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10 Most Innovative Hopscotch Games of 2015

Welcome to the Best of Hopscotch 2015 — games and art programmed by kids on the iPad.

These projects broke barriers by introducing A.I., simulating 3D, and redefining what’s possible with the Hopscotch language. They paved the way for thousands of others to build off their ingenuity.

This list is a tribute to the creativity that emerges from and is bolstered by a constrained environment. It’s a testament to the depth of kids’ imaginations. And it’s an illustration of how innovation happens and spreads within a community. Enjoy!

10. Vaccinate Yo Kids, ADHDJ

Some people recreate their favorite games in Hopscotch. And others take a famous game, merge it with a pressing social issue, and leave you genuinely astounded.

Welcome to Vaccinate Yo Kids, a game that tells the story of a town where stingy adults argue about saving money in the midst of a polio outbreak. One adult, Sid, comes up with an unusual idea to stop the disease from spreading: slingshot syringes of the vaccine at children. It’s Angry Birds meets the World Health Organization. While this solution may be illegal in the real world, we couldn’t get over this hilarious storyline, brilliant adaptation, or serious takeaway. Not to mention that it’s just a really well-made game.

9. Cool! Please Try!, CutiesCuties

Everyone loves emoji (duh). CutiesCuties took this passion to a new level by creating a tool that lets you use emoji to draw words, shapes, pictures, or whatever you want. And by “draw,” we mean that a trail of spinning emoji follows your finger as you touch the screen. It’s weird, funny, and cool.

To accomplish this, CutiesCuties was a pioneer of a new language feature we released this spring, cloning. This project helped other people make cool art AND learn about using this powerful tool in their own projects.

And now drawing with emojis is a genre unto itself. BAM.

8. Dots Endless Mode, Game Coder

Sometimes the most impressive things are the least complicated (this is why you’re impressed by friends who manage to keep their houses beautiful). Game Coder’s Dots Endless mode is a perfect representation of this — a game that’s challenging, fun, and incredibly simple.

At first glance, the premise seems easy: combine two dots so when they merge, their hue matches the others. But make one wrong move and you’ll be challenging yourself to a rematch. We’ve been playing this for months and we still can’t get enough.

7. Lemonade Stand, -Madi-

Cash money, ya’ll. Madi inspires the entrepreneur in all of us with her addictive Lemonade Stand game. You pick the price, measure your traffic, and then later review how you fared. It’s simple enough, but it becomes more and more engrossing as you go (perhaps Madi meant this game as commentary on chasing money more broadly…).

Additionally, Madi’s thoroughness impressed us; we loved how she thought out and built each stage of the game. It’s clean, well-designed, and solidly built. Play it and see how much you bring in. Just make sure to clear your schedule in advance.

6. Beach Volleyball, SuperSwaggy88

With Beach Volleyball, SuperSwaggy88 brought us one step closer to the singularity by introducing A.I. into Hopscotch. That’s a big deal.

At first glance, this game looked like any other volleyball simulation. Until we realized that no second player was needed — the computer was our opponent. SuperSwaggy88 not only built the game but taught the computer how to win. The result is endlessly entertaining (if not a little scary!). This project paved the way for all kinds of A.I. in Hopscotch, and who knows what it will mean for the rest of the world.

5. Don’t Get 30, PurpleHawk

This game gets your feelings involved. The antagonist, an emoji-faced con artist, has single-handedly wrestled more emotion from us than all other emoji combined in his quest to outsmart us. Here’s how: you and he take turns counting to 30. Your goal is to force your opponent to land on 30. Make no mistakes; though it appears to be an easy win, it’s exceedingly difficult.

And when you open it up and look at the code, it’s impressive; the algorithm behind this game’s dynamic is a mind-bender and clearly required a ton of tweaking. Nice.

Also, we learned an important lesson with this one: if you don’t know who the sucker is in a room, it might be you.

4. Moon Quest 3, Etalix

Oh, Moon Quest 3. You’re a movie with games in it. You’re a game that looks like a movie. You’re interactive storytelling at its finest. It’s all in the details, people.

The characters of this game are adorable (and darn impressive!) pixel art in which each pixel is actually a tiny emoji. You follow their journey through beautiful and solidly built scenes (and the seamless transitions between these scenes aren’t easy). The story that this game tells is original and really good. We laughed, we cried, and we cheered. We couldn’t put this one down.

3. Helicopter Rescue, MagmaPOP

Helicopter Rescue is the first fully-realized 3D game in Hopscotch, and just one project on the long list of MagmaPOP’s contributions to Hopscotch.* This game is an amazing implementation of the 3D stacking technique, originally invented by Dalex, in a gripping narrative adventure. It’s amazing.

Our blood pressure rose as the timer wound down, and we were genuinely frustrated trying to save the shipwreck victims, knowing that unseen families were counting on us. It’s an impressive piece of work in every way — it’s original, it’s beautiful, it’s hard, and a roller-coaster from start to finish.

*By 3D we actually mean 2.5D, but we’ll get there soon…

2. 2048, t1

t1’s 2048 is truly an engineering feat. The codebase is massive, elegant, and incredibly well thought-out. The game is a replica of the crowd-pleasing 2048, rebuilt despite the fact that Hopscotch has yet to introduce arrays to our language. Where others may have seen this as a barrier, t1 powers through.

If only we could all get back the hours we’ve devoted to playing t1’s game; we probably could have built arrays in Hopscotch (don’t worry — it’s on the list!). Until then, we’re in awe of her persistence and ingenuity — this thing took time, effort, and a whole lot of brains.

1. Kaleidoscope Draw, Valgo⚡️⚡️⚡️

Valgo ⚡️⚡️⚡️’s Kaleidoscope Draw perfectly embodies the amazing creative power of building something that is both a work of art and a tool. It’s a simple and elegant interface for creating innumerable combinations of colors, patterns, sizes, and shapes.

You choose a color, line width and begin drawing with your finger. The project simultaneously draws 7 angled mirror images of your design, creating what feels like a personal kaleidoscope. This project was published months ago and even today we find ourselves playing it whenever we have a free moment.

In both its power and simplicity, Kaleidoscope Draw is the perfect metaphor for what we are trying to accomplish with Hopscotch.

New curriculum: learn to code by making fun games

We just published a brand new introductory coding curriculum! It uses popular games Flappy Bird and Geometry Dash to build a strong foundation in core coding concepts like sequencing, loops, abstraction, variables, conditionals, and more. Get your free copy.

LEARN TO CODE BY USING YOUR IMAGINATION

Curriculum features:

Built for a complete CS newbie--no prior knowledge of CS needed to teach it.

Peer-reviewed and aligned with Common Core and Next Generation Science and Engineering Standards.

Six projects that make a survey course of programming fundamentals, with an emphasis on transfer goals.

Step-by-step directions for making each game, discussion questions, and ideas for differentiation and open-ended exploration.

Videos for each lesson that can be used as the primary instruction, as a supplement to your instruction, or just as prep for you.

Designed for grades 5-8, but can be easily adapted for your kids’ needs and experience.

This curriculum was a great labor of love for all of our Hopscotch educators. We think it is one of the best out there for explaining fundamental CS concepts to educators, so they can translate these concepts to students.

Tell us what you think! We’d love to hear your feedback on the curriculum—all suggestions, questions, concerns or comments are most appreciated. Try it out with your class and share it with your colleagues.

Logins are here

With our new update, your Hopscotch account has a new home! Instead of existing just on your iPad, it now lives on our server, which means that you can use it (and all your projects) on any iPad. You can also use multiple Hopscotch accounts on the same iPad—say goodbye to sharing your account with your siblings.

A few things you should know: 1. There are now log out and upload buttons on your profile:

The “...” button on the right lets you log out of your account.

The cloud button on the left lets you move your drafts from your iPad to our server. If you’re that person with a bajillion (50) drafts, you might have to upload them more than once. You’ll only need to use this when you first upgrade, or if you edit your draft offline. 2. When you log out or download a new app, there's an option to login to your account with your username and password:

Let us know what you think of the update! If you run into any trouble or forget your password, shoot us an email. <3, The Hopscotch Team

PS: Curious about how all this works? We got you. This was a pretty complex update (which is why it took us several attempts to get it right—thanks again for your patience). We had to redefine how Hopscotch manages accounts. Before, your account and the stuff you made on it lived locally on your iPad. You published projects to the community and then we saved them on our server. If your iPad died or you deleted your app, everything that was saved to it—your drafts and profile—was wiped. Now, your account exists on the server. As you work on a project (assuming you have wifi), your work is automatically saved to the server. This is why you can access your drafts from any iPad. It’s not quite magic, but almost.

Words of Wisdom from a 12 Year Old Supercoder

Meet Kedai.

Known throughout the Hopscotch community as the one and only Kiwicute2015, Kedai is responsible for some of the most innovative projects made to-date in Hopscotch, an iPad app that lets kids make and share their own games.

When she asked us if she could visit our office for a few days while her dad was in NYC for a conference, we couldn’t have said yes faster.

We asked Kedai to share some of the things she saw, learned, and thought about while working at Hopscotch. Here’s a glimpse into the mind of a 12 year old supercoder.

Let’s go back in time. How did you first get interested in coding?

I was wondering how people made games like Minecraft and others — how all of that worked. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make games or just see how they worked, so I looked up coding. At first, I tried the coding where you type everything out, and it was really confusing.

What’s the hardest part about coding?

Getting what you want. First, you have this giant idea about something, and you start making it but it gets too crazy, and you have to rethink it.

Has coding changed the way you think? And if so how?

Coding has made me more creative. Nobody actually teaches you how to get good at coding, and even if they try, you have to figure it out for yourself to get really good.

You can’t rely on others. In skating, my coach isn’t always there, so I have to figure out how to do a 720 and, even if he is there and he teaches me, I still have to keep doing it myself in order to get it right.

What would you say to someone who wants their daughter to code like you?

You know how, sometimes, you can right-click to see more about a website? Here [in Hopscotch] you can do that with games. I’d show her that. She might be like “No, that’s too hard!”, and I’d say “You should try it before you say that!”

And what would you say to someone starting Hopscotch?

Explore every single block. Especially values. They’re really… valuable.

Ha!

Be patient. Don’t get aggravated when you don’t get something right the first time. You may have to approach it a different way. Watch others, and look at their code so you can learn from it. Be creative and explore.

Alright, it’s your last day. What did you learn while working at Hopscotch?

I learned so much! I learned how to program a joystick, how to make video tutorials, and trigonometric functions like sine and cosine, which are used to make circles, ovals, and rounded things on Hopscotch. After learning about this, I’m going to be way ahead of my classmates when it comes to trigonometry. [Editor’s note: She’s right.] My “Impossible Game” was based on sine and cosine. It’s a game where you drag a cat to catch a mouse, but the mouse keeps getting away from you, no matter how hard you try.

What was your favorite part of the week? (Aside from the fact that you got to play on your iPad all day everyday!)

I liked how everyone acted crazy when I found out that Valgo⚡️⚡️⚡️ figured out a way to create any color in Hopscotch.

What Hopscotch project are you most proud of making?

My favorite projects that I’ve made are called Piano, Ocean Life, andElephant Drawing.

My favorite projects by other Hopscotchers are Taj Mahal by Funky 63, Blue Ball’s Adventures 12 Virtual World Game by Game Maker, Pirate Ship by Creation of a Noob, Lemonade Stand by -Madi-, and Sushi Chef by MagmaPOP.

When you’re not crushing it in Hopscotch, what else do you like to do?

I like to dance, skate, and play piano. I skate and play piano competitively. I won first place in a New Hampshire state competition, and second in a New England regional competition.

Do you know what you want to be when you grow up?

Maybe a coder, I’m not sure. Or some other sort of engineer. I don’t really know yet!

We’re kind of obsessed with good food. What did you think of the places around our office (in Midtown Manhattan)?

The food was pretty good. Not the best. My mom’s is better.

PS: Be sure to check out Kiwicute’s awesome video tutorial on how to make color gradient backgrounds. 😄

Until next time!

New Update: Followers, Clone & Play Count!

We just released a new Hopscotch update. It’s got some fun features...

1. HEY, FOLLOWERS: Wanna when someone follows you? Or know who liked or remixed your project? Now, with this update, you’ll be like:

In your new Activity Center, you will be able to see what’s happening with your account:

Team Hopscotch will also send you messages when we have new videos, updates, or just wanna say “Hey!”.

Check back to see what’s going on! Remember to share the love by liking, remixing, and following other Hopscotchers—people will now know to thank you, directly :)

2. SO FRESH AND CLEAN: We did a little spring cleaning, and tidied up project cards in the community. You can now see how many times a project has been played and remixed. Pretty fun, huh?

You might notice that you can’t branch a project directly from the community. Instead, open the project and tap “See Code” to check out its guts or make changes.

3. ATTACK OF THE CLONES: Have you ever made a game and wanted to spawn lots of enemies at once? There’s a new block that will come in handy for these situations: clone character.

In this example, when you tap the triangle, your program will create a clone of that object (and copy all its rules). If you want to create lots of clones, stick the “Create a clone” block inside a repeat block.

Note that this block creates clones that share all the same rules, so if the original character jumps, all the clones will jump, too. These clones will be added to the screen when the project is played (e.g. you won’t see them in the editor).

There is also a new when block, “character is cloned” that will tell the clones what to do. You can only use this block on the character that has been cloned.

Here’s some inside info: if you create too many clones, things go a little berserk. So, we capped the number of clones your program can create at 512.

Hopscotchers have already made a ton of cool stuff with clone. Here’s an example from Axolotl:

5. We also changed the way that you branch and unpublish projects. Instead of branching while scrolling through the community, you now branch while you’re playing a project. Tap on the “...” on the upper left corner of the project to “Save as a draft”. Boom! Now the project is saved in your drafts folder.

If you want to unpublish your own project, play the publish project. While it’s playing, tap “...” on the upper left corner of the project and hit “unpublish”. The project is safely back in your drafts and out of the community.

Download the update now!

We can’t wait to see what you create with these new features, especially clone. Send us your masterpieces (and any other feedback on the update!) by tagging @gethopscotch on Instagram or tweeting at @hopscotch.

Happy making,

Your friends at Hopscotch

#PublishYourDrafts

For many of us, summer break is right around the corner. YAY!

If you have to return your iPad when school ends, keep reading to learn how to save your Hopscotch projects. If this isn’t you, publish all your drafts anyway cuz it’s the cool thing to do.

Here’s how to save your Hopscotch projects:

Step 1: Don’t panic! Even if Hopscotch is deleted off your iPad, your account will live on, gloriously, in the community forever.

Step 2: Publish all your drafts into the #drafts channel. Anything you publish into the community will be saved and accessible from your new account. Woohoo!

Step 3 (optional!): If you want to keep your awesome name, just add the word “(Old)” to your current account. For example, if your name is “OMGSummer”, you’d now be “OMGSummer (Old)”.

Step 4: When you get a new iPad, create a new Hopscotch account and call it whatever you want (including your current name). In our example, we’d call the new account OMGSummer.

Step 5: Branch all your projects from your old account. You can continue working on them or just republish them to build up your profile. Magic!

Let us know if you have any questions. We’re happy to help! Also, we got some Hopscotch stickers to thank you for being patient. Want some? Email us!

PS: We know this is a pain, and are working on account logins so that soon you can sign in and out of Hopscotch from any device. Thanks for bearing with us!

Hopscotch’s Official Company Values

Anyone can become a great programmer

Learn by really doing

“I got this” / “I don’t got this”

Trust each other to take ownership

Default to open

Goal > Ego

Poop (emoji!) is okay

Build processes

Problems not solutions

Be opportunistic

Anti-Fragile

Take the long view

Full humans

💩 is okay.

One of the beautiful and challenging responsibilities bestowed on anyone attempting to build a healthy community — regardless of the age of its members — is establishing norms that prescribe their interactions and behaviors.

At Hopscotch, a creative community where kids build and share their own games, we have been knee-deep in this undertaking for several months. A recent email from a concerned teacher prompted us to think about where we’ve landed:

Yikes! Delete Hopscotch? This suggestion was sufficient to make us wonder whether we should allow “bathroom content” in Hopscotch and, ultimately, taught us a lot more about our company and values:

We design for our users (kids!) above anyone else

We establish our own norms, rather than assume we’re obliged to someone else’s

We appreciate silliness, and don’t take ourselves too seriously

Last but not least, 💩 is okay.

How did we get here, to a place where we welcome poop? It started with a preponderance of poop projects in Hopscotch:

For the most part, we’d been allowing these projects to flourish. But, in light of this teacher’s email, did we need an Official Position on poop?

What’s the problem here?

We first wanted to understand where kids are coming from.

Kids enjoy making projects with poop because poop’s funny. This humor doesn’t come at anyone’s expense — it’s free of malicious intent to bring someone else down. (see: most adult jokes.) And it’s a natural and very basic fact from the first week of anyone’s life.

Whether this is appropriate for Hopscotch is more nuanced — “to whom is it (in)appropriate?” is a better question.

Many people use Hopscotch. Kids make Hopscotch projects. Adults make Hopscotch projects. Parents and teachers supervise children on Hopscotch. Each of these groups has different goals and assumptions, and each is accountable to a different audience. Unfortunately, we can’t optimize for everyone.

What do grownups think about poop? It stinks (most of the time).

While poop projects leave most kids doubled over laughing, the adult response is far more mixed; responses vary from amused…

…to indifferent (“Of course..”, “Not for me, but…”), to outright disapproval (see email above). Even our team was divided — we generally don’t get the joke, but are happy kids are happy.

In many (most?) circles in the developed world, what happens in a bathroom is private. Adults instill this mentality in children, shield them from bathroom-talk, and reprimand them when they engage in it.

Other adults don’t share this belief but are accountable to people who do. It’s their responsibility to uphold values prescribed by authorities — parents of their students, school administration — and prevent children from being exposed to bathroom-related stuff.

Our stance on poop will inevitably make some people happy and others unhappy. We would rather make a large group of people very happy than somewhat please everyone.

But, kids > grownups.

The thing is, while poop’s novelty may have worn off for us adults, ultimately, Hopscotch is built for kids. We prioritize their perspective above others and weigh it against what we think is best for them.

After considering the viewpoints articulated above, we decided that we don’t agree that bathroom stuff is unequivocally bad. Kids find it entertaining and, except in certain circumstances (read: poop on face), it doesn’t harm anyone physically or emotionally. It’s natural and often funny.

At the end of the day, we prize expression and restrict it only to prevent harm. So, if kids like poop and it’s not hurting anyone, we like poop.

You Do You.

It’s our prerogative as the builders of a unique community to create and update our own standards for it. By allowing poop in Hopscotch, we’re opening the door for new expression that has been restricted in other communities.

And, rather than telling those who disagree with our beliefs that they’re wrong or don’t belong, we can use this opportunity to educate them on our values.

By the end of this process, we’d reached a new, formalized stance on poop: It’s okay!

We realized that our position on bathroom stuff actually resonated with our company much more broadly than we had imagined.

“Poop is okay” reminds us that Hopscotch is being designed by and for kids. It tells us to act based on what’s best for this community, now, rather than based on pre-existing or pre-approved standards. It means that kids can use Hopscotch to build whatever they want. It means that we are building ourcompany according to our own specifications. Further, it means that it’s ok and important to be silly — to not take ourselves too seriously.

As we talked through it, we realized that all of these things were deeply important values of our company; so much so that we enshrined this phrase as one of Hopscotch’s Official Company Values. And because we want to meet our users where they are, we codified it in kids’ language 😜 😭.

💩 is okay.

Programming is powerful play

Across all cultures, kids use open-ended play as a means of exploring foreign worlds and experiences — kids play house, they play war, they bake using miniature ovens, and they build vast cities with tiny blocks.

This kind of play is an essential component of children’s growth and development; as the American Academy of Pediatrics describes: “play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth.”

Common perception says that this form of play is being threatened by the seductive digital realm, where mind-numbing games of the CandyCrush variety reign. Many parents worry that their children spend too much time in front of screens; if you type “How much screen time is too much” into Google, it returns a whopping 230 million results.

This concern extends to parents who work in the tech industry. The New York Times raised eyebrows a few months ago when it revealed that many tech executives shield their kids from the very devices and games they create. The writer discloses that “a number of technology chief executives and venture capitalists say similar things: they strictly limit their children’s screen time, often banning all gadgets on school nights, and allocating ascetic time limits on weekends.” These techy adults worry that unlimited screen time would replace meaningful play with a monotonous addiction to devices, thus preventing kids from learning and growing through the active use of their imaginations.

Playing games on the iPad is not the same as playing on the playground. Outside, kids can make up new games based on their favorite movie and then change the rules halfway through recess. Similarly with Legos, they can build a shipyard and decide later that they’ll use the pier as a fashion runway. The freedom to create — to explore, tinker, and pretend — is essential to exploratory play.

In the digital world, kids have to play the exact game they download, and the game only changes when developers change it. The rules of digital games are predetermined and you can’t change them. If you present kids with a medium where their ability to create is constrained, like that of most digital games, you’ve denied them the chance to engage in exploratory play. And for this reason, our concerns about “how much screen time is okay” are valid.

The problem is not technology. The problem is that it’s too hard for kids to create on digital devices.

Kids can’t explore their imaginations on the iPad in the same way they can on the playground or with legos because digital games are constructed using a tool inaccessible to most kids — programming.

When kids can easily and readily program, however, they unlock an entirely new realm of creativity. And, this is what we’re building at Hopscotch — a programming interface that is accessible to all kids.

With Hopscotch, kids can make whatever they want. They can recreate things they know, like flappy bird, or they can invent things from scratch, like a new game or an animated story, using blocks of code.

This creation happens within Hopscotch’s global community. In real-life play, kids practice teamwork and learn empathy through collaborating with friends. Programming in Hopscotch enables this social learning; kids share their work with a global community of peers who play and remix it in real time. Kids in Melbourne, for example, play and build upon a game made by kids in Dubai.

We want to extend kids’ “superpower” to create to the digital world.

Here’s this power realized:

Arcade-frequenting adults, and kids for that matter, will recognize this gameas a remake of Frogger, a classic video game that challenges the player to help a frog cross a road littered with life-threatening obstacles.

It’s as if this Hopscotcher broke into the Frogger arcade game, pulled out the contents, and rebuilt them on another platform, to their own specifications. The Hopscotch community has responded enthusiastically; the game has been played over 3500 times and there are hundreds of remixes making their way around.

On Hopscotch, kids engage not as passive consumers but rather as active contributors in open-ended, creative exploration. The Hopscotcher who made Frogger could have easily named the game “Kitten” and asked the player to help a kitten, instead of a frog, cross the road. This Hopscotcher could also have remade Club Penguin about their favorite animal, or created a version of Minecraft in which you dig for flowers instead of bricks.

Because this new play happens within an interactive global community, it generates a cycle in which one kid’s invention sparks another’s open-ended adventure. One kid may make a surfing game, and another may use the background to make a website.

On Hopscotch, kids can edit the games they play.

Here are just a few examples of what happens when kids can play on technology in the same open-ended, exploratory way they play on the playground.

Over the past year, we’ve seen what the world looks like when kids can create, share, and remix on a digital platform. Spoiler alert: it’s an exciting world.

Thanks to all Hopscotchers, and especially t1, W3cked, DuckmanTerry, GAME MAKER 2, FunkeyMonkey, and Awesomeness1011 for their great Hopscotch projects, and to Asha Gupta, Samantha John, Alish Earman, and Shreyans Bhansali for their smart edits.

Hacking Heroku to Import 30MM events of Historical Data

Our engineers recently wrote about the programming behind Hopscotch, and we thought we'd share it here, too. If you like reading about the secret inner workings of Hopscotch and want to know more, let us know!

Over the past 6 months, Hopscotch has experienced incredible growth, to the point where we’ve been scrambling to keep up. As the co-founder and CTO, my time tends to fill up fast so I’m always looking for the quickest and easiest solutions to help us scale.

Recently, however, we took a step back and realized that in the rush of growth our analytics tools had become woefully inadequate. This was a big deal — in order to continually improve, we need reliable data on what’s actually happening in the app. So we decided to switch analytics providers from Flurry to Amplitude. This is a non-trivial decision as an important feature of any analytics tool is the ability to see trends over time and switching would mean starting from scratch and losing all historical perspective.

Or would it? Months ago, a forward thinking engineer had set up a server that stored log files of all our data on Amazon S3. That plus Amplitude’s import API meant we could populate Amplitude with 8 months of historical data. Winning! Now the challenge was how to import the 30 million log events into Amplitude.

My first instinct in this was to write a quick script. As I worked, however, the procedural approach became extremely complex. It turned out that the list of requirements for our import was pretty long:

The import needed to happen relatively quickly. Potential investors were asking for data and we didn’t have weeks to let the data trickle in.

The data needed to be in the correct format. Although we had saved events, Amplitude had its own formatting requirements that would require a complete transformation.

I needed to ensure that I neither double imported nor missed anything. The process would need to be smart about what was already in Amplitude and what was not.

I had been told by the folks at Amplitude that I would be rate-limited to 500 events/second and that it was important to upload the events in order.

Finally, I wanted to keep track of which logs had failed to import- if it turned out imports were failing en masses we could totally ruin our analytics.

In light of these many requirements, I decided to go all in and turn my script into a rails app. This was an immediate improvement. I was able to organize my logic so that I could actually understand it and I wrote tests to verify correctness. Additionally, the tools within rails itself were essential to my task. I used ActiveRecord to keep track of failed imports, DateTime let me easily parse and switch date formats, and DelayedJob ensured the import happened in the right order and prevented one failure from holding up the entire process. Despite the fact that I would only use a tiny portion of Rails’ functionality — I didn’t even touch the controller and view folders — it turned out to be great choice.

The last problem I faced was finishing the import in a reasonable amount of time. After some initial tests I estimated that the upload would take upwards of 5 days— not something I wanted running on my work computer and not soon enough for the people waiting on our data. I decided to useHeroku and DelayedJob to parallelize the upload task. I created a job for each logfile to handle its import. Then I used Heroku’s scaling tools to run the jobs in parallel. With just the drag of a slider I could do 20 imports at a time. Plus, since Heroku charges by the hour, it was cheap. As soon as the import was done I could turn down the slider and only be charged for the time I used. For a one-time high volume task this was the perfect tool. By taking advantage of parallelization, the import was going to finish in a matter of hours rather than days as I had originally feared.

Thanks to this rails app and a successful import we now have powerful tools to analyze our past data. We also discovered that the “one-time” task actually needs to be constantly refreshed (a sizable percent of users are on older versions of the app so we have to import their data). Having all the logic in an app made it easy to schedule this refresh to happen on a daily basis.

Conclusion:

Often we let inertia prevent us from doing things that make our lives easier. Time and again I find myself hesitant to resort to more heavyweight tools for a one-time task that seems simple on the surface. But time and again I make my life a lot easier once I finally take a step back and acknowledge the complexity of the task. Sometimes a simple task is just that, but equally often there are unseen difficulties lurking under the surface. I find that I always thank myself for doing some planning to ensure that I am are using the right tools and giving the task the attention it deserves- and next time I’ll have this blog post to remind me.

p.s. If you’re curious about Amplitude… it’s awesome.

T-4 DAYS UNTIL HOUR OF CODE!

HOUR OF CODE IS NEXT WEEK. And, it's going to be monumental.

Are you ready? It's super easy to get organized:

Check out our tutorials here:

2. Plan an Hour of Code at home and ask your kids' teachers to schedule one in their classrooms next week, December 8th-12th.

3. Show off. Share a picture of your kids with their Hopscotch Hour of Code certificates on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #HopscotchHOC.

Questions? We'd love to hear 'em! Email or tweet at us. <3, Liza PS: Starting Monday, Hour of Code tutorials will be embedded in your app. Update your Hopscotch app on Monday to get in on this awesomeness. Until then, here's a sneak peek.

2014 Hour of Code is Coming!

The best holiday of the year is upon us: Hour of Code!

Help your kids fall (even more) in love with programming by using our specially developed Hopscotch tutorials for Hour of Code:

In just an hour, your kids will create a hilarious 2-player dodgeball game or single-player paddleball game. They’ll learn programming fundamentals while creating something they want to play over and over.

With ready-made tutorials and massive support (Hello, President Obama!), this is the perfect opportunity to encourage your colleagues and friends to introduce programming in their classrooms and homes.

Two lucky classes that complete both tutorials will win a “Meet the Developer” Google Hangout with Hopscotch’s engineering team!

Keep reading to learn more, and don't forget to share this with teachers, friends, and family!

New "When" blocks + more!

Hopscotch just got a lot more fun.

We've added "When" blocks which makes it much easier to program interactions between objects.

Here are some examples of what you can do with the new "Whens":

When Monkey is tapped, make the banana jump.

When the banana jumps, make Monkey slip.

When Score is greater than 10, make "You win" text appear.

For those of you familiar with Scratch or other programming languages this is similar to broadcasts or message passing, namely when something happens on one object, trigger something on another object.

Try new “Whens” out by creating a bumper cars or leap frog game. (Hint: the next car or frog moves only when it’s bumped by the previous one.)

What’s more, Hopscotch just got a lot more beautiful. With a bunch of new colors, you can create even more visually pleasing projects.

If you haven't updated, click here to get these great new features, plus a few more surprises. Drop us a line to let us know what you think!

Your friends at Hopscotch,

Jocelyn, Sam, Josh, Alish, Asha, and Liza

PS: Hour of Code is coming! Stay tuned to learn how your family, school, and students can participate. It's going to be awesome.

And the Winners Are...

Hi Hopscotchers,

Wowie! You guys made our job of selecting winners for the Inaugural Hopscotch Halloween Contest really hard.*

There were over 1,600 projects submitted, including spooky stories, addicting games, and hilarious animations. We were really blown away by what you made, and debated the entries at length. Without further ado, the winners are:

Beginner Builders: "#HHC" by PuffyBongo

Intermediate Hackers: "Trick or Treaters", by Penguin

Advanced Ninjas: "Chickies Spooky Adventure", by Chickenlord

Each of these winners will get to name a new character in Hopscotch!

Over the weekend, we're going to feature Honorable Mention projects, so stay tuned.

Great job to everyone who submitted a project. We were completely aghast at the creativity and quality of your work. Keep it up.

—Your friends at Hopscotch

*You made something awesome. Why not share it with the world? Watch this video to learn how to turn your Hopscotch project into a gif. Then, post your work to Facebook, Twitter or your refrigerator.

AHHH! Hopscotch's inaugural Halloween Contest is here!

Boo!!

It’s time for Hopscotch’s Inaugural Halloween Contest!!

Gorilla has been haunted....What will happen next?

Be creative! You can make a story. Or a game. Or a story with a game in it. Or a game with a story in it. Just make it spooky.*

There will be one winner in each of the following categories:

Beginning Builders

Intermediate Hackers

Advanced Ninjas

Projects will be judged based on:

1. Effort! Be ambitious. Try new things. Don't make something that only took you a few minutes to make.

2. Originality! Use your imagination. Push the envelope. Hopscotch is merely the brush to your canvas of creativity.

3. Fun! Make us laugh. Make us cringe. Spook us—it is Halloween, after all!

Want to use the creepy characters? Branch our contest announcement in Hopscotch or other projects with them and—poof!—they’re yours.

All submissions must be published by Wednesday, October 29th with #HHC in the title. We’ll announce winners on Friday, October 31st. Each will get a fun prize!

If you need help, email us! We’re already frightened just thinking of the whacky things you’ll build.

*Like an “Escape from the Grave” game. Or a haunted house. Or an animation with disappearing characters. We’ll show you what we’re working on next week.

EU Code Week is Here! Join us next Tuesday and Thursday!

Woohoo—it’s that time of year again! Saturday, October 11th, marks the kickoff of EU Code Week, and Hopscotch is ready for a ton of fun.

EU Code Week is 7 days of workshops, hackathons, and meetups designed to get kids and grownups excited about programming.

Even if you’re nowhere near Europe, you’re welcome to participate in (and to host!) events as part of EU Code Week. We are :).

Hopscotch is thrilled to partner with EU Code Week, and is offering two really fun workshops for anyone and everyone:

1. Hopscotch Workshop for Educators Tuesday, October 14th 4:15pm UTC / 10:15am EDT Join this GoogleHangout

Join Hopscotch’s Co-founder and CEO Jocelyn Leavitt and Apple Distinguished Educator Mark Shillitoe to learn about integrating programming into your classroom. We’ll be discussing Hopscotch as a tool for learning programming and a means for creative expression in other subjects.

No previous experience required!! Beginners and experienced coders will walk away having built an awesome program AND with the skills and resources to bring Hopscotch into your learning environment.

2. Like video games? Make your own game with Hopscotch! Thursday, October 16th 3pm UTC / 9am EDT Join this GoogleHangout

Why just play computer games when you can make your very own? Even if you’ve never coded (or even thought of coding!), you can join in this workshop and learn how to code an awesome game using Hopscotch, a visual programming language for iPad.

While programming a cool game, you'll also learn about programming and computer science and have tons of fun. All you need to join is an iPad and a parent, teacher, or guardian.

Questions? Email us! Hope that you can join us =)

PS: You can find out more about EU Code Week by visiting their website and following them on Twitter!

#eu code #Workshop #hopscotch #hopscotchchat

Hopscotch is on the iPhone!!!

Since time immemorial (2013), Hopscotch has been available exclusively on iPad.

Ladies, gentlemen, boys, and girls, welcome to a new day.

Welcome to the Hopscotch Player for iPhone!

That’s right: you can now tilt, tap, shake, and play Hopscotch projects right on your iPhone.

Why is this so great, you ask?

We'll give you a few good reasons.

1. Stay in the know with your fave Hopscotchers!

You don't need your iPad any more to find, follow, and engage with your favorite Hopscotchers! You can do it directly from your iPhone and fully interact with their projects—playing games, creating animations, and watching stories.

2. Sharing is easy.

Send or tweet your kids’ projects to your friends, family members, and whomever else you want to share their awesome programming. The recipient will be able to play the projects directly on their iPhone in the Hopscotch app!

3. Stay inspired and entertained: find new Hopscotchers to follow in the community.

The Hopscotch Player constantly updates to feature the latest creations from the Hopscotch community. We find it endlessly entertaining. Follow Hopscotchers you like, and play their projects in your Stream. Playing projects from the Hopscotch feed has replaced reading before bed for many of us.

This pretty much sums up how we feel about the Hopscotch Player for iPhone. We can’t wait to see how much more engaging, exciting, and

rewarding it is to Hopscotch.

You can download the Hopscotch Player for iPhone in the AppStore. And as always, let us know what you think! Via email or twitter. We're always listening.

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