The famous DC Comics superheroine Wonder Woman has finally returned to the silver screen in Wonder Woman 1984. The team behind the film hasn't missed a beat with promotional opportunities, as star Gal Gadot appeared at The Game Awards 2020. Now Microsoft has partnered with Wonder Woman 1984 to present a variety of fun lessons that will help people learn the basics of coding.
Microsoft is a giant corporation, and invests major resources into the gaming industry through Xbox. Both Microsoft and Xbox have consistent partnerships and cross-promotion events with different groups interested in helping out society in different ways. Microsoft has even partnered with Wonder Woman 1984 on multiple occasions already, most recently through the Gamers Outreach charity with Gal Gadot.
For this event, Microsoft says that it is partnering with the film "to empower coders and creators of all ages to learn technology skills they can use for greater good." The company has set up a web page with a collection of tutorials, challenges, and activities with the goal of providing a way to learn about coding, albeit with a Wonder Woman twist.
The tasks are split into three chapters. The first chapter is the Game Idea Challenge, which is, in essence, a contest to win some special prizes. People are instructed to submit a video explaining an idea for a game while showing how they are learning to code. Participants are allowed to use Wonder Woman characters in their idea, but it is not a requirement. The idea can be about anything, but it should bring “Wonder Woman’s values of compassion, integrity, and justice to life.” This is another example of how Microsoft wants gaming to focus on social good. Submissions are accepted through January 25.
The second chapter provides learn-to-code lessons, and links to different tutorials for coding with Unity C#, Python, SortingHat, and Ren’Py. To help people visualize the process, Microsoft created a Wonder Woman mini-game through MakeCode Arcade in order for people to play the game, and recreate it afterward. There are additional lessons to explore, such as one about personality quizzes and an upcoming Minecraft Wonder Woman mod.
The third chapter features a themed code hunt. The premise has Wonder Woman’s sword and shield mysteriously go missing from underneath the Smithsonian, where they had apparently been kept. Using some skills they have learned, people have to solve a few binary code puzzles to succeed, definitely nothing high-level like hacking into Microsoft’s source code.
Microsoft has been very interested in providing ways for prospective creators to learn different computer science and game development skills. The company created the Xbox Academy workshop to help teach game development, and this partnership with the Wonder Woman film is another way to get interested people involved.
Even though fans of the iconic heroine have plenty of reasons to want a standalone Wonder Woman game, they shouldn’t expect Microsoft to use any of the ideas that get submitted through this challenge. While it would be interesting to see Microsoft and Xbox develop a Wonder Woman game, especially as a response to the PlayStation-exclusive Spider-Man games, fans will just have to wait and see what the future holds.
The Microsoft and Wonder Woman 1984: Game Idea Challenge only runs through January 25, but creators should still be able to use the resources available on the site if they want to keep learning to code.