Recently Microsoft research introduced a visual programming environment for the Xbox 360 named Kodu. Unlike other video games, Kodu let’s you even kids to make your own custom video game for XBox 360 without any knowledge of programming. It’s totally a visual programming environment where you don’t need to think about programming. It is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone. The programming environment runs on the Xbox also on windows computer, allowing rapid design iteration using only a game controller for input.

The Kodu language is designed specifically for game development and provides specialized primitives derived from gaming scenarios. Programs are expressed in physical terms, using concepts like vision, hearing, and time to control character behavior. While not as general-purpose as classical programming languages, Kodu can express advanced game design concepts in a simple, direct, and intuitive manner.

Though kodu is mainly for XBox, it’s also available as a free download for your Windows PC as well. That means you no longer need an Xbox to design games with Kodu and you can play them on just about any computer using a keyboard and mouse (or an Xbox game controller, if you have one).

Key Features :

High-level language incorporates real-world primitives: collision, color, vision.
Runs on Xbox 360 and PC.
Bridge and path builder.
Terrain editor – create worlds of arbitrary shape and size.
20 different characters with different abilities.
Interactive terrain builder.

Download and Requirements :

Download and learn more about Kodu from here. Kodu requires .NET 3.5 and the XNA framework 3.1 to run. You can manually download them or Kodu installer will automatically download and install them for you.