We talked to a lot of teachers, and it's a real problem going from block based programming to syntax heavy scripting - there's a chasm there which from a teaching standpoint is sometimes tricky to breach and keep students engaged with.
We've gone for a different approach with Construct 3 which is so far resonating well in education, by mixing our block based programming system with Javascript itself helping to smooth the transition:
The above example is a mix of block based and Javascript, but it can go all the way to making games with pure Javascript in script files - we're hoping to cover the transition in education from between Scratch and other tools such as Unity. There's a big gap there.
>[…] We're hoping to cover the transition in education from between Scratch and other tools such as Unity
This would be amazing. Every child want to make games, especially with a 'proper' engine like Unity (or maybe Godot, but I don't think that has as much street cred yet).
Going from either drag and drop in scratch, or very basic python to using a full game engine requires a lot, but if that can be crossed then I think there is a very clear motivation for students to start learning in the first place.
That's what we're trying to do and we're making good progress!
As our engine Construct 3 is written in HTML5 itself, Javascript was the natural language choice to integrate with our block system.
All languages have their up and downsides but we love Javascript and think it's suitable because it's used in many industries (not just making games) and is likely to have a growing demand going forwards. I think this is a much easier sell to education than other tools such as Gamemaker who use their own propitiatory language.
We've gone for a different approach with Construct 3 which is so far resonating well in education, by mixing our block based programming system with Javascript itself helping to smooth the transition:
https://s1.construct.net/images/v721/refresh/features/learn-...
The above example is a mix of block based and Javascript, but it can go all the way to making games with pure Javascript in script files - we're hoping to cover the transition in education from between Scratch and other tools such as Unity. There's a big gap there.