Computational Thinking for All with Free Visual Coding Apps

Technologies
android, java, swift, symfony
Topics
web, app development, visual programming, gaming
Computational Thinking for All with Free Visual Coding Apps

The Catrobat project develops useful frameworks to create games, animations, or apps easily within a short time. This set of creativity tools for smartphones, tablets, and browsers is inspired by the well-known Scratch framework by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. The motivation behind the project is that programming is an important cultural technique on the same level as mathematics and physics, from a practical as well as from a philosophical point of view. Our aim thus is to popularize the skills needed to program from an early age on in a fun and engaging way that will facilitate the spread of its adoption among young people all over the world. Our awarded Android app “Pocket Code” is currently the most famous outcome of the project. Without the need of any further devices, users have the possibility to create their first program directly on their mobile device in a “Lego-like” style with blocks in just a few steps. Pocket Code supports all common device sensors, provides special bricks for different robotic devices (Lego Mindstorms, Robotix Phiro,...) as well as for hardware devices such as the Arduino board or the Raspberry Pi, and of course offers elements of programming languages such as variables, if-statements, concurrency, etc. We also work on frameworks for other OS and on making it available on browsers. That’s why developers of different fields help us to keep our products up to date to the current needs of the users. Motivated by prizes (such as the Lovie Award, the Austrian National Innovation Award or the Re-Imagine Education Award) and being featured by different programs (like Google Play for Education or code.org) our team is working on many different subprojects and extensions which will be released in the coming years. Over 500 developers already contributed to our project on different topics such as App-Development, Web-Technologies, Graphics, Usability, Internationalization, or Design.

2019 Program

Successful Projects

Contributor
Mikhaelle Bueno
Mentor
Michael Herold, Codexx, AshG
Organization
Catrobat
Amaya
Amaya Inspired in the "Awesome Demo Game Project " idea Amaya is a princess that have his kingdom invade and now needs to defeat The Tyrant to...
Contributor
Stefania Mak
Mentor
Bernadette Spieler, Vesna Krnjic
Organization
Catrobat
Coding Tutorial Game for Female Teenagers
A game to introduce female teenagers to Catrobat's programming learning app. The game's users will have the opportunity to learn how to code with the...
Contributor
gPath
Mentor
Christian Schindler, Thomas Schwengler, Annemarie
Organization
Catrobat
Testing Efficiency Catroid
Improve the efficiency of the catroid tests.
Contributor
Vaibhav Anand
Mentor
Dreuia, Annemarie
Organization
Catrobat
Awesome Demo Game Project
An old-school survival game made using Pocket Code IDE and Tested on the Android Architecture. The basic gameplay is made up of different levels...
Contributor
GatCode
Mentor
Michael Herold, Christian Schindler
Organization
Catrobat
Implementation of missing Bricks for Catrobat Language Version 0.992
Bricks are the fundamental tools, which are needed for the development of projects within the Pocket Code app. Therefore, I would like to contribute...
Contributor
Naomi Pfaff
Mentor
Bernadette Spieler, Vesna Krnjic
Organization
Catrobat
Interesting Female Teenagers in Coding Through the Use of a Well-designed Serious Game
This game will encourage female teenagers to develop their own games in the Catrobat app. As a tutorial game it is the gateway to Catrobat and its...
Contributor
Igor Ershov
Mentor
Robert Painsi, AshG, Codexx
Organization
Catrobat
Fortune on the high seas
My proposal is a pirate-themed roguelike videogame that will showcase how powerful Pocket Code really is, while also delivering a fun and exciting...
Contributor
Ajay Sharvesh M P
Mentor
Dreuia, Wolfgang Slany
Organization
Catrobat
Awesome Game Demo Project - The Binding of Krishna
The Binding of Krishna (TBoK) is the game which was recreated by our team, and the Game Play concept is designed from the famous game called "The...
Contributor
AselPeiris
Mentor
Matthias Müller, Wolfgang Slany
Organization
Catrobat
PocketCode Demo Game Project
This project focuses on creating an awe-inspiring game using pocket code with the goal of sending the message on “ what kind of unimaginable feats...