Coding
Alice
Kids drag code tiles to make 3D characters act out animated stories and small games.
Alice is a 3D programming environment from Carnegie Mellon University, set up for making animated movies and games. Kids choose a scene, add characters – animals, people, vehicles, fantasy creatures – and use drag-and-drop code tiles to direct the action: the rabbit turns to the camera, delivers a line, hops three times, and then the dragon swoops in. Since every movement is code, loops, events and methods seem to arrive almost unnoticed while kids are busy telling a story. Alice 3 leans toward object-oriented ideas, letting kids give characters custom actions and reuse them across scenes. A short animated joke looks like a common first project, and it can grow into a full interactive story. It appears geared toward middle schoolers and older kids with some patience for detail.
- Ages
- Middle schoolers and confident older kids
- Works on
- Windows app; macOS app
- Topics
- Coding, Creative play
- Languages
- English
- Listed
- 2026-10-18
What kids do
- Program characters to act out a short story
- Make a character respond to key presses
- Create custom actions for a 3D character
- Build a simple 3D game
Who it suits
Middle schoolers and confident older kids.
Notes for parents
Developed by the Alice Project at Carnegie Mellon University, which publishes teaching materials alongside it. It installs on Windows and Mac computers.
What you need
- Windows or Mac computer
More Coding
- Code.org / CodeAI: Guided coding activities alongside open tools for making games, animations, apps and web pages.
- ScratchJr: Picture-based programming blocks for making characters move and telling interactive stories.
- Scratch: Interactive stories, animations and games built by snapping visual coding blocks together.
- Kodable Basics: Maze-style coding challenges that begin with sequences and patterns.
- codeSpark: Coding for Kids: Coding puzzles that don’t rely on reading, leading into tools for making stories and games.
- Tynker: Coding for Kids: Guided coding puzzles, game-making and Minecraft-related projects.
- Hopscotch: Programming for Kids: Tutorials and open creation tools for building games and other interactive projects.
- Tynker Junior: Coding for Kids: Picture commands, voiceovers and themed adventures that introduce sequencing, loops and conditions.