Best Coding Games For Teens: Get Your Teen Excited About Coding

Learning to code can be intimidating, especially for teens with no computer science background. That’s where coding games for teens come in. 

Coding is an in-demand skill highly sought by employers across various industries, including tech, health, education, and many others. These games are designed to make coding fun and more exciting than video or text-based tutorials that most people use to learn computer programing. 

With several coding games on the market, finding the best ones that suit your learning speed and budget can be challenging. If you are searching for coding games for teens, this article will help you figure out the best options. 

This article will explore the top ten coding games for teens that are perfect for beginners. By the end of this article, you will have decided which coding games suit your needs and budget. 

Why Coding Games?

If you’re on the fence about learning how to code by using coding games, here is why you should consider them for your kids; 

• They offer a fun and engaging way to learn to code: These games provide an interactive and entertaining way for teens to learn basic concepts that would otherwise be harder to learn using conventional methods. 
• Develops problem-solving skills: Most coding games have multiple levels, requiring students to solve complex problems. Solving such problems boosts their problem-solving skills. 
• Encourages logical thinking: As children learn the basics of coding, they gradually improve their logical thinking skills.
• Boosts creativity: Coding games can inspire creativity by allowing children to experiment with different coding concepts and create unique solutions.
• Provides immediate feedback: With coding games, students can see the results of whatever they do in real-time. Seeing your code’s output in real-time motivates and encourages students to stick to the journey. 
• Accessible to children of all ages and skill levels: Most games we are about to share children of all ages can play, including teens and much younger kids. Since the games have several levels with problems that vary in complexity, children can easily play them with different coding skill levels. 

Related: Best Coding Games for Kids: Jump Start Your Kid’s Software Engineering Career!

Lego Boost

Price: $289
Features:This game has a Lego kit with motors and sensors that teens can program to move and react to their surroundings. In addition, the Lego Boost kit includes over 840 Lego bricks, which can build five different models: a robot, a cat, and a guitar.
If your teen likes to bring their projects to life? Click here to beigin!

Lego Boost is one of the highly-rated coding games on the Apple Apps Store and Google Play Store. It is a mobile-first coding game for teens that combines the fun and creativity of Lego bricks with basic coding concepts. It is designed for beginners and teens, making it an excellent tool for introducing them to coding. 

This game has a Lego kit with motors and sensors that teens can program to move and react to their surroundings. In addition, the Lego Boost kit includes over 840 Lego bricks, which can build five different models: a robot, a cat, and a guitar. Children can follow the step-by-step instructions provided in the game to build the models or create their designs using the Lego bricks.

Teens can download this free app from the iOS App Store and Google Play. The app features a simple and intuitive coding interface that enables children to drag and drop coding blocks to program their Lego creations. The coding blocks of this game are color-coded and represent different coding concepts such as loops, conditionals, and variables.

Once children have programmed their Lego creations, they can watch them come to life and interact with their surroundings. For example, they can program their robot to move forward when it detects an obstacle or make their cat meow when it hears a loud noise. 

Unlike most coding games, Lego Boost has a physical kit, which includes Lego blocks, allowing kids to create the robot in real life. This kit costs around $289 on Amazon.

Code Master

Price:$17.97
Features:The game has 60 different levels, so kids can enjoy a variety of challenging puzzles that teach programming basics such as planning, sequential reasoning, and problem-solving skills.
If you’re looking to introduce young children to the fundamentals of programming and computer science in a fun and engaging way? Click here to begin!

Code Master is an exciting programming logic board game for children ages eight and above. This coding game is ideal for parents and educators looking to introduce young children to the fundamentals of programming and computer science in a fun and engaging way. The game is designed to teach kids the basics of coding without the need for a full-size personal computer. 

While playing this game, students assume the role of an Avatar, and they must navigate around a board to collect power crystals and land at the portal. The game has 60 different levels, so kids can enjoy a variety of challenging puzzles that teach programming basics such as planning, sequential reasoning, and problem-solving skills.

Code Master has a straightforward and intuitive UI, making it easy for kids to play and learn the basics of coding, including loops, conditionals, and functions, which are essential building blocks for coding. As the students complete each level, they develop their programming skills and confidence, ready for more advanced challenges.

You can buy Code Master at $17.97 on Amazon, which provides access to all the features and levels of the game. The only downside is that this game doesn’t have a free trial that you can use to try it out before committing to the premium version. However, it has good reviews on Amazon (4.5/5 stars from 722 ratings), so it is worth trying. 

Tynker

Price: Free
Features: maker studios, new courses, Tynker workshop, learning paths, video tutorials.
Looking for an educational platform that will engage your kids? Click here to begin.

Tynker is an online coding platform launched in 2012 to help children (between 5 to 17 years) learn how to code in a fun and entertaining way. This platform has games and courses students can use hand-in-hand to learn computer programming languages, including Python and JavaScript. 

The platform’s games and courses are designed to be fun and engaging while teaching coding concepts such as loops, conditionals, and functions. This app is available on iOS and Android. It also has a web version for those who would love to play it on a full-size p computer. 

The games feature interactive characters and puzzles that guide children through coding concepts. 

All the Tynker games and courses are designed to be self-paced, allowing students to learn at their own pace. There are several games students can choose from, including simple block-based coding games to more advanced coding challenges that require coding in Python or JavaScript.

The courses on the Tynker platform come in the form of video lessons, quizzes, and coding projects. They include many topics, including basic programming concepts such as variables, functions, and algorithms, and more advanced topics like game development and artificial intelligence.

Regarding pricing, Tynker has a free trial for parents and educators to test the platform before committing to their premium version. The free trial includes access to a limited number of games and courses. However, you must subscribe to one of their plans to access all the courses and games. These plans cost $60/quarter, $192/year, or a $360 one-time payment. 

Swift Playgrounds

Swift is Apple’s in-house programming language to help developers create apps for Apple’s products much faster and more efficiently. To make this language easier to learn, Apple created Swift Playgrounds, a coding game that suits people at different stages of their programming journey, including teens. 

Swift Playgrounds is a free app you can install on your iPad and Mac. The app teaches programming concepts using the Swift programming language, including commands, loops, operators, functions, conditional statements, parameters, types, and variables. 

It features various challenges and puzzles that gradually increase in difficulty, making it suitable for teens and more experienced coders. If you want to build apps for the Apple ecosystem, this coding game is for you. 

Lightbot

Lightbot is among the most popular educational puzzle games, designed to teach programming concepts to teens or anyone beginning their journey to learn to code. Some fundamental concepts you will learn while playing this game include sequencing, overloading, procedures, recursive Loops, and conditionals. 

The goal of this game is very straightforward; players are to guide a robot to a designated tile by programming its actions. The good news is that Lightbot is available on all major platforms, including iOS, Android, and Amazon platforms. 

Players can access this game on both mobile devices and computers. In addition, the game is free to play, making it ideal for teens who usually don’t have money to spend on these kinds of tools. 

Robocode

Robocode is another programming game for teens that allows them to design and program their virtual robots to compete against other players’ robots. This game was first released in 2000 and is still popular among developers, students, and coding enthusiasts. It is available for both desktop and mobile devices. 

The main goal of Robocode is to develop a robot battle tank to battle against other tanks using the Java Programming language. Players must design a robot to navigate a virtual battlefield and destroy enemy robots using different weapons and strategies. 

The game’s coding interface is straightforward, making it easy to learn coding fundamentals and advanced concepts such as object-oriented programming, inheritance, and polymorphism to create complex and sophisticated robots.

After designing the robot, players can test it against other robots in single-player or multiplayer mode, where they can compete against other players’ robots in real-time battles. The game also provides a built-in leaderboard that displays the top-ranking robots and their creators.

The good news is that Robocode is open-source and free to play, making it accessible to anyone interested in coding. 

Minecraft Education

If you closely follow the gaming industry, you should already be familiar with Minecraft since it is one of the most popular games. Minecraft has now been adapted for educational purposes to help beginners, including teens, learn how to code. 

Minecraft Education Edition is a version of the game specifically designed for educational use. In addition, it has a mobile version, available on iOS and Android alongside the web version. 

This game features several tools and resources that allow students and educators to explore, create, and learn in a virtual world. Among the key features of Minecraft’s coding game is its coding interface. 

Its block-based UI allows students to drag and drop blocks to create programs and mods within the game. Minecraft uses a similar approach to Scratch, another popular block-based programming language designed for kids and teens. 

While playing this game, students can learn fundamental coding concepts such as loops, conditionals, and variables in a fun and engaging way. The Education Edition of Minecraft costs $5 per user per year, making it an affordable option for schools and educators who want to use Minecraft as a teaching tool. The game also has a huge community, allowing students to share knowledge and help each other solve problems. 

Algorithm City

With over 500,000 downloads on the Google Play Store, Algorithm City is among the popular coding games for teens and anyone starting their coding journey. Algorithm City is a free platform that teaches the basics of programming and algorithms to teens and even younger kids. 

In addition, the platform features a fun and simple interface that is not intimidating for beginners to get started with coding. 

The main objective of this platform is to teach children the fundamentals of programming concepts, such as command sequencing, variables, algorithms, functions, and loops, in a fun way. In addition, it uses gamification elements to make the learning process more engaging for children. 

While using this Algorithm City, students must guide their characters by collecting golds and solving levels, reinforcing their understanding of programming concepts. In addition, the platform has a user-friendly UI, making it accessible to children of all ages, and requires no prior coding experience. 

Codemoji

Codemoji is an online platform that uses a unique approach to teach coding to young kids. This platform uses emojis to teach coding concepts to children aged 5-14 (1st-8th grade). Codemoji designed this platform to ensure it is fun and engaging, using a simple drag-and-drop interface and colorful emoji characters to teach basic programming concepts.

Codemoji’s approach uniquely uses visual elements like emojis to represent programming concepts. For example, children can drag and drop emoji blocks to create simple code commands like loops, conditionals, and more. This approach is particularly helpful for young children who may not fully grasp the written language.

The platform also has a dashboard for parents, allowing them to stay in touch with their child’s progress in class. It also enables them to get active customer support and features so that they can learn code with their child proactively both in and out of class. 

The curriculum of Codemoji includes Designing with HTML & CSS, writing code with JavaScript, splitting problems into smaller pieces, recognizing important patterns, creating and computing models, and automating solutions to problems using algorithms.

Regarding pricing, Codemoji offers a free trial for parents and educators before subscribing. The free trial includes access to a limited number of features and games. Access to all features requires paying for the paid plan, which costs $10/month for students, $15/month for parents, and $30/month for teachers (supporting teaching up to 30 students). 

Scratch

Scratch is a free visual coding platform developed by MIT to introduce kids to fundamental and advanced coding concepts. With Scratch, users can create interactive stories, animations, and games by dragging and dropping code blocks. The target audience for this coding platform are kids aged 8-16. However, anyone in the early stages of coding can use it. 

One of the unique aspects of Scratch is that it has a large community of users who share knowledge and collaborate on projects. Scratch is available online and works on any device with an internet connection. In addition, it is a free tool for teens, who can access it through your browser on your computer. 

Final Thoughts

We explored some of the most popular coding games teens can try, regardless of their coding knowledge. The games we have covered offer a range of options, from puzzle games that teach basic programming concepts to more advanced games that allow players to create their robots or mods. In addition, some of the games we have shared include courses that further explain the coding concepts.

Therefore, irrespective of your coding experience, this list has a game for you. The good news is that most of these games have free versions that you can use to determine whether they are worth paying for their premium versions.

Overall, playing coding games helps teens develop problem-solving skills, logical thinking, and creativity, all while learning valuable skills that will be useful in various fields.