Get them coding with Tic-80

TIC-80 is a fantasy computer, patterned after retro computers from the 80s. I’ve mentioned PICO-8 before, and if you have used it, then TIC-80 will feel right at home.

The big advantage of TIC-80 over PICO-8 is that TIC-80 is completely usable in the browser. That means it will run on anything with a browser, such as Chromebooks.

TIC-80 is a great way to introduce students to programming actual commands, not blocks like Scratch. That means the learning curve is a steeper, but, TIC-80 can also do way more. To see what is possible, check out some of games published on itch.io.

The games can be programmed in several different languages, but I would recommend sticking with Lua or maybe Javascript. Both languages have a ton of resources available and are relatively easy to pick up.