A Quick Review of Cryptozombies: Learn to Code Ethereum DApps By Building Your Own Game

What is a Cryptozombie?

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Cryptozombies is a fun and easy way to get a glimpse of programming in Solidity (the language used by Ethereum DApps). Here’s an explanation of Solidity from its documentation:

Solidity is a contract-oriented, high-level language for implementing smart contracts. It was influenced by C++, Python and JavaScript and is designed to target the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

It looks like this:

Source for all images is cryptozombies.io

How does it work?

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Cryptozombies is really similar to basic programming websites like Code Academy and Code School. It gives you a quick and unintimidating look at the language with bite-size lessons you can complete in the browser. It takes you through creating a game like Cryptokitties.

Up until now I’ve mostly been learning full-stack JavaScript, and I would recommend some programming experience before giving Cryptozombies a try. If you want some initial experience you can use the sites I mentioned above, but my favorite programming course for beginners is freeCodeCamp.

The first lesson has 15 chapters, and can be completed in about an hour. Each chapter contains a small challenge that you have to complete in the built-in editor. You click on the “Check Answer” button when you’re done and the editor checks that you’ve implemented the solution correctly. If not, it’ll give you some feedback and the opportunity to try to fix your code.

You’re greeted with a fun little congratulations when you get the challenge correct.

The second lesson came out a couple weeks ago and shows you how to let the zombies you made attack their victims. 😋

Verdict

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Overall this was a really fun way to get a glimpse of coding in Solidity — definitely worth a shot for anyone who is curious.

As with Code Academy and similar courses, this isn’t going to make you a master in the language. It’s just a quick look to get your feet wet and see what it’s like.

For more information it looks like there are some courses on Udemy and I’m also keeping my eye on the release of Mastering Ethereum by Andreas Antonopoulos (who wrote Mastering Bitcoin), but it won’t be done until later this year.

Do you know of any good courses for learning how to code DApps? I would love to find a course that teaches how to program apps on the Steem blockchain. Please let me know in the comments!