Playground for Multiplayer Browser Games

Codetoy is a project I've been working on since 2022. It was originally created as a way to teach coding on sparker.gg with interactive videos that "let you edit code in the video." Codetoy has since become it's own project on github.

The initial standalone version of Codetoy can be found at codetoy.io but the latest version is being worked on actively with regular updates being posted to the DevLUp UF discord server (just cause it's so darn satisfying to get those streaks).

<video src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ef293227-3400-4300-9a67-61547e574f31">

Story

Codetoy.io was born from a project of mine to create the best possible learning environment for coding. That meant making it addicting, and making it fun.

While trying to find the best way to teach beginners coding -- and keep them engaged, I realized that I was very fortunate in my learning journey.

I remember first becoming addicted to coding when my dad suggested I try Khan Academy's Hour of Code. I fell in love with coding immediately! I could follow along with the teacher and even modify their code to try new things and see what they would do! It was so amazing and cool! But I had never thought to ask myself why? I just figured me and coding were destined. But alas, I realized Khan Academy's CS platform and the innovative media format it used to teach coding was probably the reason for my immediate enjoyment of coding. So I started digging and trying to figure out the thinking behind how they came up with the idea to allow people to "edit code in a video."

I discovered that this interactive media format Khan Academy had employed was a result of John Resig happening upon a talk by Bret Victor while working on a new Computer Science platform for Khan Academy. This talk apparently blew John's mind so much that he decided to rethink his approach to CS education (Resig, "Redifining the Introduction to Computer Science"). I watched the talk and let me tell you, my mind was also blown.

After realising how innovative John Resig's was, I tried finding other companies that might already be using this incredible approach to teaching... with very little success! While researching this and successfully recreating Khan Academy's walkthrough system I did happen to come across one single other company that was working on a similar technology called scrimba.com, which apparently was recently accepted to YC! But no one else was working on this... and it made me very sad, but also kinda happy because I at least had a chance of making a decent contribution.

On top of John's amazing work, I have also personally experienced how sites like simpleplanes.com and khan academy are extremely motivating because you can share what you built with others. I realized that was also something that needed to have in codetoy.

And that's how I've arrived to where I am now. A playground for "Multiplayer Browser Games," Games you can enjoy coding, and eventually playing, with your friends.

I hope you were inspired by the story behind codetoy :)