Greenfoot 3.9.0 is available for download. It now runs on Java 21, and has new builds for Apple silicon (M1, M2, etc) and Raspberry Pi.

More details are available in this discussion thread.

Greenfoot 3.8.1 has now been released and is available for download. This is primarily a bug fix release to fix some packaging issues.

More details are available in the version history.

Greenfoot 3.8.0 is now available on the download page.

More information can be found in this thread.

There was an issue on macOS 13 Ventura with Greenfoot crashing on load. We’ve now released 3.7.1a on our download page which fixes this issue.

Only Mac Ventura users need upgrade, other operating systems are unaffected by this bug.

Greenfoot 3.7.1 has now been released and is available for download.

It contains several bug fixes to the Java and Stride editors. It also adds support for auto-completing the Greenfoot static methods in Java (type “Gr” and hit ctrl-space; previously it would not complete unless you had typed “Greenfoot.”).

Greenfoot 3.7.0 has now been released and is available for download. This features many improvements and bug fixes, including a rewritten Java editor.

More information is available in this discussion post.

Greenfoot 3.6.1 has now been released and is available for download. This fixes several bugs, most notably a bug where Greenfoot could lock-up while resetting and require a restart.

More details are available in this discussion post.

Greenfoot 3.6.0 has now been released and is available for download. This release moves to Java 11 and requires a 64-bit operating system.

More information on these changes is available in this discussion post.

Greenfoot 3.5.4 is now released and available for download. This fixes three notable bugs: issues with freezing on Windows (especially on load), windows appearing off-screen, and the changed-on-disk dialog showing too often.

Information on changes is also available in the version history. This release uses Oracle’s Java 8, although it may be the last release to do so before we move to OpenJDK 11 in the future.

Greenfoot 3.5.3 is now released and available for download. This fixes a couple of bugs, in particular a memory leak which could occur in scenarios with large or numerous images. During prolonged use Greenfoot could run out of memory and crash. This bug is now fixed.

More information on changes is available in the version history.

Greenfoot 3.5.2 is now released and available for download. This fixes a couple of bugs, in particular a memory leak which could occur in the Java editor. During prolonged use Greenfoot could run out of memory and crash. This bug is now fixed.

We recommend everyone to upgrade. More details are in the version history.

Greenfoot 3.5.1 is now released and available for download. This fixes various small bugs, in particular one with clicking the mouse in scenarios with worlds larger than one pixel, and a few save the world issues (including it being missing from the top menu).

We recommend everyone to upgrade. More details are in the version history.

Greenfoot with Stride – Programming after blocks (Key Stage 3)

At King’s College London, Strand, on 2 Nov, 17:00-20:00

Limited seats - RSVP

In this workshop, we will discuss how to teach concepts of traditional object-oriented programming with Greenfoot and Stride. We will introduce the tools of the environment itself, discuss the Stride language (which is quick and easy to learn), and present pedagogical considerations: How do you best teach with Greenfoot? How do you create motivation? What are good teaching examples? Teachers will go through hands-on exercises of using Greenfoot and Stride, and work with a number of programming examples that can immediately be used in a classroom.

Target Teachers: Teachers of computing courses, especially key stage 3. Some knowledge of programming (in any language) is assumed.

Stride is a language that is ideal as the next step after block programming (such as Scratch), and leads into full textual programming.

Further information about Stride

Greenfoot scenarios are now automatically converted to HTML 5 when uploaded to the greenfoot.org site - this has a number of benefits, including that you can now run Greenfoot scenarios on a smartphone!

Scenarios upload to the Greenfoot.org site are now automatically converted to run as HTML 5. This has several advantages:

• faster load times
• the Java plugin is no longer required to play scenarios online
• scenarios will now run on many smartphones and tablets
• the UserInfo (high score) functionality works again with minimal fuss

Production of a HTML 5 scenario occurs through an automated translation of the original Java scenario into Javascript. This process has some limitations, which have been previously discussed; most importantly, Swing and AWT classes cannot be used which means that scenarios using the “java.awt.Color” and “java.awt.Font” classes will not translate successfully. Greenfoot 3.1.0 introduced replacements for these in the form of “greenfoot.Color” and “greenfoot.Font”, so we recommend upgrading to Greenfoot 3.1.0 if you are still using an older version.

In the near future, we also plan to allow running HTML 5 scenarios in a “full screen” mode (which should be particularly useful for running on phones and tablets), and to allow embedding scenarios in other web pages (much as you can embed videos from Youtube, for example).

Scenarios for which translation to HTML 5 was not successful can still be played by following the link to the legacy (applet) version, which requires the Java plugin. If you have created scenarios which didn’t translate successfully to HTML 5, viewing the scenario page while logged in should show you the log generated during the translation process which may give a hint as to what caused the failure (quite often, it will be due to use of an unsupported part of the Java API).

There may be some minor teething problems, so if you notice problems with the HTML 5 version of a scenario, feel free to discuss them in the discussion forum.

Greenfoot Live is taking a summer break and will be back after the Northern Hemisphere’s new academic year.

The regular Greenfoot Live sessions will stop for the summer.

Don’t forget: Recordings of the previous events are accessible at our channel.

You can also bookmark the broadcast link and set a reminder to join us for the coming sessions next term.