Teaching my kid to code with a modern MUD

(tau.dev)

51 points | by andrewjanke 5 days ago

7 comments

  • saidnooneever 7 minutes ago
    comment section is quite critical/harsh? for no good reason?

    I think this is an awesome project for them both. And it's totally understandable to use an LLM for the base project as it's a 'fun' thing from the read. it doesn't look like it's trying to compete with anything....

    The kid can learn within an environment created by parent, so they can also collaborate on improving that environment, while the kid also has their own learning _within_ that environment.

    This seems like a wonderfully geeky adventure to go on if ur kid enjoys it :D love it. hope it will spark some cool interactions between them and make some epic memories :)

    Also, maybe people forget how it was like back in the day.

    I am not _too_ old - pentium 1 was my first PC. I learned making games in PASCAL, QBASIC and later custom C implementations that came with like 'gamemaker ' CDs etc. this was all very complicated to learn at a young age... Had to get many books and things (no internet!) at the PC shop to try and get my head around it. Never quite did until much later in my life!

    Sure things like Scratch exists, but this beauty of this one is that this one is _theirs_. Surely we can recognize the enjoyment that might bring to a parent and kids' lives? Learning is a bonus! Not everything is about being technically the best of the best -_- stop being Marines at everyhting. We're not at war with eachother over who writes the best code.

    Good use of LLM technology to make a project in my mind. props!

  • moffers 47 minutes ago
    I loved MUDs as a kid, and really do miss the sense of immersion and depth that came from joining a long established server and just exploring.
    • debo_ 20 minutes ago
      I had a blast in the late 2000s joining dead MUDs and just wandering around. It was utterly bizarre, in a good way. It also felt somewhat shocking when someone else actually signed in.
  • mentos 18 minutes ago
    The Yoink used in the end was a word/action I first came across in Ultima Online when players would yoink steal an item from another players backpack.

    Curious if that’s coincidence or if players of UO brought that over most likely from MUDs.

  • Bluescreenbuddy 9 minutes ago
    Sounds like an ad disguised as an article.
    • saidnooneever 5 minutes ago
      Guy made something and wrote a blog about it. What else is on here actually? Do you want to read more about AI benchmarks and Bitcoin???
  • compacct27 37 minutes ago
    A MUD got me into programming, just wanted to make one myself. I was too young then. Now that I’m “grown”, every five years I feel like the kids these days have so many tools to make it easier or at least more knowable.

    Also, that ASCII art(or pixel art?) as the header looks serene. Any tips/rabbit holes on achieving that art style?

  • zabzonk 40 minutes ago
    I honestly think the child would be far better served with Scratch rather than some half-assed adventure writing language (having created several such languages myself).

    Edit: To clarify, the languages I created were also half-assed - it's very difficult to create a good one.

    • a022311 30 minutes ago
      I'd say Canon and Scratch are different tools with different purposes. Both are simple and interactive enough for children to love. The main difference I see is that Canon abstracts away a lot of the game state management logic and you get to focus on creating characters, items and having lots of fun. Scratch looks like it has a steeper learning curve and while it is a good introduction to programming, it gets pretty hard to navigate once project size increases. As someone who started programming with Scratch, I think that making a text adventure game like the ones Canon does in Scratch would be much more complicated and the end result wouldn't be half as nice.
    • hombre_fatal 32 minutes ago
      I think the only thing that matters is whatever the kid finds appealing enough to do at all.
    • andrewstuart 14 minutes ago
      Scratch is so bad I think it must put kids off.

      It makes zero sense to start people off in an actually bad programming environment.

      Try Snap! Instead of Scratch.

  • groffl 46 minutes ago
    Wow, using legit computer lore in the first 95% of the article and then admitting LLM at the end.

    Kiddo is not creating anything, that's a delusion.

    • clemailacct1 45 minutes ago
      Yikes, this is a bit too harsh.
    • skinfaxi 44 minutes ago
      What? The article even states there's only one use of AI. What are you talking about?

      > Wish is the only AI feature in Canon, and it’s strictly limited to a single tutorial item per day. In a gameworld where everything else is explicitly written by humans for humans. And that alone was instantly polarizing.

      • philipwhiuk 27 minutes ago
        It's the only AI feature available to users in Canon but the entirety of Canon itself is also vibecoded.