Roblox or Minecraft: which to choose so your child learns by coding

What each platform teaches

Minecraft focuses on building. Planning a design, calculating materials and thinking about the order of a build are logic skills. Its educational version also includes coding challenges.

Roblox is a platform for creating games. With Roblox Studio, the student designs scenes and programs their behavior in Lua, a real programming language.

How to decide based on age and interest

• If your child enjoys building, exploring and planning, Minecraft is a good starting point.
• If they are interested in designing games and understanding how they work, Roblox offers a more direct path to programming.
• If they're not yet sure what they like, start with logic challenges and blocks, and let their interest guide them.

How to turn play into creation

What makes a video game educational is the shift from consuming to creating. Some questions that change the experience:

• What would happen if we changed a rule of the game?
• How would you make the character jump only when it touches a platform?
• Can you design a level for someone else to play?

Each answer requires thinking about conditions, loops and events, the same concepts as programming.

Next step

Check out the programs for Roblox y Minecraft. And if you don't know which to start with, the free assessment helps you decide based on your child's age and level.