Kodu is Microsoft’s newest attempt to squash a rival’s attempt to popularize a new genre. It’s billed as a “programming language for kids”, and allows user-created content. Microsoft claims that Kodu is not like Little Big Planet in any way, but it’s a bit odd that it was only announced right after Little Big Planet launched. Let’s be real there: Microsoft wants a Little Big Planet killer, and so far, it doesn’t look like Kodu is it. My prediction is that it will only appeal to a niche group (young aspiring programmers/techs), and won’t be quite as sucessful as Microsoft contends.

To quote Kodu’s lead programmer “More fundamentally, Kodu is all about programming – a legitimately new programming language that is being patented and studied by some of the top language theorists in the world,” he said, adding: “LittleBigPlanet is a super-cool level-editor that by-and-large avoids programming, as far as I understand.”

While his claim of “lack of hard programming” is true, Little Big Planet does have extravagant methods of “soft programming”. Have you seen the Calculator level? What about the Tic-Tac-Toe level, where the creator programmed an AI opponent?

What do you make of Kodu? Watch the announcement video and get back to us.

Source: GamesIndustry