We ran a live event with fourteen children last Friday, testing Minecraft for Type 1 Diabetes. In 15 minutes flat, the kids were grasping the relationship between carbs, insulin, and blood glucose, while having a great time playing together.

When I got home at night, I saw a news report about a father with three young kids who had been diagnosed with Type 1. Six months after diagnosis, he felt so isolated, misunderstood, and overwhelmed that he took an overdose of insulin. Luckily he posted about it online, and members of the Type 1 community were able to locate him and send an ambulance, saving those children’s father and someone’s son.

Everyone diagnosed with Type 1 leaves the hospital and goes back out into a community that loves them, but does not understand what they are living with, and doesn’t grasp fully how to support them. Minecraft for Type 1 Diabetes empowers the community around a child and a family with Type 1 Diabetes by creating awareness of the condition. We want it in every hospital and in every school classroom where there is a child with Type 1.

And we need your help

We’re running a crowd-funding campaign for Minecraft for Type 1 Diabetes. It ends on December 23. We need to raise $30,000 to fund the next phase of MC:T1.

We’re running the campaign on experiment.com, a platform for funding scientific research. The campaign funds a user validation study with the Queensland University of Technology; taking MC:T1 into community and school settings and testing it with groups of children — both with and without Type 1 Diabetes.

The validation we get from this allows us to take it to the next stage — testing with diabetes educators in hospitals. For that phase we have partners who will support us once we clear this first phase. We want to make this available to every child at diagnosis, and in every classroom when they return to school.

Click here to view the campaign in more detail, and please contribute. Thank you for your support — and spread the word.

It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a community to support a children and families living with Type 1 Diabetes. Thank you for being that community.

- Josh

Minecraft for Type 1 Diabetes game play video was originally published in Magikcraft on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

On the night of Sunday, September 16th, 2018 — the day of her seventh birthday — Amy Jackson wet her bed. She hadn’t wet the bed for years. She was embarrassed, and Mary — her mother — was surprised. She thought it might be because Amy had too many soft drinks at the birthday party on Sunday — and maybe it was the excitement of the day?

Mary sent Amy off to school on Monday morning, and then went about her day, putting it at the back of her mind.

On Monday night, Amy wet the bed again.

Mary wondered if it were due to anxiety — maybe something was happening at school? Mary made a note to contact Amy’s teacher to see if she had noticed anything.

When Amy came home from school on Tuesday, she was really thirsty, and drank several cups of water.

On Tuesday night, Amy wet the bed for the third night in a row. When Mary changed her clothes, she noticed that Amy was very thin. She could see her ribs sticking through her skin, which was unusual, and Amy didn’t want to get up. Something was definitely wrong, so first thing Wednesday morning Mary bundled her daughter up and took her to see their family doctor, Robert Hargreaves.

Amy was lethargic and having trouble walking, so Mary helped her into the doctor’s office. While they waited in reception, Amy vomited.

Dr Hargreaves came out of his office and — while a nurse attended to Amy — asked Mary what had been happening. When Mary described the last few days, Dr Hargreaves asked the nurse to take a blood sample from Amy.

Looking at the result of a quick test, Dr Hargreaves said: “Mary, you need to take Amy to the ER department of the children’s hospital. I’ll give you a letter to take with you. They will be able to do a more thorough diagnosis. Are you going to be OK driving Amy there?”

The children’s hospital was 15 minutes drive from the Dr Hargreaves office. The nurse gave Amy a bag to hold in case she vomited again, and Mary put the letter in her handbag before putting the car into drive and pulling out.

At the hospital, Mary parked in the spots reserved for emergency admissions, and took a peek at the letter, which was unsealed. It read “Suspected Diabetic Ketoacidosis. Blood Glucose: 540 mg/dl*.”

[* 540 mg/dl = 30 mmol/l]

Mary carried Amy into the doors of the ER department and joined the line of people waiting for admission. She didn’t have time to think about what was happening, she just wanted to get her daughter to see a doctor. As soon as she got to the admissions window, as if on cue, Amy vomited again. The nurse behind the window came out, along with an orderly. Mary handed her the letter. After looking at the letter the nurse took Amy and Mary immediately into a small office where she did another blood test.

The orderly reappeared with a stretcher on wheels, and the nurse and the orderly put Amy on the stretcher. “OK,” the nurse said to Mary, “it looks like your daughter has Juvenile Diabetes. We’re going to call in the endocrinologist. She’s going to be fine, don’t worry.”

The next hours were a whirlwind for Mary. Doctors and nurses came and asked questions and filled in forms. Amy was hooked up to an IV and given saline solution. Then the endocrinologist, Dr Laura Hegel, came to see them.

“Hi, I’m Dr Laura Hegel,” she said. “I’m the consulting endocrinologist. I’m actually on leave today, but I’ve come in to see Amy. We’re going to put Amy on insulin. We’re pretty certain that she has Juvenile Diabetes. It’s an autoimmune condition where the pancreas stops producing insulin.”

Mary suddenly felt as if the world had become a television show that she was watching on a screen, rather than actually living.

Dr Hegel continued: “First of all: it’s nothing that you’ve done, or could have done. We don’t fully understand what triggers it, but it has a genetic component and an environmental trigger like a virus. Secondly, your daughter is going to be fine. We can treat this. It’s not curable yet, but we can manage it and she can live a normal life.”

That night

That night, Mary sat beside Amy’s bed, watching the numbers on the machine connected to Amy’s arm, and praying that they would go down. Every hour, on the hour, a nurse came and checked them and made a note on a chart at the foot of the bed.

While waiting, Mary read everything that she could on the internet about Juvenile (Type 1) Diabetes, starting with the wikipedia article, and finding groups on Facebook of parents whose children had also been diagnosed with the condition.

At 1am, the number started dropping.

The next day

Amy woke up in a strange place. She looked around the room. She was in a bed with a white blanket, with a curtain around her. There was a machine next to her beeping softly, and it was attached to her hand, which hurt.

Her mouth felt really, really dry, and she was thirsty. She was scared.

She turned to look next to the bed, and was relieved to see her mother in a chair, with a blanket on her, sleeping.

Her hand hurt where the tube was taped to it, so she didn’t move it. Strange noises came from beyond the curtain. People talking, a phone ringing. More beeping noises.

After a couple of minutes, her mother stirred in the chair and opened her eyes.

“Hello!” she said to Amy, with a big smile. “How is my brave little girl today?”

“Mmmmmmm,” was all Amy managed to say. Her mother gave her a hug and tousled her hair, and she felt better.

Footsteps, and then someone saying: “Good morning!”

The curtain pulled open, and some strange people were there. A lady dressed in normal clothes, and a nurse in a blue uniform.

“Hello Amy, I’m Laura,” said the lady in the normal clothes. “And this is Karen. How are you feeling this morning?”

“I’m hungry,” said Amy.

“That’s good,” said Laura. “We’ll organise something for you to eat this morning. I’m here with Karen to talk to you about what’s happening with you. You have Juvenile Diabetes. That means that your body doesn’t produce insulin, which you need when you eat food. Now you’ll need to take insulin whenever you eat.”

Karen produced a small toy, like a see-saw, and a little Lego figure. She placed the Lego figure on the see-saw.

“Whenever you eat food with carbohydrates it in,” Karen said as she put some little red blocks on the see-saw. “You need to take insulin.” Karen put some blue blocks on the other side of the see-saw. “Otherwise it will tip over.” Karen put some more red blocks on the see-saw and it tipped over, spilling the Lego figure off.

“That’s what happened to you,” continued Laura. “Your body doesn’t produce insulin now, so you got sick because you had food — the red blocks — but no insulin — the blue blocks.”

“We’re going to leave this here for you to play with, and we’ll organise something for you to eat.”

Karen left the toy on the bedside table, and with Laura left, closing the curtain behind them.

The toy had been developed by an insulin company, in consultation with LEGO, the Danish toy maker, as a tool to help diabetic educators, and parents, in their conversation with children about Juvenile Diabetes. The hospital staff loved it, because it gave them something tactile and interactive, and they found it useful in communicating to both children and adults.

Mary and Amy played with the toy for a while, both of them grasping that food needed to be balanced with insulin.

They didn’t know it yet, but they had been selected as part of the experimental group in the trial of a new technology.

That afternoon

In the afternoon, Karen returned with a man. “Hi!” said Karen. “This is Michael. He’s from the university, and they are doing research on a new computer game.”

“Hi Amy,” said Michael.

Karen had a deep blue laptop computer in her hand. “Do you like playing Minecraft?” she asked Amy.

Amy nodded, shyly.

“She loves it!” said Mary. “If she could, she would play it all day!”

“That’s great!” said Karen with a big smile. “Well, we have a special version of Minecraft just for you. In this version of Minecraft you have Juvenile Diabetes, just like in real-life. And, you get magical powers, and there is a special quest that only you can complete.”

“Before you start, Amy,” said Michael, “I just want to ask you a few questions — is that OK?”

Amy nodded.

“OK, thanks,” said Michael. “In your own words, can you tell me about Blood Glucose, Insulin, Carbohydrates, and how they affect each other?”

Amy had no idea really what he was talking about, but she could recognise some of the words from earlier in the day. She said what she could remember, and Michael smiled and nodded and wrote things down.

Karen set the blue computer down on the tray table over the bed, and opened it up. “There you go.”

The screen was filled with a Minecraft launcher that said “Magikcraft”.

Amy clicked on the button “Join Magikcraft”. She found herself in a forest, with a big sign saying “MCT1”.

“Go over there,” encouraged Karen.

Amy did, and found herself in front of a nether portal.

Amy knew what to do. She hopped through the portal, and found herself in a desert.

There was a little village nearby, so Amy headed over to explore it.

Suddenly, blasts of lightning descended from the sky and converged on Amy. She tried to avoid them, but they caught her.

When the lightning strikes stopped, Amy’s character was glowing with radiance.

And her display had changed. Now, in addition to the standard food and health bars, she had a “BGL” bar and an “Insulin” bar. And she had a bunch of items in her inventory.

10 seconds later, she suddenly warped to a new location, in front of a castle with a sign saying “Training Course — T1 Lightning Wizards!”

Amy noticed that she had special powers now as well — night vision, extra speed, and extra jumping power, as well as the special glow.

Entering the castle, Amy found a room where apples appeared out of nowhere.

Amy was starving, so she ate an apple.

Immediately a new bar appeared, saying “Digesting: APPLE (10 carbs) (low GI). It started going down, and the bar saying “BGL” started going up.

Amy moved on to the next room, where potions were appearing out of nowhere.

Amy took a potion, and the Insulin bar went up, and the BGL bar started going down.

Amy ate another apple. She noticed that when the BGL went above 8 (144mg/dl), she lost her special powers, and got woozy — just like she felt yesterday.

At very high Blood Glucose levels, the sickness got worse:

The same thing would happen if BGL went below 4 (64mg/dl). She became woozy and lost her special powers.

She had to keep the range just right.

Amy then went through an underground maze, and discovered that her snowballs caused lightning strikes wherever they landed.

She used that to battle zombies and spiders and creepers as she explored the maze.

The night vision was very useful, but if her BGL went out of range, she would lose it.

Bringing it back into range would bring her special powers back.

While she was playing, she met another kid with Juvenile Diabetes playing on the same server.

She found her way through the maze, to the end.

At the top of the tractor beam, there was a great celebration for her.

Afterwards, Michael asked her some questions about the game, and again asked about Blood Glucose, Insulin, and Carbohydrates.

“Did you have fun playing that Amy?” he asked.

“Yes!” Amy smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

“How about you, Mary?” asked Michael. Mary had been watching Amy play intently. Mary laughed: “I think I learned how to play it just by watching!”

“Great,” said Michael. “Look — here’s a couple of things. When Amy is released from hospital and goes home, she can keep playing this game. There are more adventures beyond this one. The other thing is when she returns to school. We can — if you would like — run her class through this same experience.”

Mary said: “Wow, that would be great! Amy, would you like that?”

Amy nodded.

Karen said: “The goal there is to educate everyone around Amy. Our body is an incredibly complex system, and it regulates the glucose level in a very sophisticated way. Amy’s body doesn’t do that now, and we’re going to replace the action of the pancreas now with synthetic insulin, with blood glucose monitoring, with some practices and habits, and with a community around Amy. Empowering her class to understand this provides an incredible amount of support.”

Michael added: “We’ll contact the school and make all the arrangements.”

Back at School

After being released from hospital, Amy arrived back at school for her first day on Monday, September 24th, 2018. She had a continuous glucose monitor on the back of her arm, with a red heart-shaped band-aid holding the sensor in place, and her insulin pens in her bag.

Everyone in the class was excited to see her — because she had been away for over a week, and because they heard that they were going to be playing Minecraft today!

Amy’s teacher, Mrs Bellamy, introduced a couple of strangers to the class. One was Michael, from the university. The other was Josh, from Magikcraft.

“Hi guys, I’m Josh from Magikcraft. We do magic in Minecraft. First of all, I know you’re all glad that Amy is back and that she is well. And, we have a cool Minecraft game that we want you to play. But to do that you have to take a little test first — five questions. Are you happy to do that?”

“Yes!” shouted all the kids, excitedly. They filled out the little question slips that Michael handed out. Then Josh handed out little blue computers to each of them.

“OK, are you ready?” shouted Josh. “YES!!” shouted all the kids.

And it was on.

Amy proudly showed her friends around the MCT1 world, and explained how it worked. As kids discovered the dynamics they excitedly shouted them out. In the dungeon they helped each other and called out encouragement. Luke got stuck in a hole and was left behind, and became upset.

Mrs Bellamy, watching the class, called out: “Hey, Luke is left behind. Is someone going to help him?”

Amy went back to find him, and some of her friends went with her. The boys were too busy fighting an Enderman with their snowballs. Joe said: “Nah, we’re busy.”

Amy used a magic spell to lift Luke out of the hole. She had been playing the game at home, with her online friends, and had learned how to write some “magic spells” — JavaScript code that gave her even more powers in the game.

At the end, when Joe and some of his friends got there, the tractor beam would not work.

“OK guys, we only win if everyone wins!” said Josh. “We have to get everyone into that final area for the tractor beam to work. Who’s left behind? Go get ‘em!”

Finally everyone was in the tractor beam, and they all got lifted up to the top to see the celebratory fireworks.

“Congratulations!!!” said Josh. “Good work everyone. Now, Michael has some more questions for you to answer. But before you do that, tell me something that you learned today, playing this.”

“Minecraft is fun!” yelled out Sammy.

“Please put up your hand,” chastised Mrs Bellamy.

Suddenly a sea of hands appeared. Mrs Bellamy called on three kids, one after the other.

“If you take too much insulin, you lose your special powers,” said one.

“If you eat too much food and don’t take enough of the potion you get sick,” said another one.

“Everybody has to get to the end for the tractor beam to work,” said the third.

“Very good,” said Mrs Bellamy. “Now, you have another little test there to do.”

Michael collected the completed test slips from Mrs Bellamy, while Joe, Sammy, and Amy helped Josh to collect up the little blue computers.

Making this happen

We are running a crowd-funding campaign from November 23 — December 22, 2017, to buy those little blue computers, and to pay for the research time for Michael and his team to do the kind of study described above.

We are buying sufficient computers to put a classroom of 20–30 kids through this experience. They are durable, light-weight, and we’ve budgeted $20k for that. We’ve budgeted $10k for researcher assistance. If we get more than the target amount, it means that we can broaden the study.

The development of MCT1 — Minecraft for Type 1 Diabetes — has been funded thus far via contributions from Magikcraft, and an Innovation Engagement Grant from the Queensland University of Technology.

If you want to try MC:T1 now, you can join the global beta test here: www.mct1.io.

Thank you for your support. Here’s the link to the crowd-funding campaign:

Minecraft for Type 1 Diabetics

About me: I’m the founder and CEO of Magikcraft.io — the world’s most innovative platform for learning to code in Minecraft; a Red Hat alumnus; a CoderDojo mentor; and a father. I’m a commitment that children everywhere experience life with freedom, joy, and power.

Minecraft for Type 1 Diabetes — 2018–2019 was originally published in Magikcraft on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Phase One: Japan

I flew from Brisbane to Osaka, Japan to attend DojoCon Japan — left on Wednesday night, arrived Thursday afternoon.

星野邦敏 on Twitter

CoderDojoさいたまの関係で、全国のCoderDojoの運営者が集まる大阪のイベントに参加するために、ウチのスタッフの漆原・森下と大阪に向かいます。新幹線が凄い人で普段こんなこと無いので、まさに三連休なんだなと思いました。 https://t.co/C3npQ0jI3B

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Magikcraft at @DojoConJapan - workshop at 14:40 tomorrow.

At the airport I met up with CoderDojo Community Lead Ross O’Neill, CoderDojo co-founder James Whelton, and CoderDojo Japan board member Takashi Hosoya.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

What's happening? @DojoConJapan - that's what's happening!! 💯🉐

I stayed in Kansei district at the house of Takashi Hosoya-san.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

In Osaka, about to do a Majikkushō at @DojoConJapan.

Here is Takashi’s son with a Magikcraft sticker on his laptop:

Josh Wulf on Twitter

In the wild in Japan: @magikcraftio

Josh Wulf on Twitter

On the @magikcraftio "I'm Kind of a Big Deal in Japan" Tour

On Friday I met many of the CoderDojo mentors who arrived from all over Japan for DojoCon. We spent 11am — 6pm in a Karaoke bar in Ibaraki.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

With @cat_kaotaro from @CoderDojo Saitama

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Live tomorrow at @DojoConJapan!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

With @sugimisu at @DojoConJapan 2017. Arigato gozaimasu for bringing the 💻 for the workshop tomorrow! Sugoi!!👍👍✨👏🎉🙌

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Getting ready for #DojoConJP

I also caught up with my old friend Jens Petersen, a Dane who married a lady from Osaka, and worked Internationalization for a number of years out of the Brisbane Red Hat office.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Yo, this my Red Hat homeboy @juhp - internationalizing open source at scale from Osaka, Japan.

On the subject of internationalisation, we did a bunch of work on Magikcraft to localise it into Japanese:

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Using Romanji until we figure out how to support Kanji and Hiragana in @magikcraftio holograms.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Japanese localisation in-game in @magikcraftio now working. Might even have interpolation working by the time I hit the stage. #justintime

I paid attention to Sriram Krishnan when he spoke at the Myriad festival earlier this year:

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Internationalization is a huge growth lever if you do it right, and it's more than just translations" #MyriadLive

Here we are working on it in Brisbane at Fishburners:

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Working on @magikcraftio deliverables for #Mozfest London, @DojoConJapan and beyond!

For DojoCon Japan we went all in.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

https://t.co/jKqPNmOYYq

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Ninjas and wizards at #DojoConJp

Josh Wulf on Twitter

With my two assistants from today's Majikkushō at #DojoConJP

One of the learnings from CoderDojo’s Coolest Projects — in Dublin, Ireland back in June — was that the killer format for these events is a Magic show (Majikkushō in Japanese). So I got two assistants from the audience, and with Tim on the server in Brisbane we made a legendary Chicken Karaage using Magik — culminating in a culinary explosion involving 400 chickens, 200 zombies, and a whole lotta lightning!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

With Rino and Satoko at #DojoConJp 2017!

Outcomes:

• I set up a partnership for translating and distributing Magikcraft Documentation in Japanese.
• Japanese users created a 伝説のMagikcraft Japan Users Group on Facebook.

Phase Two: Denmark

I flew on Sunday from Kansei airport to Narita airport in Tokyo, and thence to Copenhagen, Denmark, to participate in the Lyfebulb-NovoNordisk Innovation Summit.

LyfeBulb on Twitter

LBNNAward17 finalist: Josh Wulf CEO of Magikcraft.io. Josh has committed to empowering kid & familsies w/ #T1D through the power of #coding

In June of 2017, Prahlad Wulf took MC:T1 — Minecraft for Type 1 Diabetes — to CoderDojo Foundation Coolest Projects in Dublin, Ireland.

☯CoderDojo☯ on Twitter

At last years @coolestprojects Prahlad a CoderDojo attendee from #Brisbane Australia created MCT1, a mod built using Magikcraft that provides a simulated experience of Type 1 Diabetes in Minecraft to educate and empower children and families living with #T1D 🙌 #WorldDiabetesDay

It was that engagement that lead to both DojoCon Japan and the Lyfebulb-NovoNordisk Innovation Summit. MC:T1 was selected as one of twelve technologies disrupting the future of diabetes management.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

The @Lyfebulb @NovoNordisk Innovation Summit 2017 - that's what's happening.

Since CoderDojo Coolest Projects, we’ve done a lot of work on MC:T1 — particularly since Tim Marwick started working on it.

At the Summit I joined eleven CEOs of startups from Europe and the US.

Novo Nordisk on Twitter

Day two of #LBNNAward17 has started. Best of luck to all the patient entrepreneur finalists (the sun is already shining on you☀️)!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

With Charles O'Connell, CEO of @Glucosezone - tailored exercise programs for Diabetics.

Part of the Summit was a pitching competition.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

CEO of @Fit4D Dave is scaling the human touch that made a difference for him in his #T1D journey #LBNNaward2017

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Addressing the 5-year mortality rate of foot ulceration in #Diabetes @Bonbouton #LBNNaward2017

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Med Angel is a bluetooth IoT device that adds temperature sensing to insulin pens and vials. #LBNNnaward17 #wearenotwaiting

Josh Wulf on Twitter

CEO of @diabeticdabs Liz Sacco adds the missing link to lancet BGL testing - a booklet of cleaning swabs with adhesive. #LBNNaward17

I pitched first:

Josh Wulf on Twitter

The Fates have decided: I am pitching first tomorrow - at 8:45am Denmark time. #LBNN2017

Josh Wulf on Twitter

MC:T1 on the stage in Denmark at the #LBNNaward2017

CoderDojo Brisbane gets a shout-out in Denmark:

Novo Nordisk on Twitter

First finalist @sitapati presents @magikcraftio - #MineCraft for type 1 diabetes - at the #LBNNaward17!

The outcome of the pitching competition was: 1st Amin Zayani of MedAngel (US$25k prize), 2nd Malcolm Nason of Bonbouton (US $15k prize), 3rd Jen Horonjeff of Savvy Coop (US$10k prize)

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Congratulations to @jhoronjeff @Bonbouton and @AminfiBerlin!!!

On the third day, we had a keynote and a panel Q&A, which included the President of the International Diabetes Foundation, and Shomit Ghose from Onset Ventures — a Silicon Valley fund that invests in high-growth technology startups that have a business plan projecting $100m revenue at the five year point.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Technologies don't build businesses, business models build businesses" - Silicon Valley VC @shomit #LBNNaward17

I spent an hour with Shomit after the keynote, in a workshop working on pitching.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

I'm in a pitching workshop at the @LyfeBulb @novonordisk Innovation Summit in Denmark with Silicon Valley VC @shomit.

What I would do differently next time is spend some more time in my pitch articulating the relationship between Magikcraft and MC:T1, and the Magikcraft business model.

It would have been nice to win one of the cash prizes at the Summit, but that wasn’t the main focus for me. Also, although I love winning — truly anyone there deserved to win the award.

We won 2nd place at the Flight Centre Data Hackathon earlier this year, and I spent the next six months trying to figure out how to engage with Flight Centre.

So I went to the Summit knowing that winning the award on the day wouldn’t produce the results that I wanted from the event. It would be creating effective follow-through that would do it. As Jason W. Roulston says: “the gold is in the follow-up”.

So I spent my time there connecting with people in different departments in Novo Nordisk, in Lyfebulb, and among the Award finalists, looking for alignment and possibilities to explore.

Novo Nordisk assigned me a buddy — Ulrik Poulsen — who was an absolute champion for me in finding the right people to connect with and how to position MC:T1 for alignment.

Novo Nordisk on Twitter

Last year's award winner @breezygfreezy showing the past 12 months' progress of the @findyourditto app📱Keep up the good work! #LBNNAward17

The morning after the Summit, last year’s Award winner — Brianna Wolin— Aaron J Horowitz , and I had breakfast together and looked at the follow-through from last year’s Summit, and what we could do over the next year together.

Outcomes

• We created a Slack team for Lyfebulb-Novo Nordisk Innovation Summit Alumni to keep in touch and to boost each other’s signal on social media.
• I had a call with Karin Hehenberger, the founder and CEO of Lyfebulb. We’re working on a couple of things — exciting details to follow. Karin is strengthening Lyfebulb’s follow-through in taking Alumni companies to market, as well as catalysing innovation in patient-entrepreneurs.
• I’ve got a call with a Novo Nordisk team working on a collaboration with Lego.
• Post-summit we got 200 people sign up from the US, UK, and Australia for the MC:T1 beta-testing program.

Final Thoughts

• I always knew we would be Big in Japan.
• Start-ups engaging with corporates requires hustle to get the follow-through result, especially when the corporation is early in its innovation engagement strategy — like Flight Centre and Novo Nordisk both are.

As Aaron Birkby says about Israel’s mature corporate innovation engagement scene:

The 350+ multinationals based in Israel are actively hunting to do business with startups — indeed it is a large part of their R&D model. And by “do business with”, I mean “be a customer of, invest in, or acquire”.

— What Australians need to learn from Israel

Shomit Ghose said something similar to me — Novo Nordisk are just beginning to develop their startup innovation engagement. A company like Johnson & Johnson has a more mature model with their JLabs.

I think of a company like Novo Nordisk like an early market. It takes more work to penetrate the market, including market education, but competition is lower.

About me: I’m the founder and CEO of Magikcraft.io — the world’s most innovative platform for learning to code JavaScript in Minecraft; a Red Hat alumnus; a CoderDojo mentor; and a father. I am a commitment that children experience life with joy and power.

Magikcraft in Japan and Denmark — in 140 characters or less was originally published in Magikcraft on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Just one year ago, Josh Wulf and his wife Param were just like many other parents worldwide — two parents worried by the lack of coding education in their son’s school.

So they sought out for coding classes outside the school, and signed up for a Saturday coding class held by their local city council in Brisbane.

But it came with a twist: Josh accidentally signed up as a mentor alongside his son’s application.

Little did they know at the time — that accident magically turned into their startup’s birth: Magikcraft, teaching kids how to code through ‘magic’.

As I sat down with Josh Wulf, the founder of Magikcraft on a hackathon he was organizing called “Big Data, Big Heart” — you could feel the electric-like energy that sparked throughout the venue.

Passion and generosity is the central theme of this hackathon — and Josh Wulf surely embodies both of them.

When asked where did the name “Magikcraft” derive — he passionately showed the connection between programming and magic.

“Magic is a power that allows people to do impossible things — by saying special words, and that’s what computer programming is!”

Teaching coding to kids is trickier than it seems.

When Josh started mentoring kids on Saturdays, he found kids to be unmotivated.

But how could a kid be motivated attending coding classes on the weekend, when it’s wrapped like their dull workload from schools on their weekdays?

So one Saturday, he asked the kids whether they’d like his idea: learning coding through the world’s #2 most popular game — Minecraft.

Magikcraft.io

Their responses? “They went nuts!” as Josh puts it.

And fast forward today, that question is flying Josh to Japan and Denmark on the following week after we spoke.

When asked to explain the magic that is his startup, Josh simplified it into one sentence:

“Kids want to play Minecraft. Parents want their kids to learn how to code. Why don’t we have both?”

Magikcraft works by playing Minecraft and having to code and solve problems by coding throughout the game.

Minecraft is indeed a game that makes millions of parents worldwide complain as their kids are hooked onto it — but Josh is making Minecraft a blessing for his fellow parents as he turns it into an educational platform.

It’s a simple yet genius idea — as this way, kids will effectively learn how to code as they both play and learn throughout the learning process.

But not only that, Josh is also on a mission to tackle a problem that’s prevalent in your usual coding classes.

When coding classes emerge from nonexistence, there’s still many problems that circulate around those classes.

And with decades of experience in software development under his belt, Josh felt that there’s a key problem that needs to be addressed.

“I found that in schools, they’re teaching coding like it’s a solo activity and an individual thing. An individual thing working on a keyboard that’s working to solve a problem.”

But in reality, the real world of coding & programming is far away from that.

Contrary to the popular belief of us humans detached from the world of tech, we’d think that screens are separating and devaluing our communication skills — but we might not be so right.

Magikcraft.io

Josh commented that software development is like a team sport — and in reality, the technical part is a very small piece of it.

“Give me an average team that has a great team dynamic and a great energy — versus a team of rockstar developers that can’t coordinate or communicate — and they’ll outperform [the former] anytime.”

Hence why our future generation of tech-savvy kids need to learn communication skills to succeed.

And he’s hoping to do that through MagikCraft.

When asked how did Josh and his wife Param came up with the idea of Magikcraft — he refuted the idea of Magikcraft being a startup he came up the idea with magically: instead, he claimed to have ‘discovered’ it.

With his background in open source software development, Josh felt that as a developer, if something doesn’t work the way you like it to work — you go fix that.

“It’s about going out there and looking at your pain points, and continuing validating how do we solve this and that — and how do we solve for the people?”

And solving for the people is surely a huge part of why Josh is doing what he’s doing.

As the Hackathon went on and the night falls, Josh shared his raw story to the Hackathon participants as a parent of a Diabetic Type 1 son.

Prahlad Wulf, Josh’s son was diagnosed with the disease 8 years ago, and Josh and his team has built a version of Minecraft in the hopes to educate people on MCT1 Diabetes.

As he gave the audience a live demo of a Minecraft version they built to promote MCT1 Diabetes awareness, the big smile that is almost always on his face wears off as he tells a story that is very close to his heart.

You could feel the room’s atmosphere feeling touched by the love as they were getting to know his story and the work he’s done.

“We believe every single person have something that they can do to change the world.”

And he believes that helping our future generation of kids to code will do that.

Tech Amplified is a new tech blog that focuses on the human side of tech based in Brisbane, Australia. For your regular dose of stories from the tech world, follow us here on Medium and Twitter!

How this startup is changing coding education for kids was originally published in Magikcraft on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Magikcraft’s 11-year-old Senior Design Engineer Ruben Bliss (@XxMEDIARITExX) was recently featured in the City North News in a story about his new startup, Robosys.

Robosys creates programs for the Pepper robot, and their first project was for the Queensland State Archives.

Robosys are based in the QUTFoundry accelerator.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

At @QUTFoundry with @aboutrobot @simon_bliss and @XxMEDIARITExX talking Pepper and @magikcraftio

Ruben started programming last year in Magikcraft at CoderDojo Brisbane, and quickly progressed, joining Magikcraft as an intern, then being rapidly promoted to Senior Design Engineer. Now he is realising his childhood dream of launching a robotics start-up — at 11 years old!

Read the news article online here.

Well done Ruben! We are proud of you!!

Magikcraft Engineer Ruben Bliss launches Robosys was originally published in Magikcraft on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Magikcraft: Season One is a series of seven videos that are linked to the game play in Magikcraft, and that teach one week’s worth of coding lessons interactively.

These videos arrive in your spellbook dynamically as you move through the Magikcraft worlds and encounter new challenges and opportunities.

Tim Marwick has done a lot of great work to support the videos, and the Magikcraft Spellbook has been revamped in a number of really cool ways — including a new chat feature that allows you to contact us to get help.

We hope you enjoy Magikcraft: Season One, and look forward to receiving your feedback!

It’s a work in progress, and as we smooth the edges it will only get better. Thank you for your patience and your partnership as we make Minecraft Great Again with magikal JavaScript powers!

Playing Magikcraft: Season One

“How do I get Magikcraft: Season One?” I hear you ask.

“Do I watch it on Netflix?” No, you don’t (although we do have a movie coming out in November — I’ll let you know about that later).

To play Magikcraft: Season One you need a (free) GitHub account, a Minecraft.net account, and the Java Minecraft client.

Go to play.magikcraft.io in your web browser, and log in using your GitHub account. You will get instructions from there.

And you can always ask for help via the blue chat button, or by emailing me: josh (at) magikcraft.io.

Background

Back in June — just before we jetted off to Norway — we won a pitching competition judged by Australian Shark Tank judge Dr. Glen Richards.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

We just won the pitching contest with the @sharktankau Glen Richards. Mentoring session when we get back from Europe.

Last Friday we met with him for that mentoring session.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

30-day planning session for @magikcraftio with 🦈 Glen Richards. Where's @Purpsta_YT? At school!

Our current 30-day sprint involves producing a free one-week course, and a paid three-week course to follow it up. We don’t know what will charge for the paid course yet. We think it’s worth $49 — at least — and we also talked about charging 0.99c for it and selling a million of them. So it will probably cost somewhere between the two.

Anyway, we’re going to make it first, and make it great, and for the early adopters who come with us on that ride, we’re going to charge 0.99c for the three-week course while it’s in development.

If you want to try the three-week course, then play through the one-week course first, and it will offer it to you at the end.

Up to this point we’ve been focused on building the world’s most powerful platform for coding JavaScript in Minecraft — and we’ve done that.

Now, we are focused on creating value in digestible chunks and making those guided experiences available in a way that makes sense to a wide variety of users.

It’s time — together, we will #MakeMagikcraftGreatAgain.

Magikcraft: Season One was originally published in Magikcraft on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Local Brisbane startup Magikcraft, a company that teaches children computer programming in Minecraft, have been awarded a grant by Queensland University of Technology to produce a game for children and families living with Juvenile (Type 1) Diabetes.

Magikcraft founder Josh Wulf says that most of the $30,000 grant will be spent on research and development of the core game mechanics, which simulate living with Type 1 Diabetes in Minecraft.

The game, called “MC:T1” or “Minecraft for Type 1 Diabetes” has been under development over the past year. Magikcraft founders Josh and Param Wulf have a son, Prahlad Wulf, who is now 15 years old and who was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes when he was eight. They started Magikcraft to teach Prahlad computer programming, then realized it would be useful for other children and parents. Last year they realized that Magikcraft could also be used to produce modified versions of Minecraft and that they could use it to make a difference for children and families living with Type 1 Diabetes.

“The most frustrating thing about having Type 1 Diabetes isn’t the Diabetes itself — it’s trying to explain it to my friends,” explains Prahlad.

“They want to help and to support me, but there isn’t a fun and easy way for them to learn about it. But they all like playing Minecraft. Having a game that explains it will make it easier for them understand.”

QUT Associate Professor Michael Dezuanni runs the Digital Learning Research Centre at QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus. He was one of the researchers behind the three-year study of digital learning in Australian schools called “Serious Play”, and is the academic supervisor of the grant.

Associate Professor Dezuanni says:

Many of these kids diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes are 5, 6, or 7 years old, and they are struggling to come to grips with their condition. A fun and engaging game for them to play is a great way for them to learn about what they are now dealing with.

Monica Rostron, Communications Editor at Diabetes Queensland, one of the organisations that supported the QUT grant application, says:

Anything that educates people about Type 1 Diabetes is an incredibly valuable tool.

Earlier this year, Magikcraft met with NovoNordisk, a global pharmaceutical company, in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss the initiative. Off the back of this grant, Magikcraft plan to take the game to the NovoNordisk-Lyfebulb Innovation Summit in Denmark in November, where they will present it to investors on the global stage.

For more information: Josh Wulf 0431–929–675
www.magikcraft.io

Brisbane startup Magikcraft awarded grant to build game for Juvenile Diabetes was originally published in Magikcraft on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours." - Thomas Edison

Josh Wulf on Twitter

We just won the pitching contest with the @sharktankau Glen Richards. Mentoring session when we get back from Europe.

Ian Daniel on Twitter

@TimMarwick from @magikcraftio gives a talk on setting up a @GraphQL server with @nodejs at @BrisJS

Josh Wulf on Twitter

And they're off!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Hi from Dubai!

Ian Daniel on Twitter

Righto - async done right in JavaScript" by @sitapati https://t.co/fJP8sKrbZA

Norway

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Signed a couple of copies of these already... #ThePriceOfFame #ForTheFans

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Touchdown in the homeland - Velkommen til norge!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Gangway!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Looking for things to do in Bergen...

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Waiting for the library to open.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Hanging with @jonkbern in Bergen, the capital of Black Metal (and Elm programming, apparently...)

NDC Oslo

Josh Wulf on Twitter

You know you've made it when you check in with "Hi, I'm the Legendary Josh Wulf, from the Internet".

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Oslo Elm day - 120 people and a prog metal band.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Yes, @elmlang *is* big in Bergen.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Getting my @elmlang on in Norway @NDC_Conferences

New World Record!

Landmark Forum on Twitter

Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible." - M. C. Escher

Josh Wulf on Twitter

I put on my robe and wizard hat...." #ndcoslo

Jakob Bradford on Twitter

@sitapati is ready for his kids workshop. Looking good there mate!! #ndcoslo

Josh Wulf on Twitter

I just published "NORSKE BARN LÆRER Å KODE MENS DE SETTER VERDENSREKORD I Å DREPE ZOMBIER" https://t.co/20ErTNrQ0R

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Magikcraft in Norway, that's what's happening.

Tim Marwick on Twitter

Zombie Apocalypse scoreboard #ndcoslo #Norway! Crowd goes wild! Kids go nuts! @sitapati @paramsatya take @magikcraftio on th road in Europe!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Tim Smith  - a Brisbane developer who has written some pretty cool spells for Magikcraft, including one..." https://t.co/WW7irV1uxJ #Kids

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Last night with Lær Kidsa Koding, NDC Oslo, and thirty Norwegian kids, Magikcraft set a new world record..." https://t.co/WW7irVj5Wj #Kids

Josh Wulf on Twitter

With Simon, the founder of @kidsakoder - 125 coding clubs around Norway in 4 years! A real hero of the revolution. 👊

Josh Wulf on Twitter

BBC micro:bit computer, gifted to me by @kidsakoder in Oslo, Norway. #grateful #proud

Josh Wulf on Twitter

@dylanbeattie gives a shout-out to #T1Ds with insulin pumps at #ndcoslo.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Yo, hanging with the @trackjs boys after I just owned the leaderboard, of course.

TrackJS on Twitter

@sitapati got 363,698 points on the @TrackJS JavaScript Quiz at #NDCOslo and won a free teeshirt!

TrackJS on Twitter

A new leader on the board! The challenge has been made! @sitapati @nybblr

Josh Wulf on Twitter

The top two JavaScript programmers at #ndcoslo.

Armen Kirakosyan on Twitter

ndcoslo #icenet hack Pi and get it!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

ANOTHER ONE! I just hacked the https://t.co/sOrnwsePlz Raspberry Pi and won a Raspberry Pi Zero. #ndcoslo

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Here's the Raspberry Pi Zero I took out in the https://t.co/sOrnwsePlz hacking challenge at #ndcoslo.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Me and @Purpsta_YT currently leading the Azure Sentiment recognition contest in the "Fear" category at #ndcoslo.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Baz Peters from #GitHub - we're talking about the Gold Octocat medallion they're making for me.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Yo, it's me and Prahlad presenting at #ndcoslo in Norway.

Param Wulf on Twitter

Lightning talks with @Purpsta_YT and @sitapati @magikcraftio. Who's the magician in the cape? #ndcoslo

Dublin, Ireland

Josh Wulf on Twitter

When you're a legendary JavaScript rapper. With my posse at the Cat and Cage in Dublin, Ireland.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

@CoderDojoBNE ninja Prahlad is representing Australia at @coolestprojects on Saturday in Dublin. Thanks to the AU embassy for the flag!

Param Wulf on Twitter

Magikcraft at the coolest projects #coolestprojects @magikcraftio @sitapati @Digitalbrisbane

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Massive shoutout to @CoderDojoBNE and MCT1 during the @coolestprojects opening ceremony by Founder Bill Liao https://t.co/v0QDYQjafS

Josh Wulf on Twitter

With @CoderDojo Founder Bill, and @coolestprojects Founder Ben in Dublin, Ireland today.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

159 ninjas, 17 countries represented at @coolestprojects in Dublin, Ireland today.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

A sea of ninjas at @coolestprojects - over 1000.

Richard Andrews 🇦🇺 on Twitter

Brilliant to meet #CoderDojo ninja Prahlad & Aussies at @coolestprojects this morning & talk about MCT1 project @CoderDojoBNE @magikcraftio

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Prahlad in Dublin, Ireland with Australian Ambassador Richard Andrews at @coolestprojects, on his 15th birthday! 🎉

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Prahlad presenting at the Australian Embassy in Dublin, Ireland.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Prāhlād gets a birthday gift from Australia's ambassador to Ireland, Richard Andrews. Sydney in Lego!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Thanks to the friendly folks at @AusEmbIre for hosting us this morning - and for the Aussie flag!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Current location - using our Google for Entrepreneurs passport via @Fishburners at @dogpatchlabs in Dublin, Ireland.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Prāhlād with CoderDojo content lead Phil Harney at Dogpatch Labs in Dublin, Ireland - talking CoderDojo content and Raspberry Pi.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Yo, #Magikcraft in the STEAM hall. Starting in two minutes y pico. @coolestprojects

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Mood today.

Denmark

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Dublin to Denmark - catching a flight to Copenhagen for our meeting with the folks at @novonordisk #excited!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Peak fidget spinner

Josh Wulf on Twitter

HUSTLE in COPENHAGEN - the title and cover picture for my new live album. Recording it RIGHT NOW!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

The @novonordisk building - from above in #Minecraft, from below IRL.

Param Wulf on Twitter

Visiting Novo Nordisk after I built the world...is an epic adventure!

Josh Wulf on Twitter

So this is happening - we're at @NovoNordisk headquarters in Bagsvaerd. I've killed a lot of zombies in that building in #Minecraft 🤣

Josh Wulf on Twitter

With @BenedikteL at the @novonordisk headquarters in Bagsværd, Denmark.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Oh nothing, just chillaxing with the CEO of NovoNordisk in a castle.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Thank you to all @novonordisk staff worldwide, past and present, for what you do for children and families with Type 1 Diabetes. ❤️🙌🥇

Josh Wulf on Twitter

@paramsatya stops to smell the flowers in Nordhavn.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

At the Australian embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Param flies the Australian flag in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Sweden

Josh Wulf on Twitter

We weren't inspected at the Danmark|Sverige border; but the Danish Police told us we could go all the way to Oslo, Norge with this.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Be epic.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

One missed flight, 19 phone calls, four hours of train rides later, we found my computer and our passports in south-west Sweden.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

This train is stopping at Norrköping. It can't go any further. It's already overcrowded with people from other trains....

And back home again…

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Listen to an epic soundtrack and live a life worthy of it.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Norwegian developer rock at #ndcoslo https://t.co/As7L0Y54hB

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Oh nothing, just another fan of the Legendary Josh Wulf grabbing a selfie with me in Europe.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Param in Bagsværd, Denmark.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Prahlad in Dublin, post-CoderDojo Coolest Projects. 15 years old today. Also: Everything looks better when it's filtered and cropped.

Josh Wulf on Twitter

Girls are better at coding than boys https://t.co/jLGXJUK3xQ #Australia #Girls #Distinct #School #Andrea #want

At www.magikcraft.io, we create the next generation of software developers while we set world records. Every kid is the best in the world at something, and we create proof of that.

Magikcraft in Europe — 140 characters (or less) at a time. was originally published in Magikcraft on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Norwegian kids discovered Tim Smith’s Magikcraft spells on GitHub. You won’t believe what happened next….

Last night with Lær Kidsa Koding, NDC Oslo, and thirty Norwegian kids, Magikcraft set a new world record in Oslo, Norway — “the most Minecraft Zombies killed by fireballs in a 10-minute period”.

While we were doing that we showed the kids how to find Magikcraft spells on GitHub. Some kids found spells written by Tim Smith — a Brisbane developer who has written some pretty cool spells for Magikcraft, including one called “Anvil Rain”. Nek minnit…

Norwegian kids discovered Tim Smith’s Magikcraft spells on GitHub. was originally published in Magikcraft on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

For media images, visit http://bit.ly/2taIeNu

For further information, contact Josh Wulf +61431929675, josh@magikcraft.io

Oslo children aged 8 to 14 are to set a new world killing Zombies in Minecraft while they learn to code.

This Tuesday 13 June, forty children will gather at Oslo Spektrum to learn to code in JavaScript, play Minecraft, and kill thousands of Zombies with fireballs as they set a new world record.

The event is being organised by NDC Conferences, who organise software developer conferences in Oslo, London, and Sydney; Laer Kidsa Koding, an organisation that teaches kids across Norway to program; and Magikcraft, a company from Brisbane, Australia that teaches kids to code in Minecraft while they set world records.

This partnership between Norway and Australia started in Sydney in August 2016 when Josh Wulf — founder of Magikcraft — and his 14-year-old son Prahlad Wulf held a Magikcraft event at NDC Sydney.

The event was so popular and successful that NDC organiser Jakob Bradford invited the pair to Norway for the 2017 NDC Oslo conference, to run an event for Norwegian kids and to speak. 14-year-old Prahlad Wulf will be the youngest of 170 speakers at the conference for software developers. After NDC Oslo he is going on to speak at CoderDojo’s Coolest Project Awards in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday 17 June — his 15th birthday.

Magikcraft set a world record with Australian children at Microsoft Ignite in February of this year. Says Josh Wulf: “As well as teaching them to code — an essential skill for the future — in a fun way, we want every child to know they can be a world-record holder; to know there is something they can be ‘the best in the world’ at.”

“We don’t break world records — we set them. Breaking a world record means taking it away from other children, so we set new world records. In Australia the kids set a record for killing Zombies with lightning. In Oslo the kids will do it with fireballs.”

In Magikcraft, kids learn to code through the metaphor of magic: a power that allows ordinary people to do impossible things by saying special words.

Magikcraft started because Wulf wanted his own son to learn to code:

“I learned to code when I was ten years old. I wanted to recreate the experience of turning on my Atari computer and being blown away that I made words appear on the TV. You can’t just have “Hello World” appear on a screen in 2017 and have the same effect for kids who have grown up with iPads and the App Store. It takes something more to create that immediate dramatic effect that has them discover the power of code through joyful play — and that’s what Magikcraft does.”

For more information contact Josh Wulf on 0431929675 or josh@magikcraft.io.

Further information:

• https://www.magikcraft.io
• http://ndcoslo.com/page/ndc-code-club/
• http://ndcconferences.com/about/
• https://kidsakoder.no/2017/04/26/pa-ndc-code-club-2017/

Norwegian Children to Set World Record Killing Zombies, Learning to Code was originally published in Magikcraft on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.