Flip: A concurrent bi-modal programming language for computational thinking

The Flip project is funded by the EPSRC (grant details) and based in the IDEAs Lab in the School of Informatics at the University of Sussex.

Flip is a programming environment designed to help 11-14 year olds develop computational skills whilst creating their own 3D role-playing games. The combination of a visual language (based on an interlocking blocks design) and a natural language description of the script under creation is intended to support young people in developing an understanding of computational concepts as well as the skills to use these concepts effectively. Situating the activity in the context of creating a game with impressive 3D graphics makes this a motivating way to introduce young people to computation.

We work with commercial computer games software called Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2), published by Atari in 2006. We are grateful for support from the creators, Obsidian Entertainment, who have provided us with copies of the software to use in our game-making workshops and school-based projects.

You can contact the Flip team by sending an email to flip@sussex.ac.uk.