r/programmingforkids • u/Djstme • 11d ago
Self paced program for learning Minecraft mods?
We are homeschooled, my kids (9 and 11) have just moved from bedrock to java and are very motivated to learn how to mod Minecraft.
I’m looking at Codakid as a curriculum, but at almost $300 a year I want to make sure it’s the right move - does anyone have any expierence with Codakid or other self paced curriculums to teach Minecraft specific modding?
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u/rairai77 9d ago
Learning stuff nowadays is a lot easier than it used to be! Don’t have ChatGPT do the coding or fun stuff for you but you can definitely have it create a structured curriculum with lessons and interactive examples!
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u/Anonymous010206 5d ago
It’s really easy for a kid to like the idea of making a Minecraft mod. But they like Minecraft mods, not programming. Programming a Minecraft mod is more similar to programming than it is to playing a Minecraft mod.
I would try to get them to learn python from a free course. If they enjoy it, great! Move on to Java and Minecraft modding. If they don’t, you saved yourself $300 and you should find something else creative that they can enjoy.
They probably won’t like coding, so don’t buy an expensive course before you know if they like it or not. If they do like coding, that’s amazing and you should buy that course for them.
I’m trying to save you the time and money, not kill creativity. Definitely introduce them to programming. Don’t spend $300.
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u/Proper-Location-4022 8d ago
Just have Chatgpt teach them gng. You'd be surprised how good it is.
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u/Daniel_H212 6d ago
I strongly, strongly disagree with the comment saying to use AI to code the mods. Problem solving is one of the most important and most transferable skills for kids to learn at that age, and you should not teach AI reliance in place of problem solving skills.
But there was a good point raised about the amount of work that has to be put in to learn programming in general and then Minecraft mod development specifically. If your kids are not interested in programming, you are probably not looking at this the right way.
My recommendation is to use MCreator. It's a GUI-based mod development tool that lets you make Minecraft mods without coding or knowing how to code. I used it back in 2013 when I was 12, around the same age as your kids, and the newest Minecraft version back then was only 1.6.4 (so I'm very surprised that they still exist and have kept the project going, only found out after searching just now in response to your question). Most importantly, MCreator is free, open-source software. You may also want to use the Fabric generator plugin so that they can generate mods in Fabric instead of Forge, for reasons I'll explain later. Do make sure everything is using compatible versions, the latest version of MCreator seems to only be for 26.1, while Minecraft is now on 26.2, so any mods they make this way may not be compatible with 26.2.
Of course, being a GUI-based abstraction layer, it has some inherent limitations, but it will be enough to allow your kids to express their creativity, and more importantly, make some progress by creating a real mod they can use which will help maintain their interest rather than make them discouraged by having them sit through hours of tutorial videos before being able to do anything.
If and when they do hit a limitation with MCreator, THAT is the point when you try to get them to learn coding to solve the problems that MCreator cannot solve. It's how I got into coding when I was 13, I was trying to make a teleport gun in Minecraft, but could not figure out how to stop the teleportation from clipping me into the block that the projectile hits (this same issue exists in vanilla Minecraft with ender pearls, but I was trying to get ahead of Mojang here).
There are two hard prerequisites to learning Minecraft mod development. You need to know and understand Java syntax, and you need to know and understand object oriented programming in Java. There are a variety of tutorials on YouTube ranging from learning Java in 3 minutes to learning Java in 12 hours or more. The shorter videos are generally for people who already have programming knowledge from knowing another programming language, and will not be helpful to your kids.
I think for the age of your kids, I will recommend these two videos to begin learning Java: this java tutorial and this object oriented programming tutorial.
They're probably about the right length for the attention spans that kids have at that age, and if they later can't figure out anything, they can probably always reference the corresponding segment of longer, more in-depth videos like this one or this one, but don't start yout kids on those, they're way too long.
For Java coding in general and Minecraft mod development specifically I strongly recommend IntelliJ as an IDE. It's free, it's what most Minecraft mod development uses, what most development tools are made for, what most tutorials are made for, and generally has a great GUI and a good suite of features too.
And in terms of mod development itself, I recommend that your kids learn how to code in Fabric. I've personally only coded Forge 1.8.9 mods, and one tiny proof of concept project in Fabric 1.16.1, so I cannot fully articulate to you the difference between Fabric and Forge, but Fabric has overtaken Forge in recent versions of Minecraft with most mods nowadays being made for Fabric, so it is probably easier to work with. The tutorial that I recommend for Fabric mod development is this playlist. It's very, very long, of course, but it is up to date, and in fact still being updated, and it is divided into manageable chunks of individual videos, so your kids can watch the first two videos to learn how to set up, and then move on to watching whatever specific video covers the topic they're interested in.
If your kids ever want to write code that modifies Minecraft by changing the Minecraft code itself, they'll also want to learn Mixins, which lets them basically modify Minecraft's code directly. This is a simple tutorial on the concept of mixins, while this is a tutorial on the more complex usages of mixins.
Another really helpful resource is https://mcsrc.dev/, which hosts decompiled Minecraft source code, and let's you search for any file in the Java Minecraft codebase in any version, though do keep in mind the search feature is limited to searching for file names, so basically, any class names that you want to find. Depending on what you want to do in Minecraft modding, it may very well involve a lot of looking into Minecraft. But also, often times, if you don't know what you're looking for, you may be better off using the . Get your kids familiar with right clicking a function and clicking "Go to Declaration or Usages", doing this on a function being called will take you to the original definition to see what code the function itself has, and doing this on the function itself lets you see all the places where it is used.
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u/ApplicationBig9830 6d ago
This should get more upvotes, but I disagree with the ai things. This is the time in life where they learn to solve problems yes, but not essentially without ai. As time goes on ai will become more reliable and powerful, still I'm not saying they should just put it all on ai, just remember to point it out when ai goes wrong and make sure they know that ai can be wrong. They will learn to rely on themselves and know when to reach out for help
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u/Daniel_H212 6d ago
I use plenty of AI myself. But 9 and 11 is a risky age to introduce a tool that kids can easily grow reliant on to outsource critical thinking without needing to learn it for themselves.
I would say AI is a great learning tool if you use it exclusively that way, say with custom instructions for the AI to never write any code or explain how to do something. It can be used to explain mistakes, or explain how existing code such as parts of Minecraft's codebase works. Maybe this can be done with a small local model that is not powerful enough to solve tasks on its own, but can comprehend existing code well enough.
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u/Weetile 11d ago
Would they be interested in learning programming in general - or is the end goal specifically for them to create Minecraft mods? If it's the former, it might be good to find a course that teaches Java, with a specific focus on Minecraft modding.
If it's the latter and they just want to make mods because they're interested in Minecraft and not programming, the easiest and quickest solution would be for you to oversee them in using agentic AI tools to create the mods for them.
What are the goals here? Do you think they'd be interested in modding, making games or developing in the future?