The game is fairly decent for learning how to code in Java. But there is a lot it could do, but doesn't.
My biggest gripe is the spelling and grammatical errors. If this game is to be a good educational resource, then it needs to be easy to read no matter your understanding of the English language. Within the first hour I've already seen missing periods, and I know from other reviews that there are spelling errors too. As an adult and native speaker, that is fine for me. But for a child, or a non-native speaker, this might lead to mistakes and increased difficulty that just should not be there at all.
While I do appreciate the game just throwing you in initially, with basic and well explained tasks that are essentially "please fill in the blank" style puzzles, it very quickly ups the difficulty. The moment some stranger, likely the villain of the game or something (I did 3/4 tasks before writing this so "who is it" is unresolved), comes in and changes all the code it becomes a confusing mess. The game has not and does not explain that you need to type == since = serves a different function, something I had to google. Also no explanation for what && is either. It feels like you were supposed to just memorize what the code was before, and replace it off memory rather than actual understanding. Based on the tutorial prior to this I learned that i need to add ; and i need to state things as "return true/false" and other VERY basic fill in the blanks. the explanations provided say basically that too. But suddenly you're expected to just know what order to put (Bag > 0 && Barrel > 0) (note: not the actual names, just my memory), and since this wasn't learned only briefly shown while trying to figure out other things, I did not remember what to enter, and was going off some text above and putting > 0 before since in the leftover code was (int Bag) so I assumed it would look for the integer to be in the same place.
Yes there are hints, but I find them to be not very helpful. Clicking the same type of hint just gives you the same info, a basic hint will always do the exact same thing. I was expecting it to be progressive, giving the most obvious and vague hint first, then another small but still basic hint. Then the next level of hint I was also expecting something more substantial each time you press it, and again it does not. It would be nice if this 2nd hint showed maybe an example code instead of filling it out for you. And it didn't even fill in the part I needed help with, for the example above, it added ( && ) and filled in the return true/false statements. So it essentially gave me something I had no clue how to use since it wasn't taught yet, and something I didn't need help with at all.
Maybe this is to intentionally make this moment feel tense, and feel like you really can't fix the farm as the mystery person states, but it ends up just being frustrating and I've wound up just asking for the answer for all 3 that I had done, then googling "why do I need two equal signs in java?" when an educational game should just... have that info right there. Instead of intense, it wound up just being frustrating.
I will continue playing because I genuinely want to learn Java, and there is no better way to learn than to gameify. But as of now, I think that the game is geared towards people who are playing along side a more traditional coding course or class, rather than people who's first attempt is in this game. Despite a "beginners" setting, it doesn't feel very beginner friendly, and you shouldn't feel set up for failure that early.
Maybe adding more to the intro, more opportunities to code, more activities on the farm with less and less pre-written code would go a long way. Being able to learn about everything expected of you when mystery dude attacks, and then putting that knowledge to use would feel rewarding. As the game stands now, you fill in the colors, the types of plants, the return true/false function, and define the most basic if statement before the true/false. Then what you're asked to do is write everything while not knowing some very key information. And I hope this is changed in some future update to do a better job of tell you the what and why before being tossed into the weeds like that.
I'll change the review as I play, and I do hope it becomes better. But right now, I would recommend watching some youtube tutorials around Java before playing, or take a class at your school along side the game. Going in blind is a bad idea.
