Kodu Programming Project - Ghost Shop (Self Guided Lesson)

Short summary: A spooky 30-minute Kodu project where pupils program enemy AI, lives and a ghost-spawning portal. Fully guided with built-in troubleshooting, and perfect for Halloween.
Description:
Kodu runs the corner shop, but at midnight it’s haunted! Pupils must collect the day’s takings (15 coins) before the ghosts catch them 3 times. Every 8 seconds, the portal lets another ghost out.
Ghost Shop is a self-guided, interactive walkthrough that opens in any web browser. Pupils work through it alongside Kodu Game Lab at their own pace. It’s ideal for a one-off lesson, coding club, a Halloween session, or cover. It is designed to be run by non-specialists too.
Programming concepts covered
Simple enemy AI: ghosts that wander, then chase when they spot the player
Rule priority: why the order of rules matters when two rules clash
Using a score to track lives, and making enemies vanish after a catch
Creatables: designing one programmed “master” ghost and spawning copies with a timer
Win/lose conditions and comparison logic (including why “above 14” means 15 or more)
What’s included
An optional 5-minute “New to Kodu?” introduction for complete beginners
5 clear, timed steps from an empty world to a finished, playable game
Every Kodu rule shown as colour-coded tiles, so pupils can copy them accurately
“Test it” checkpoints after each step
“I’m stuck” drop-downs for the most common problems, including what to do if your version of Kodu doesn’t have the Wisp character
A built-in Kodu help panel covering controls, objects and programming basics
A “night shift” progress tracker, with pupils’ ticks saved in the browser
6 extension challenges for fast finishers, each with a hint: glowing angry eyes, an “Ouch!” reaction, a closing-time countdown, faster ghosts, shop aisles to hide behind, and two-player mode