BBC’s new Doctor Who game teaches computing skills to kids

BBC has announced a new online game “The Doctor and the Dalek” for its CBBC audiences. In this game, kids will have to help the popular time-travelling Doctor Who in his new adventure. The game will inspire kids to learn programming skills as they help Doctor Who in his quest to destroy his enemies and save the universe.

The Doctor and the Dalek features the voice narration of Peter Capaldi, who is the current doctor. The story has been written by Phil Ford, the writer of TV shows Doctor Who and Wizard vs Aliens.. The game is a part of BBC’s “Make it Digital” initiative and aims to encourage kids to learn coding and programming while having fun.

The game has a variety of puzzles where the player has to program Dalek to power him up so that he can perform various tasks. The challenges become difficult as the game progresses. The puzzles are based on the new computing curriculum in UK and children can learn computer programming as they play the game. Children will have to combine instructions to reach a goal, changing variables for behavior, using repetition and loops as well as logical reasoning.

“We’re really excited about the launch of The Doctor and the Dalek as not only is it a really entertaining platform game for kids to play but it’s also a great introduction to some key principles of computer programming,” said Sinéad Rocks, Head of BBC Learning. “Every puzzle has a strong link to the KS2 or KS3 computer science curriculum. So we think it’s going to be a really valuable tool for students, parents and teachers.”

Let us see if The Doctor and the Dalek succeeds in entertaining kids as well as inducing them to learn some basic programming skills as it is meant to do. The game is available for free at www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc.

BBC’s new Doctor Who game teaches computing skills to kids

Microsoft Acquired Minecraft for $2.5 Billion

Microsoft has announced this week that it has acquired Mojang, the company which developed “Minecraft” for $2.5 Billion. Microsoft expects the acquisition to break even in FY15 based on a GAAP basis. The acquisition is expected to close in late 2014 after the customary closing conditions and any regulatory review has been settled.  Mojang was a Stockholm based company which created the game 5 years ago.  Minecraft was launched in 2009 by a team of game developer, Markus “Notch” Persson, Carl Manneh and Jakob.

Over the years, the game was downloaded for more than 100 millions on PC alone, making it the most popular video game in history. Moreover, it is also the most popular online game on Xbox and among the top paid app in iOS and Android in the US. The Minecraft community are among the most active players in the online gaming industry with over 2 billion hours played along on Xbox in the past 2 years. For the PC platform alone, almost 90 percent of the players are paid customers and they have signed in within the past 12 months.

The next step after the acquisition is that to make Minecraft available across all platforms with PC, iOS, Android, Xbox and Playstation, being a few of the example. Unfortunately the creators of the game will be moving on to start new projects thus they will not join Microsoft in developing the next version of the game.

“Minecraft” is one of the most popular franchises of all time. We are going to maintain “Minecraft” and its community in all the ways people love today, with a commitment to nurture and grow it long into the future,” said Phil Spencer, head of Xbox.

Microsoft Acquired Minecraft for $2.5 Billion