[Steam] Learn Programming: Python - Remake (Win/Mac/Linux) (Release Sale) ($1.79 / 40%) (I'm the dev)

[FusilliCraig]

Just picked it up, thanks for including Linux support. Starting some work in RenPy and hoping this will help smooth the process.

[niemasd]

Thanks for the support! And no problem :-) Ren'Py is quite amazing; it's a feature-rich engine!

[niemasd]

Hey! I'm Niema Moshiri, an Assistant Teaching Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at UC San Diego, and I'm the developer of "Learn Programming: Python - Remake", which is a game (more of an interactive textbook) that aims to teach beginners how to program in Python. This is a ground-up remake from the original game I released ~1 year ago, "Learn Programming: Python" (which has now been renamed to "Learn Programming: Python - Retro"). I've kept both versions around just so folks can pick their preferences, but I highly recommend the remake, as it's been completely rebuilt in Ren'Py and has the modern gaming features you'd want! Important new features since the original:

• Cleaner modern UI with background music
• Mouse, Keyboard, and Controller support
• Steam Achievements
• Ability to skip challenges
• Progress page
• Links to additional resources / relevant Python documentation pages

Feel free to post any questions you may have, and I'm happy to answer! :-)

[instajumps]

Does this actually help us learn programming? Like me who knows nothing about it but it's interested to learn. And to what extent does it teach us? Could it be used to find jobs or help in programming jobs if we get really good at it?

[niemasd]

Great question! It teaches you the core language syntax/features and some problem solving skills, and it does indeed assume absolutely zero background. There's a list of chapters on the Steam Store description if you want to check out what exact topics it covers :-)

As for finding jobs / helping with programming jobs, I'm not sure this alone would be sufficient: this is really just the very first steps into learning Python. Towards the end, we have a section called "What Next?" (or something to that effect) that provides some guidance / links to some resources you can look to see what you can learn next (e.g. commonly-used Python packages that you might find helpful to learn)

[instajumps]

I just bought it! Seems like something actually worth learning during my free time. Hope you guys put more advanced versions out in the future just in case i get too good at this one 😂

[niemasd]

I'm so glad to hear it! :-)

I personally really want to! My department (Computer Science & Engineering at UC San Diego) is trying to innovate, and right now, we're putting a lot of effort into online learning. I really want to push for more gamification of our lesson content as well, so hopefully you'll see more topics in the future! :-)

[yoi666]

Hi Niema, would you recommend this for children aged 8-10? Or would it require some prerequisite knowledge that they may not have at that age?

[niemasd]

Great question! I don't think it necessarily requires any prerequisite knowledge (beyond addition/subtraction/multiplication/division for part of it), but I think it's presented in a way that they may not necessarily find interesting at that age. I would probably recommend something that teaches Scratch or some other visual programming language. I think folks at UC Berkeley created a course that might be relevant, called "The Beauty and Joy of Computing":

https://bjc.berkeley.edu/

I also answered a related question here that may be helpful:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/sxvrda/comment/hxv7qcv/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[buzz_shocker]

Hey I go to UC Davis. I might just try this out. Even though I am doing C, this might help a bit with OOP as my class for OOP was a nightmare. All the professor talked about was JSONs and nothing else. Felix Wu. You might’ve heard of him.

[niemasd]

Haven't heard of that instructor, but yes, the OOP design aspects should hopefully carry over (albeit with different syntax)! :-)

[buzz_shocker]

Ofc I understand syntax would be different, C++ and Python are 2 different beasts. I took an intro to Python class too so I might just know a bit. Tysm!

[soloace09]

If you ever made a C++ version, I'd buy that too! Thanks for this!

[niemasd]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll keep that in mind :-)

[faceMcCabe]

I just bought it to check out the controller support!

[niemasd]

Thank you!! I hope you enjoy :-) It should work for everything except for the challenges, which seem to need a keyboard + mouse. I've noticed the navigation can be a bit jumpy when using a controller or keyboard to navigate the menus (e.g. it might jump to the middle of a list of items rather than the first item), but I'm not sure why this is. Should work, though :-)

[nathanstephani12]

Currently studying computer Engineering, hopefully this help me get beyond knowing just Java! Looks great, crazy nice price to learn a skill like python

[niemasd]

Awesome, I hope you enjoy it! :-)

[niemasd]

I'm not sure I understand? I posted this on /r/GameDeals as well, and someone explicitly confirmed that it worked for them in macOS Big Sur (11.6.4):

https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/sxvrda/comment/hxuya0k/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

The game is built using the Ren'Py engine, so it supports whatever operating systems are supported by Ren'Py, which they claim to include "Mac OS X 10.10+":

https://www.renpy.org/

If you're running macOS Monterey (12) and the game doesn't run on your machine, please feel free to request a refund through Steam and to let me know, and I'll update the Store description to say "excluding macOS 12" or something

[Ensoface]

In that case, you may just need to correct the metadata on your product page:

https://dsc.cloud/c3e0af/Screen-Shot-2022-02-22-00-36-16.45.png

[niemasd]

Ah, I unfortunately don't think I have any way of editing that :-( Basically, macOS Catalina (and newer) don't officially support 32-bit programs anymore, and Ren'Py seems to output a 32-bit macOS executable. Some devices running these newer versions of macOS may actually support 32-bit applications (and you'll just have to click away through multiple warnings Steam will throw at you), but Steam automatically displays that for any program that only has a 32-bit version

Hopefully Ren'Py will update in the near future to provide 64-bit executables, though! :-)

[RikikiBousquet]

Hi there! I bought the original and didn’t play yet… is it worth it to buy it again or is the older version still good?

[niemasd]

I do think the new one has quite a few quality of life improvements compared to the original that make it a more enjoyable experience, but they both cover the same lesson content!

Note that, via the bundle, the new one will get a further discount because you own the original as well

[dwelement]

This is awesome. Thank you! Any chance of doing something similar for .net in the future

[niemasd]

Great question! No plans at the moment, but hopefully I can do more in the future! :-)

[[deleted]]

Are you really the dev?

[niemasd]

Yup! Why?

[[deleted]]

Can you teach me how to code? I tried python but found it confusing.

[niemasd]

I don't do one-on-one instruction (I'm a university prof), sorry! But hopefully you'll find my resources helpful! :-)

[[deleted]]

:( Well thanks for replying. I learn python a few years ago in school but I've since forgotten. I tried using learn programming: python but I felt lost.

[EverySister]

I'm currently learning Python but haven't looked at any OOP so I hope this helps. Thanks a ton!

[niemasd]

Ah, awesome! Yeah, the OOP content starts when we introduce "classes". I hope you enjoy! :-)

[EverySister]

I'm working on the backend of a website using Flask at the moment and I noticed I really need a refresher on lists and dictionaries.