The Best, Free, Ways to Learn Basic Programming Skills

Programming is an incredibly useful skill to have in today’s society. Nearly all companies need programmers to do just about anything. From creating videogames, to automating machines in a factory. However, learning this skill can be very difficult, especially on your own. Knowing where to begin is the hardest part, at least in my own experience. So, I have created a top 7 list starting with the most basic programming to advanced, giving you the opportunity to progress in a linear fashion.

RoboZZle: To start off this list we begin with something more along the lines of a game, however, it involves giving a cursor directions which ultimately moves it along a path. This game is pretty difficult, but is manageable and with enough time, you can conquer it. http://robozzle.com/js/

FMSLogo: The next engine on our list is a little bit more interactive, but honestly, much more rewarding. In FMSLogo there are endless possibilities of 3D design, sound, and even things like screensavers. Since this is still fresh at the beginning of this list, not much programming is involved except for the conceptual understanding of how you can alter a program to make it do different things. http://sourceforge.net/projects/fmslogo/

Sploder: Ever wanted to make a game in a matter of minutes? Well, you absolutely can. With Sploder, you begin by picking an environment with different themes i.e. 2D platformer, first person shooter, etc. In this engine, you are more focused in level design, which will force the user to exploit the physical properties of the character allowing for many different approaches to some circumstances.

Scratch: MIT’s scratch is easily one of the most acclaimed programming language/engines of all time. It is incredibly simplistic and just about anyone can use it. You can create anything from games, movies/short-clips, to just straight up moving your own animations around. There’s nothing that I love better than being able to see something that you have created come to life and operate in an environment. With Scratch you can do just that. Using an easy to understand language, Scratch uses “block based” programming that delivers a comfortable experience to anyone between the ages of 6-16 (and quite frankly older since I still use it). The user can freely draw anything they want or get it off the internet, and put it directly into the program as a sprite. Then all you have to do is assign to a chain of blocks telling your sprite what to do and you can watch it walk around, talk, dance, just about anything!

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Kojo: Kojo is the next step in programming. Now, instead of using just logic and preset programs to do certain things. We are finally creating our own...kind of. There are a lot of things that you can do with Kojo. Rather than creating a program from scratch, you start with a program that already has the meal ready, you just have to add the sauce. In this case, sauce is your creativity, and you can create just about anything inside most of these programs. You are still limited however, to what the bare program can actually do. Here is a great example of what one of the “pre-made” programs will look like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPKt7M2tFu0 The link to the website is http://kogics.net/sf:kojo

Unity: The Unity Engine is by far my favorite programming engine that i’ve ever used. I find that creating the games and software using this engine can be more fun than actually playing them. You can work with Unity’s incredible 3D and 2D design features that allow you to construct environments and easily add certain physical effects to them. It is a step up from the past programs because it requires you to start learning an actual language that you will create code from.https://unity3d.com/

Microsoft’s Visual Studio: Visual Studio is an all-around and versatile programming engine. However, this is the last choice on this list and will be the most difficult to use. Visual Studio is incredibly power and is very capable of creating enormous programs (not that Unity can’t, Visual Studio is just more professional). Almost anything can be created through Visual Studio, where Unity is more visually based. Highly recommend learning a C based language before using this program or you may find yourself struggling to know what to do. https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/visual-studio-homepage-vs.aspx

Trystin Killer

trystinkyller@rsu57.org

techhelpdesk@rsu57.org

*Note - This list is based off of my own experience and opinion. You may find that some of these are listed in a manner that is not progressive in a linear way.