Stuck at home and are looking for something fun, yet educational? FUZE4 for the Nintendo Switch might be what you are looking for! Developed by FUZE Technologies Ltd, a company founded by one of our very own community members @JonSilvera , this software helps you learn coding via your favourite activity: gaming. Yes, with FUZE4, you can learn how to code and make your own game right on your Switch!

Developed during the last two years by a team of four and released in late 2019, FUZE4 is a learning platform disguised as a game but is more relevant now than ever. In home confinement, children or even yourself are likely looking for something to do, and learning a new skill wouldn’t do any harm.

When Jon approached us with FUZE4, I applauded his initiative to make coding accessible in a fun way, especially for children. Indeed, based in the UK, FUZE Technologies Ltd has forged ahead its mission to help everyone learn how to code via thousands of coding sessions in schools, STEM and career events over the last seven years. They even advocate to include video games in the school computing curriculum as a means to increase the number of students taking computer science. With this in mind, FUZE is encouraging younger audience to get into computer science with their new app.

FUZE4 comes with over 30 tutorials and even more examples, freely downloadable projects and YouTube videos to get you started. There’s also the free FUZE Coding Projects Book 1 that gives coding enthusiasts an insight with what’s possible with FUZE4. However, I found the tutorials to involve too much reading but you can always have more “hands-on” practice by turning to the programming tool. I found the app to be quite intuitive in this sense, diving into the thick of things. But younger users might need some assistance at first but, with a little patience, the videos and projects book should provide ample support. More over, FUZE4 supports input from the touchscreen, Joy-Cons and controller to better suit your liking.

Once you boot the app, you can start coding right away with the built-in engine and assets; or you can try out the sample games like a ninja endless runner or a shooter with random objects like giant hot dogs and steaks (!) hurtling at you . These demos allow you to see how it works, take inspiration from them or even modify the code. In this fashion, FUZE4 encourages the user to tinker with the tools provided and come up with something unique and share your projects with your Nintendo Friends.

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However, even if you’re no beginner to coding, FUZE4 allows you to express your imagination. For instance, Jon pointed out Airtournament, a four player 3D Dogfight with self created artwork and four realtime camera views, created with FUZE4. The app has a buzzing community of game creators sharing their original projects to inspire others.

If you’re still on the fence, Jon shared some exclusive news with us as his team has ‘FUZE Player’ in the works. The latter is a totally free app for the Nintendo Switch, set to release later this year, that allows players to try out complete, bug-free games made via FUZE4. This way, you'll be able to experience what's possible with the software and should they entice you, you can then turn to the game-creating tool, FUZE4, to create your own projects. Priced at $19.99 on the eShop, it's a recommended investment if you want to get more serious with coding or learn a new skill during the lockdown.

If you get creating with FUZE4, do share your projects with us!

FUZE4 on eShop
Main FUZE website
FUZE community website
FUZE Youtube channel

 

[Deleted User]

No way! You're telling ME that I can be smart AND fuck off by playing video games?!?!? WOW, THIS IS THE DEAL OF A LIFETIME!

 

[Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee]

Remember that game with the hidden Ruby implementation? What makes this acceptable while that wasn't

What was the name of that game

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Iv been using Fuze since last October starting as a complete beginner to coding to now understanding enough to be able to create my own games and play other peoples.
This is not just another coding language or platform for you to code on, its a community that supports each other,it would be hard to say that Fuze hasn't impacted my life, put it this way i'm on 960 hours of play time since last october XD.
I tried getting into coding in the past but was put off after having to download this and that, but with fuze you got the whole package from inbuilt help,website help, Discord help all the help youl ever need to get into coding even the developers have taken there time to help me directly !. Honestly i couldn't recommend a better way to get into coding.

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Basic but better

Wow

 

[DeanThorpe]

Interesting but ultimately pointless, you code on your PC and by reading stack overflow

This is for those that may wish to code on their switch. Obviously some may not have other options although that's probably pretty uncommon however the benefit of being able to play games you and others code on your switch is probably clearer to some than others.

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I know how to plug an external keyboard in. I was simply stating that having to do that on switch would be annoying.

Incase you missed it, Fuze4 has a built in on screen keyboard which (and I'm no genius admittedly) is the other option to connecting an external keyboard.

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What type of code is it teaching? Be such a shame if they are teaching something like, Python. Although it is a good starting point. Meh, interesting none than less.

I believe its a unique language with ease of learning at its core.

I'm Really sorry for the double post. Misunderstood how the forum posts and replies/threads layout.
Happy gaming, stay safe.

 

[Robika]

Ooh. I haven't tried this one yet. I'v been trying to make this game idea I've had for a long time, but haven't managed to find an engine or language I'm comfortable with yet. Having to plug in an external keyboard'll be annoying though.

I recommend Game Maker 2, I have been learning for few months and it is just great.

 

[Deleted User]

Looks interesting, though it seems like a lot of effort to learn a language that can only be used on the Switch.

 

[DiscostewSM]

I gave FUZE a good try, but I had just too many issues from it to really continue at this time. For one, it doesn't have its own means to play your own custom audio, like MML. So, I went and worked on my own. It worked, but that led into a major issue. For some reason, it kept crashing FUZE (not a regular programming error) within a minute of running and throwing me back to the Switch Home Menu, likely due to some problem with memory management after copying data between arrays too often. Another issue I have is their choice to making maps be more or less static in nature. As it is, you have to make a map in a separate program within FUZE, then you basically load it in your program, position it, and handle collision. While it's nice and simple, you don't get much other functionality with it. If you wanted more flexibility, you had to make it your own. All this and more then boils down to doing things yourself in software, which unfortunately eats heavily on how much processing you can do in a frame's worth of time, which is already rather low because of its interpreter nature. Even after numerous updates, the program still continues to crash on me.

That's not to say you can't do things with it, but I feel that FUZE is more about learning how to use what's available rather than make your own implementations. FUZE provides a LOT of assets for you to work with, so if you wanted to make your own game, you'd use what's available on-hand rather than try to do things differently with your own custom stuff. This feels like the polar opposite of SmileBASIC, which while it doesn't provide a lot of assets, the flexibility and power of the language compensates for that. Perhaps in the simplest sense, FUZE is more for beginners, to get them in the mood, while SmileBASIC is more advanced, but requires more dedication.

 

[samcambolt270]

Incase you missed it, Fuze4 has a built in on screen keyboard which (and I'm no genius admittedly) is the other option to connecting an external keyboard.

I'm aware, but... why would I ever want to use that? On screed keyboards are fine when all you need to do is type a name or a very short message, but are useless for anything more than 3 lines. It's the same reason you wouldn't want to code on a phone. It's tedious and would make long code even more grueling than it already is.

I recommend Game Maker 2, I have been learning for few months and it is just great.

I would, but I don't exactly have money. I honestly don't have the money for it. After looking up the price for this game, I dont have the money for it game either, lol. I expected it to be, like, 5 bucks max. Also, I'v tried the free trial for gamemaker 2 and it's not really for me.

 

[freestile]

I want a switch now. This looks cool to me.

 

[Goku1992A]

Looks good I actually went to school for coding 10 years ago trying to lean Oracle and JavaScript... I wish I took the class more seriously and got my OCA License and took the internship. I still have my business computer programming certificate from the course but I don't remember a thing about coding lol

 

[orangy57]

now if only SmileBASIC came out on the Switch

EDIT: lmao it turns out it released right under my nose i was trying to find it 2 months ago

 

[nachuz]

now if only SmileBASIC came out on the Switch

SmileBASIC 4 released for the Switch a month ago in case you missed it

 

[Sundree]

smileBASIC is better in every way, but ok.

 

[DiscostewSM]

now if only SmileBASIC came out on the Switch

 

[smileyhead]

This looks interesting, I'll definitely check it out.

 

[Deleted User]

Fuze4 and SmileBasic are very welcome apps. If only a pico8 app could be released, It would be very nice too.

 

[64bitmodels]

Cool.
Now waiting for the inevitable exploit.
I mean come on, it happened with a game as simple as cubic ninja on 3ds, that only used a level editor
this game is a fully functioning coding IDE.

 

[MaxToTheMax]

Idk how this is a GBATemp exclusive lol

 

[Captain_N]

lol says "Bug free games" SO when m Y GAME boots a .nro off the SD card, then thats ok right? Its not a bug it was programed to do that. Ill call it the adventures of Loading.

 

[cracker]

Has anyone looked into the format of the save files to make cross-platform editing possible? I only took a quick look in a hex editor and saw that they were obfuscated, but I haven't got my hands dirty yet.

 

[NoiseTank_]

Interesting but ultimately pointless, you code on your PC and by reading stack overflow

Learning to code as a total beginner without knowledge of things like Stack Overflow can be quite daunting. Having to set up graphics environments etc. Not the wheelhouse of your average kid.

We made Fuze to be a complete out of the box experience. You install it, you write code and run it for immediate feedback!

I'm Dave, one of the Fuze team. I've taught hundreds of youngsters using Fuze at this point to many age groups. If Fuze makes learning the basics accessible, and gets more poeple into programming in the long run, I wouldn't say it's pointless!

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Looks interesting, though it seems like a lot of effort to learn a language that can only be used on the Switch.

The language is indeed specific to Fuze, this is true. However - for somebody who doesn't know how to code, learning in Fuze will provide highly transferable knowledge to other more complex programs. It's intended as a gateway program.

That said, experienced programmers will find Fuze very easy to pickup and do amazing things with it, as we're seeing on our forum!