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Roborally, teaching kids to program

January 15, 2016 Ticia 7 Comments

As you all know we like to bring board games into our homeschool lessons.  In this particular instance Roborally* helps with learning a bit of programming.

Robo Rally teaching kids how to program

{This post contains affiliate links marked with a *.  For more information read my disclosure page}

What is the goal of Roborally?

Roborally robots

You and a bunch of friends got together and made some robots, they’re all quite unique in look and character (and the game has amusing descriptions for each one).  Then you designed a horrible death trap and said, “Whoever gets their robot across the death trap first claims the glory.”

It’s not a complicated game.

It is however hard.

How do you play Roborally?

Your robot and all other robots start at the same starting point, and you the programmer put in 5 moves your robot will do each turn.

Sounds simple, right?

Oh no, not all.  That’s where the death trap board comes into play.

Robo Rally board

On the board are conveyors that will move your robot.  Smashers that smash your robot.  And lasers, because what would a game with robots be without lasers, that will destroy your robot.

Robo Rally programming

So, you think your robot is going to move forward 3 and then turn to the right and move forward 2 more thus avoiding the terrible pit trap where he falls to his doom.  It’s not fiery because no lasers.

But, when you were programming, you forgot to account for the conveyor that turned the direction your robot was going and instead sent him into a fiery doom of lasers.  It was quite scary.  And you are starting over.

Tips for playing Roborally with kids

Robo rally planning your moves

Roborally has many different boards you can play with.  They range in difficulty from incredibly hard “Why did I think this was fun?” to “Hey I think I got the hang of this.”  So if you’re playing Roborally with kids here’s my quick tips.

  1. Pick an easy board.  All boards have stuff that move your robots, pick one that has fewer things.  We found limiting conveyors to be very helpful with my kids.
  2. Add in several save points.  Roborally has “save points” where if your robot reaches it but is killed later it can respawn there.  If there are several of these possible, it gives them hope they aren’t starting all over.
  3. Set a time limit.  We set a time limit for our game, and gave the win to the kids whose robot was the closest at the end.
Roborally board game gameschooling strategy programming engineering

What does this have to do with space exploration?

Quite a lot actually.  Most of our exploration right now is done by robots, and programmers are the driving force behind this.

More about Roborally

Like most popular board games there are several expansions you can play with for this game.  When I met Jeff he had 2 or 3 expansions.  Unfortunately it looks like these are mostly out of print, so if you can find them at used book stores and the like give them a try.

If Roborally intrigues you, but you’re unsure of the price, check out Robot Turtles Game, which I’ve heard is a similar game, but a little less intimidating.

Now go check out the rest of the Space Exploration Unit.  I ended up finding my pictures of crossing the Oobleck ocean, so I’ll write that one up soon as well.

roborally teach your kids how to program with a fun board game

games, science astronomy, engineering, strategy game

Comments

  1. Phyllis says

    January 15, 2016 at 10:35 am

    I am really enjoying all your posts in your space exploration series. I think this is your best series yet.

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      January 17, 2016 at 8:13 am

      It’s been a lot of fun to put together. The kids really enjoyed it when we did it last summer.

  2. maryanne @ mama smiles says

    January 16, 2016 at 12:03 am

    Fascinating game idea. I’m a big fan of unplugged ways to learn programming (or the way of thinking behind programming)

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      January 17, 2016 at 8:13 am

      Me too, it lets them start thinking step by step for programming.

  3. Natalie PlanetSmartyPants says

    January 18, 2016 at 3:19 pm

    I’ve never seen about this game, but it sounds intriguing. For another “space robot” game with multiple levels, I highly recommend Lunar Lockout…

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      January 19, 2016 at 7:43 am

      I’ll check that one out.

    • Ticia says

      January 19, 2016 at 7:43 am

      I’ll check that one out.

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Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

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