Youth Digital Mod Design 1 - Online Course for MAC/PC

I only have good things to say about this company, they are creating fun interactive training courses for kids to learn by doing what they love, playing! I got my 11 year old son the Mod Design 1 course, and he is literally programming in Java to make his ideas come to life in Minecraft. I have watched a couple of the videos with him, and the trainer is a total goofball, but my son is laughing and learning, so don't let that turn you off; the goofy + serious training totally works... You might think it is expensive, but it is a true training class, and I think it is a good value for what you get out of it. Having been a programmer for almost 20 years, I can say that it is really good stuff, and critical concepts that kids are going to be required to know at some point. They have other courses too, such as fashion design, 3D Game Design, 3D Animation, App Design (you actually build and install an app on an iPhone or iPad!), and others. It would make a great Christmas present! ... ok, done with my product advertising... no I don't get paid for this, I just want them to make more of these!

This course does not work on Macs--if you are running a Mac, do not buy this. They say in their advertising that it works on Macs, but it doesn't, and they do not provide adequate support to address the issues. Once they figure out that you are on a Mac, they simply stop responding to your Tech Support inquiries. We bought this for my 11 year old son for his main Christmas gift. We also bought a new iMac computer from the Apple Store so we could do the Youth Digital course. Despite working with the Youth Digital Tech Support for nearly two months, the course would not even install correctly enough to do the course. After multiple chats with tech support as well as live screen shares, they said my computer was too unique and they did not have a quick fix. By. It was a stock purchase from Apple -- nothing unique and I had not installed any other software. We also tried the course on our older iMac, which was running the Lion operating system. It didn't work on that one either. It is really disappointing and my son is crushed.

I was a little worried reading some of the other reviews about downloading and installing the software pieces needed for this, but it seems Youth Digital have fixed these issues. Through their course videos, one of the first lessons is downloading and installing the software needed. It is one download that comes straight from them and it installs everything you need. It just works, and the videos make following along simple as can be. My son is 10 and he does this as part of his homeschooling. It is so well done that he takes the courses himself with no adult help whatsoever. I come home from work and we go over what he did that day and how he did it. The pure joy he has from showing off something he created himself is completely worth it. Well done class, and even though he isn't even finished yet, we are already planning on getting him the 3D animation course next.

It's OK for ages 11 - 13 or so but a bit simplistic for High School Kids. Lots of copy and paste with very little real coding. It works to create mods but only with the system and software. They set up Eclipse to work with their own system and then provide templates to copy and paste to create various objects, mobs, and biomes. It is a good way to introduce coding to younger kids but definitely you would want to have a bit more hands on system for older students.

We had to struggle to register the product as the instructions included did not match the reality. Also downloading the product was hassle, as it has a huge download and fail several times over wireless. ... i had to finally hard wire and download. After those initial hurdles it was a breeze. My Son absolutely loved it. The cool instruction video is amazing and the support is amazing. even though it is email based, the response is very prompt and friendly. I would Highly Recommend this to anyone. My son completed this in less than 2 months and we bought the next in series, the Server Design, which i hope is equally good

Our seven-year-old son got this for Christmas. We bought it for him on a lark, thinking he might enjoy learning how to program, not really sure if he would be able to use it yet or if it was above his level. Well, he LOVED it!! This program is so well done, I cannot say it strongly enough. My husband and I are so impressed with this company and this program. The videos are entertaining, the instructor is engaging, and basically, our son's other gifts are laying under the Christmas tree, virtually untouched. I won't say that he hasn't gotten frustrated, because he has. This is challenging work to be sure, but help is available. When he was confused, my son sent an email to the support desk. Within 10 minutes, he had a friendly and helpful reply complete with pictures, instructions, and reassurances that "We'll get this worked out!" Youth Digital is in a class by itself! I highly recommend for your budding computer programmer. (Our son loves it so much that we are planning to enroll him in their summer camp in 2015, even though it is over an hour away!)

I'm sure its a good program but I'm sitting here on xmas day with my 10-year old son and I open the box and get a cheap card with a voucher code and can't get past the RECALCULATE button on their order page. The biggest day of the year to provide sales support and their website says they are all home with their families. Great. So they get this thumbs down evaluation. I hope I change my mind when they get back to work. My $250 purchase is zero return on the most important day to use it. Tomorrow I go back to work and may not have the time to open this program with him.

My daughter continue to have issues with the software. For now she is emailing the support on a daily basis without success. She is using a Macbook and we are having many problems with integration with the actual game