A competition for kids: Kodu Cup

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Right now, for students 9–17 years old, the Kodu Cup is on! Check out the prizes here, including the grand prize:

Grand Prize Microsoft Prize Pack

  • $5,000 Cash Prize
  • New York Trip for 2 to the Imagine Cup including roundtrip airfare, transportation, 3 nights occupancy at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, and $250 cash
  • Xbox 360 250GB Console with Kinect
  • 3 month Xbox LIVE Gold
  • Toshiba - Satellite Laptop
  • Microsoft - Arc Laser Mouse
  • Microsoft Office Professional 2010
  • Grand Prize Trophy

Here’s a little bit about the Kodu Game Lab:

“Kodu provides an end-to-end creative environment for designing, building, and playing your own new games. The core of the Kodu project is the programming user interface. The language is simple and entirely icon-based. Programs are composed of pages, which are broken down into rules, which are further divided into conditions and actions. Conditions are evaluated simultaneously. For a full technical grammar of the Kodu language, read Kodu Language Specification and Grammar.

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.”

The contest deadline is May 10, 2011. (11:59 PM ET May 10, 2011, specifically. Smile)  Have fun!