CreatiCode XO (AI Assistant) - New Project Design

CreatiCode

Introduction

CreatiCode extends MIT Scratch by introducing various new block categories, including 3D game engines with physics capabilities, 2D physics, artificial intelligence, app widgets, multiplayer online games, augmented reality, and table variables. These additions enable the creation of a much broader range of projects beyond what is possible with standard MIT Scratch.

Starting a new project can sometimes be daunting if you’re unsure of where to begin. This is when you can ask XO for help. XO has seen many different types of projects, so it can offer suggestions on how to design a new project.

It’s important to remember that XO should primarily be treated as an assistant. While it can provide helpful tips and guidance, it can’t create an entire project on its own. XO is optimized for short, specific responses, and its performance may decline when you ask it to generate many lines of code. Moreover, as a coding learning tool, XO aims to enhance learning by encouraging students to engage more deeply with the programming process. Providing full-code solutions would be counterproductive to this educational goal.

Also, XO can not generate truly original ideas: everything XO says is a response to your idea based on existing projects that XO has seen before. For a project to stand out, your own creativity and vision are key. XO’s role is to assist in bringing your unique ideas to life, offering support and suggestions based on its vast database of project insights.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use XO to facilitate new project design.

Generate Project Outline

Whenever you come up with an idea, you can ask XO how to build it. XO would give you an outline of how to build such a project. You can use this as a baseline to estimate the project’s complexity.

For example, you can ask “How to build a 3D platformer game?”, and here is an example response:

It typically follows this format:

Overview of the project
Key components (stage and sprites)
Major steps to implement each component
Tutorial or demo project links, if any

As discussed earlier, XO will not write out the entire project for you, but rather give you a high-level overview of the project.

Provide More Details

If you only input a few words for your project idea, XO will respond with a fairly generic outline. To get more original results, you would have to provide more details. As a general rule, the more information you provide, the more unique XO’s response will become.

For example, here is an updated request:

Tell me how to design a 3D platformer game, where the player controls an Alien that can both jump and change direction in the air, and the platforms are moving themselves, and there are enemies that fire lasers at the Alien. The Alien can also pick up awards to run faster or jump higher.

Here is what XO says about it. As explained before, the originality has to come from your input.

Start Small

Since XO can generate outlines for any project idea, it’s tempting for us to take on a project that is too complex. For instance, numerous students have asked XO about how to build Minecraft in 3D, only to realize that such a project can be highly complex.

A key principle to follow is “don’t bite off more than you can chew.” This means you should aim for projects that are challenging yet still within your capabilities. As you develop your coding skills through continuous practice, you’ll be equipped to tackle increasingly complex projects over time.

Additionally, after completing an initial, simplified version of the project, you can expand it over time.

Ask for Project Ideas

Sometimes you run out of ideas on what to build, you can also ask XO to give you some suggestions. For example, you can say: I want to build a project to practice how to use ChatGPT blocks, can you give me some ideas for small projects?

You will get a list like below, which may inspire you to find your own idea:

Focus on Specific Steps

After getting a project outline, most people are tempted to say this: “give me all the code!”. However, XO can’t simply convert the project design to a fully working project. Most likely, you will get a “disappointing” response like this:

So, what’s the right way to proceed? You simply need to focus on individual steps/features. For example, if we only ask about the first step to set up the 3D scene, XO will be happily working with us again:

After completing this step, you can then continue to the next step.

Exercises

To practice using XO for project design, here are some interesting project ideas worth trying:

Flappy Bird game
Guess the number game
Trivia Game
Catch the apple game
Cookie-clicker game
Snake game
Top-down 2D maze game
Chess game
2D Side-Scrolling Platformer game
3D simulation of a bouncing ball
3D simulation of a racing car