I have been pondering recently whether Kodu can get any better. Many of you know I am a HUGE fan of the software and, although I think the software is already pretty awesome, there are a few features I would like to see included at a later date:
- Mobile Version – Now I’m not suggesting that we should be able to create Kodu games on mobile phones as I think this could prove tedious and fiddly, however it would be great if there was a game viewer for Windows Phone 7 so you could play the games you’ve made on your mobile phone.
- Human Characters – Kodu has a great range of characters available, but I think it could benefit with human-like characters in addition, this would be particularly helpful if my students wish to re-create a specific story (perhaps in English or History lessons). Maybe with the ability to define skin and hair colour and length too. I wouldn’t want too many customisable features, though, as I fear my students would spend too long designing characters before moving onto programming!
- Raining Clouds – This is a suggestion that came from one of the primary school children I have been working with. It would be great if the clouds in the world could actually generate water and for this to fill up the area below.
- Programmable Friction – I know you can change the friction of a character or object in the settings but to be able to change this within the programming would be really useful, that way you can define how the character moves depending on the type of flooring on which they are standing.
Ask Tiles – It would be great to have an easy way to ask a question and for the correct answers to be stored. I envisage this working a little like the “Say” tiles currently do, except with an extra box where you can store possible answers to the question, along with which one is correct. This could possibly allow up to four different answers (A, B, X and Y). I made a question and answer project a little while ago, and having a built-in way of doing this would be a great asset in education, allowing children to easily make a quiz game on any topic they like.
If you have any other suggestions of future enhancements to Kodu, please post ideas in the comments below!
Two things:
1. Ability to import your own 3D models into kodu. We have a new NPA in computer games in Scotland which is being offered to entry level FE college students and offered to 3rd,4th,5th year school pupils in high school, however Kodu doesn’t suit it as you must design a game, make media for the game and then create the game (using the media you created).
2. The ability for your character to strafe left and right (side step) as you would in a proper FPS.
For point number 2 I have kinda figured out a work around for this but it only works if kodu is always facing the same direction. But it would allow you to have kodu strafing left or right in a space invaders style game for instance.
Good suggestions David. For point number 2, I see what you mean, I’ve just been playing with a FPS that I made a while ago and can’t get the character to strafe as he is always facing different directions!