Coding is one of the most useful job skills to have in today’s tech-centric world, but learning how to code can be tough, especially in the beginning. To help lower the barrier to entry in learning how to code, Microsoft has teamed up with Code.org to offer kid friendly coding tutorials using the medium of the popular block-building game, Minecraft.

In the tutorials, users must solve logical Minecraft-themed puzzles using simple programs that they can create by dragging and dropping different commands, which include fundamental programming concepts like loops and if statments. The puzzles involve common Minecraft tasks like gathering resources, building a shelter, and avoiding enemies. Whenever a new concept is introduced, the tutorial plays a short video of a developer explaining how it works and how it is used in the real world.

After you finish your program, you can click “Run”to see if you did it correctly. If so, you move on to the next puzzle. If not, then the tutorial gives you a hint on how to proceed, and you can try again. Sometimes the tutorial will also let you know that while you did solve a puzzle, there may be a more efficient way of writing it that uses fewer movements or lines of code. You also have the option of seeing the actual code created by your drag-and-drop commands, which are rendered into Javascript.

Code.org’s tutorials help introduce the basics of coding, but if you want to dig a little deeper with Minecraft (pun intended), the game itself offers its own version of in-game programming, but it offers little in the way of hand holding.

While Minecraft is probably best known for impressive in-game recreations of real and fictional places, it also contains its own built-in engineering and programming system called redstone, which allows players to construct logical systems capable of all sorts of impressive feats, from simple block-moving mechanisms to fully functional computer RAM. Redstone has a bit of a steep learning curve, but there are plenty of guides online on how to use it, including on the official Minecraft wiki.

Screenshot via Code.org