Coding for Kids
Table of Contents
NEW Course for Minecraft Bedrock (Minecraft for Windows)
If your child is on Minecraft, they know that modding is one of the best ways to customize their world. Tynker already has five self-paced online programming courses that cover modding and game design for Minecraft Java Edition (for PC/Mac). With our newest course, Mind Crafters, your child can now mod Minecraft for Windows using the same intuitive visual coding approach.
Kids Learn and Create in Mind Crafters
Mind Crafters guides your child through building amazing structures and fun games. Using Tynker’s new modding feature for Minecraft for Windows, your child can build complex structures like ancient pyramids, cities populated with skyscrapers, and underground railway systems. They’ll also create fun mini-games like “Sir Bouncealot” and “Mob Tracker.”
Kids can learn to create games like “Mob Tracker.”
The course has 10 chapters with distinct objectives. Your child will learn the basic commands through coding puzzles, then move onto deploying their first mods in Minecraft Windows 10. Building upon the programming concepts they learn throughout the course, they will switch between Tynker and Minecraft as they try out their code in Minecraft. In Cityscape, Railway System, and Underground Explorer, young coders create different types of infrastructure within Minecraft. In addition to learning how to create new structures programmatically within their Minecraft worlds, your child will naturally learn programming concepts as they play.
Modding in Windows
Those who are used to modding in Java will realize that modding in Windows is a little different. For example, the way you activate and run mods varies between editions. In Java, you press the save button to save your mod to the server, enter our Minecraft lobby server, then type a command to enter your Minecraft world. After you’re in your world, your Minecraft mod will run. In Win10, however, you press play to save your mod to the server, start your Minecraft world, and type a command.
One key difference is that in Bedrock Edition you don’t join a server first, but rather type a simple command that automatically connects to Tynker to run the mod. There are also no time limits for modding in the Bedrock edition.
Using Minecraft Bedrock Edition, you can create fun games like “Spleef” or make construction mods to quickly build complex structures. You’ll also have the Tynkerbot to assist you as you place and build your structures in your Minecraft world. And unlike mods in Java Edition, Bedrock mods also work on tablets or phones!
Quickly build advanced structures like ancient pyramids.
How to Make Your First Mod
It’s easy to mod with Mind Crafters! To get started:
- Create a mod in the course on the web.
- Press the “Play/Deploy” button to save the mod to their server.
- Start your Minecraft world and type the given command. The mod will start running at that point!
We recommend starting with a “flat” Minecraft world that is in “creative” mode, in which you have “admin” permissions. After going through the lessons, you can create any world you’d like to run your mods in.
Add-Ons for Minecraft Bedrock Edition
Tynker’s new Minecraft Editor also makes it easy to create Add-Ons in minutes! Minecraft Add-Ons, like Minecraft mods, allow you to customize your Minecraft mobs by changing their behaviors and properties. Do you want a 100-foot chicken that spits fireballs at creepers? You can create it. Need a balloon bouquet of rainbow colored pigs? You can do that, too! See what the community has built here.
Program a chicken to burst into flames when it’s punched!
