also the universe feels strongly masculine and won't bring girls in CS.

I think child would be more scared to see "AAM" instruction then any of the characters :)
Post reply on HN