KODU

WHAT IS KODU?
Kodu doesnt stand for anything in particular. Some people think its a play on words
Code and You. Kodu was designed to get kids to start thinking like a programmer.
It by-passes the writing of programming code and has the user think more
logically. You are building an environment, something that programmers consider to
be an advanced perspective.

HOW DOES KODU WORK?

Kodu is currently available for the PC through an Educators Group (Free) or through
your XBOX Live community ($5 for download). The Kodu environment is built
through the use of your XBOX 360 Controller. In the classroom setting you must use
wired controllers. Each button on the controller has a purpose in Kodu. Familiarize
yourself with the Xbox Controller shown below.

Lesson 1
CREATING LAND
1. Start with Empty World (Press

then Play)

2. Press the Edit button to bring up Control Panel

3. Use Triggers to scroll through the control panel
4. Choose Ground Brush to add/remove ground.
5. Rotate camera so you are looking down on terrain.
6. Press

to pick shape of ground, we will choose the Circle.

7. Use thumb pad to increase/decrease size of brush (ground).

8. Press
to change Material (look of ground). We will pick the one that
looks like grass.
9. Now using your triggers lay out the ground. We are going to make 2 big
circles connect by smaller circles. Press B to Exit when done. Note: Dont
make your gaming area too big as it uses up your computers valuable
resources.

10.Now that we have our flat terrain we want to make it look more like land. So
we are going to add hills. Go to the create Hills / Valleys. Then change the
size of your brush to a smaller size and use your triggers to increase /
decrease hills.

11.Once we have some hills create we want our terrain to look somewhat natural
so using the

button, smooth the hills.

12.For practice I want you to make a circle of hills so that we can put a lake in
the middle. Make sure your hills are higher all the way around than the lowest
part of your terrain or else the water will spill out.
13.Go into Water mode and pick a water material. Lets choose Water Type 2.
Then press your triggers (make sure you are inside your mountain area) and
fill the mountain full of water. If you water seeps out it will flood everywhere
so press the other trigger to lower the water level.
14.You can add a few more Valleys then press your B button. Use your camera to
look around your newly formed land.
15.We should now save our world. Press the Start button, scroll down to Save my
World. Press A, backspace the name that is there and type in FirstGame. Then
press SAVE. Press the Edit button and you are ready to move on to the next
lesson.
Congratulations you are on your way to making a Kodu World!

Lesson 2
ADDING OBJECTS
1. Load your previously saved world called FirstGame
2. Press the Edit button to bring up Tool Palette.

Current
Tool

Tool
Palette

Selected Tool

The tool palette at the bottom of the screen lets you choose a new tool. Use the
triggers or the d-pad to move the tool palette back and forth. To activate the
currently selected tool, press the
button.
The icon in the upper-right hand corner shows you what tool you currently have
selected. This will remain on the screen after you have closed the tool palette.
Try moving the tool palette back and forth with the triggers. Then select the Objects
tool and press
to make it active.
With the object tool active, move it around the world with the left stick. Notice that
when you put the cursor on a character or other object, both the cursor and the
object glow blue.

3. Choose the Object Tool (has the Kodu figure on it)

4. Lets start out by adding Trees. Press A button to ADD an object.
Go into the tree menu and you will have the choice of 4 trees. Lets
go ahead and pick the big tree. Notice it goes where your cursor was
and is highlighted in a bluish color.
5. If you move the left joystick the bluish color will disappear and you will see
your cursor moving. If you
move the cursor back to the tree it will turn
blue again. This is important
because if you wish to edit any object it has
to be highlighted.
6. Now that we have a tree placed on our ground we may want to move it
around to a slightly different location. Make sure that the cursor is under the
object you want to move so that it is in its bluish tint. Next press the A
button, the object now glows Orange. Move your joystick and the object will
move with you. Press the A button again to place your object in its new
location. You can do this with all Kodu objects.

7. Lets try placing a few objects in your world. Add a couple more Trees (various
styles), some Rocks and how about a Cloud or two. Remember in order to add
more objects your cursor cannot be underneath a current object. Lastly we
should add a Kodu
character.
8. Now that you have your objects in place, you should save your work. Press
the START button, then Save My World. Save this as FirstGame.
9. Awesome! Now go back to Edit World. Left Trigger to the PLAY button. Go
ahead try your world out. Hhmmm, not much happening is there? Thats

because you have only created your Environment. Now we have to learn
how to control the objects in your environment. Think of the Environment
as your Stage and the Objects are the props and characters on the stage.
I know, enough reading, lets get to programming our objects to do something.
You are ready to move to Lesson 3 Programming Your Objects.

Lesson 3
PROGRAMMING YOUR OBJECTS
1. Load your previously saved world called FirstGame
2. Press the Edit button to bring up Tool Palette.

Current
Tool

Tool
Palette

Selected Tool

3. Choose the Object Tool (has the Kodu figure on it)

4. Move your cursor underneath your Kodu character.

5. Now we are ready to tell this object (Kodu) what to do. Press the
open the program editor, like so:

button to

Here we see the program editor showing an empty program or, more precisely, a
program consisting of one rule, which does nothing.

I mentioned that this program contains one rule. A rule tells the bot (a bot is what
we call the moveable objects in the menu) what to do and when to do it.
The first part of a rule is the When Clause. It says when something is going to
happen; the condition that will make the bot react. You can say things like when I
see something red or when I bump into a tree or even when 2 seconds have
passed.
The second part of the rule is the Do Clause. It specifies what the actor should do
when the when part activates or fires. Bots can do all kinds of things, such as
shoot, move, or eat. Different bots have different capabilities.

The plus sign in the rule lets you add more elements to the rule. Well talk more
about that in a later section.

THE SIMPLEST POSSIBLE PROGRAM: JUST MOVE

Use the left stick on the controller to move the
pencil cursor over so it points at the plus sign in
the Do Clause (see right.)
Press the
button and you should see the Verb
Menu (below right.) This menu shows different
things this bot can do.
Use the left stick to highlight the move verb, and
press
to insert it into your program. Your
program should now look like the picture on the
bottom right.
The verb menu lets you specify what the bot is
going to do when this rule activates. Since we
havent said when the rule should activate, it will
be active all the time.
In effect, what our program says is always
move.
Since we didnt say which direction or how to move, the bot will pick a direction.
To run your program, press the
button
repeatedly; this will close the programming UI,
return to the tool menu, and then return to play
mode. You should see your Kodu move in a
straight line.

Lesson 4
EDITING YOUR GROUND

Landscaping: moving ground

up or down
Making hills and valleys is fun, easy, and allows
you to set up interesting game mechanics. The
shape of the ground affects character behavior:
hills block vision, and some characters cant climb
steep hills.
Use the Load screen to browse to the Lessons tag. From that group of Worlds,
choose the one called Basic Terrain. You can also adapt this lesson to many of the
other levels.

THE UP/DOWN TOOL

Press the start button to open the Tool menu. Use
the triggers to move the Tool menu back and
forth. Select the Up/Down tool and press
to
activate it.
You will see a flashing area on your terrain. Its
purple in the picture at right but the color
depends on the terrain. This is your brush; it
shows which part of the ground the tool will
affect. Most of the tools that affect terrain work
like this. You can change the size of the brush by
moving the D-pad (

) left or right.

Position your brush in an empty area. Pull the

right trigger briefly and release it. You should see
the area beneath the brush rise to form a small
plateau (below right)
Now try holding the right trigger down while you
move the brush using the left stick. You can
paint long hills and valleys this way.
You can also move the brush while you are raising or lowering the ground. Try
holding the right or left trigger while moving the
left stick - with practice you can paint mountain
ranges and hills.

Brushes come in many shapes. Press the

button to open the brush menu. Use
the triggers to move back and forth in the brush menu and press the
button to
select a brush.

Creating new terrain

Kodu includes several stock worlds for you to use,
but sometimes you need a custom shape to make
the game you want. Using the Add tool, you can
make worlds of many different sizes and shapes.
The shape of the world is very important to game
design and can make simple game programs
much more interesting.
For this lesson, please open the Basic Terrain level from Lessons.
THE ADD/REMOVE GROUND TOOL

Press the start button to bring up the Tool Menu.

This will pause the game. Use the triggers to
move the Tool Menu back and forth. Select the
Add/Remove Ground tool, press
to activate it.
You will see a flashing square on your terrain. This
is your brush; this shows which part of the
ground the tool will affect. You can change the
size by moving the D-pad (

) left or right.

Lets get started:

Move the brush off the terrain. You may want to

zoom out using the shoulder buttons. (above right)
Adjust the size of the brush with the D-Pad
Pull the right trigger briefly
Notice that you have create a new island

You can hold down the trigger while moving the

left stick to continue adding terrain in a line.
Deleting terrain is just as easy:

Position your brush so that it overlaps existing terrain

Pull the left trigger

CHOOSING TERRAIN TYPE

Kodu includes many different building blocks for your terrain; we call these blocks
materials. Lets pick a different material and using it to extend the world.

Press the button to open the Material Picker

(right)
A list of cubes will appear
Scroll back and forth in this list using the shoulder
buttons
Pick a material with the button

Now that you have chosen a new material, create

some more terrain using this material

Use the left shoulder to zoom out a bit

Hold down the right trigger
Move the left stick to paint new terrain

Adding water to your world

When you add water to a world, it is as though you are pouring the water onto the
ground at a particular point; the water will pool in low-lying areas to form lakes and
streams.
- Use the Load screen to browse to the Lessons
tag. From that group of worlds, choose the one
called Water World.
Press the start button to bring up the Tool Menu.
Use the triggers to navigate the menu and select
the Add or Remove Lakes and Rivers tool. Press
to activate it.

MAKE LAKES AND RIVERS

Choose a spot to pour water onto the ground. Press
the right trigger to add water at the cursor and the
left trigger to remove (lower) the water. Use this
tool by moving the cursor anywhere where you
want the water to rise or sink. Different bodies of
water can have different types. If two bodies of
water touch, they will take on the same appearance.
Use the left trigger to lower the Water and the right trigger to raise it. Notice how
the water follows the shape of the terrain, pooling
in lower areas and stopping at higher areas.
There are different types of water. To change the
type you are creating, press
to open the water
menu. Use the triggers to move back and forth in
this menu, and press
when you've selected the
type you want to use. This type will apply to any
new water that you create. To change existing water to use this type, move the
cursor over that water and press the
button to set the type of that water.

Lesson 5
HOW TO MAKE FLAT AREAS
You will often find that you need a flat arena in which your gameplay can happen.
The flattening tool makes it easy to level an area to a consistent height.
Use the Load screen to browse to the Lessons tag. From that group of worlds,
choose the one called Flat Land

PICK THE FLATTEN TOOL

Press the start button to bring up the Tool Menu.
Use the triggers to navigate the menu and select
the Create Flat Areas and Ramps tool. Press
to activate it. You will see a flashing area on your
terrain. This is your brush; this shows which part
of the ground the tool will affect. You can change
the size by moving the D-pad (

) left or right.

MAKE FLAT AREAS

When you paint with the flattening tool, it looks at
the height where you start painting and then
raises (or lowers) everything the brush touches to
that same height. If you start at a mountain peak
and drag the brush across the terrain, you will
create a flat area at the height of that peak. If you
start in a deep valley, the brush will lower ground
to that level.
Move the cursor to the location where you would
like to start flattening. Pull the right trigger to
start flattening and hold it down while you use the
right stick to paint a flat area. Notice that ground
is lowered or raised as the brush touches it to
reach the desired height.
If you want to change the brush you are
smoothing and leveling with press the
button
and select the brush you want, using the Triggers.
Press the
button to accept.

Lesson 6
HOW TO MAKE ROUGH OR CURVY GROUND
The Roughen tool randomly changes the height of the terrain under the brush. It
has two variants: spiky creates truly random, spiky effects, and hilly creates a more
rounded, softer look.

Load the World

Use the Load screen to browse to the Lessons tag. From that group of worlds,
choose the one called Rough Terrain

ACTIVATE ROUGH OR CURVY TOOL

Press the start button to bring up the Tool Menu.
Use the triggers to navigate the menu and select
the Roughen tool. Press
to activate it. You will
see a flashing area on your terrain. This is your
brush; this shows which part of the ground the
tool will affect. You can change the size by
moving the D-pad (

) left or right.

MAKE ROUGH OR CURVY GROUND

Use the left trigger to spike the terrain and the
right trigger to make the terrain hilly. While you
could do this with the up/down tool and a very
small brush, this tool makes it easier to add visual
detail over a large area.
If an area gets to spiky, you can smooth the
terrain under the brush by pressing the
button.
If you want to use a different brush, press the
button to open the brush menu. Use the triggers to move through the brush menu
and press the
button to accept your brush selection.

FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION

Try using the rough/curvy tool to create different visual effects: Create an ocean
with a jagged bottom and a smooth beach. Make a world with a flat area, a smooth
hilly area, and spiky mountains. Create a mountainous terrain with a narrow path
going through it - perhaps by using the rough/curvy tool together with the flatten

tool. Create a world with a mountain and a ramp that lets a character move from
the bottom all the way up to the peak of the mountain.

Lesson 7
HELP IM LOST
The program editor provides help for all the programming tiles. Whenever you are
looking at a tile in the tile selector menu, you can press
to get help on that
specific tile. The help system will also show you help for the other tiles in your
program. You can also find related examples related to your program that you can
easily insert into your program.

Select a character and press the button to open

the program editor (right)
Enter the program shown (or any program)
With a selector menu open and a tile selected
(below right) press the button for help on the
selected tile
The help for the selected tile will be displayed
Note that the other tiles in your current row (will
also appear at the top of the help screen. You can
see help for those tiles by moving the left stick
left and right.