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Potato Pirates: an epic card game that teaches anyone age 6 & up, 10 hours worth of programming concepts in 30 minutes, all without a computer! Over $250K raised on Kickstarter!
I am a software developer myself. Learnt coding a few years ago and it's really nasty. All the abstract coding concepts just don't make sense in the beginning. Damn, if only Potato Pirates is released back in those time. Can't believe that a sack of potatoes can teach coding better than my teachers. 😂
For newbies, it might take a little time to get used to the game play, but weell worth it.
TL'DR: its awesome! GET IT!
LONG VERSION: I backed Potato Pirates in the first few days of their kickstarter. Soon after the kickstarter closed I got confirmation that my package was on its way.
Shipping was quick. The quality of the cards is spot on. The little potato pirates are fuzzy lil fluff balls that may stick together; but we found it added to the charm. The game rules are straight forward and presented in such a way that my 6 year old, in grade one, was able to read them outloud and understand. He also proceeded to kick our butts!
My kids are 10 and 6 and both loved the game. They created complex loops and if/else statements to maximize their attacks in game. Later, their faces lit up when we explained that this is how computer programming works! We showed them python and scratch programming and they took to it like ducks to water!
The game in and of itself is a riot; but it delivers on its promise: you will learn basic concepts of programming in about 30 minutes. Concepts you can immediately apply to real world programming.
Potato Pirates is a brilliant gift tgat is ideal for those geeky families like ours ^_^ 11/10 I'm gonna order more to give as gifts to friends and family!
I'm a computer science teacher at K-12 school and was extremely excited to get a game that used physical components away from a computer to teach programming concepts. I think it can help students focus on the concepts away from the distractions of the internet.
The major challenge with this game is the competition aspect. This makes it so that only a specific group of kids will be engaged enough to tease out the lessons the game is trying to impart. It is very easy to lose, particularly when you're first starting to learn (i.e., the first 30 minutes), and a lot of kids don't handle losing well.
I've had teenage girls who when they started to lose instantly checked out and younger boys who when they started to lose just started sabotaging the game and annoying their friends.
I've also had groups of students who were awesome about it, appropriately silly, and dove into deep strategies (including forming "alliances" with other players) to win the game.
Player elimination, in general, is not a good idea in an educational game IMO and I've found competition games to be tough in a variety of educational settings.
I'm not an "everyone gets a trophy" type of educator but since this game is designed for younger students, I think something that uses collaboration and/or has students competing against themselves would serve a larger group of students.
Just be advised that this game is not optimal for all settings.
I've played this game with my kids and with my students. The silliness of potato pirates roasting other potato pirates masks the serious logical learning that happens in the game. Hail Potato King!
I love this game. I've played it with a few different groups and everyone has had a really good time and got really into it.
It is a very fun game and requires quite a bit of thinking as well so play. But once you get started, it is very fun. Your way of thinking in terms of programming paradigm will evolve as you play more games. But in its core it is a legit fun card game that is sure to entertain anyone (more people more fun)!
I backed this on kickstarter because the idea seemed both genius and adorable. I was not disappointed! I'd love to see an expansion in the future. I also loved that there was crowd-translating into many languages! Proud to have contributed to the Hebrew translation :)
I sponsored this product on Kickstarter and bought it to play with my computer student. I teach computers and echnology to udents ages 5 through 14. Students 8 through 14 adore the game, as do I. It's kind of hilarious and fun to play in a group and they are learning some basic programming and computational thinking. computation. After playing along with the younger students a couple of times, they are now able to play the game on their own.
