Ben Lang

Wilco Quest Builder - Build hands-on dev challenges that educate and inspire

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Onboard new developers and prepare them for on-call, create hands-on practice challenges for students, or just build something nice for your dev community using Wilco’s production-like simulation platform.

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On Freund
Hi everyone! Thank you, Ben, for hunting us. My team and I are excited to announce the new Wilco Quest Builder, our first big post-launch update to the Wilco platform. Starting today, anyone can build “quests”—interactive challenges that utilize Wilco’s production-like environment—and publish them. We came up with Wilco to help developers acquire and practice marketable skills, something that’s usually achieved only through work. That’s why our main UI is Snack, a (totally unique) messaging service where users get their assignments in the form of messages from co-workers and not bulleted task lists. It’s also why we use GitHub extensively, like a workplace might. The Quest Builder expands on this vision by opening up the tools we use to create quests. * Feeling like helping devs around the world by replicating a complicated issue you faced once and letting them solve it? * Looking to complement the coding lessons you’re giving? * Exploring new ways to onboard employees or prepare them for on-call? * Trying to preserve knowledge in your team by capturing lessons learned during the project in a fun and interactive format? * Just want to build something fun for a community you’re part of? The builder is open to anyone: individuals, teams, communities, and businesses. We probably haven’t even considered 99% of use cases for it. This is fine because it’s all about giving you the right tools: the SDK, the documentation, and a platform that can simulate a production system (including simulated load and third-party service integrations). We can’t wait to see what you will create!
On Freund
@gilyoffe thanks Gil!
On Freund
@megan_morreale thanks Megan!
On Freund
@irra_bogushevskaya Thanks Irra!
On Freund
@ziggiz thanks Ziggi!
On Freund
@peterbell Thanks Peter! Can't wait to see the quests you come up with.
Eynat Guez
We love Wilco, great product with amazing value
shem
@eynat_guez Thank you, highly appreciated
On Freund
@eynat_guez @shemag8 we love you too :)
Ben Lang
Congrats on the launch team Wilco!
Alon Carmel
@benln thank you!
On Freund
@benln thanks so much Ben, and thanks for hunting us!
shem
@benln thank you!
Yair Kivaiko
Looks so cool! Congrats! What languages does your SDK support?
On Freund
@kobaiko right now, we’re focusing on web development, and the SDK we’ve built reflects that. The quests are written in a language/framework-agnostic format to support future expansions to our supported stack. Currently, Wilco uses React for the frontend and Python/Node.js/Ruby on Rails for the backend.
Lazer Cohen
This solves the problem all developer training platforms suffer from — they teach you to write code, but do little to prepare you for the messiness of actual software engineering — including working on a team, with a large codebase and a complicated product. Good luck!
On Freund
@lazer_cohen thanks @lazer_cohen, we couldn't agree more :)
Or Weis
It's about time training engineers would focus on actual work, and not just plain vanilla computer science concepts. I'm excited about what Wilco would mean for future developers and their onboarding to roles and technologies. And we're excited at Permit.io to be amongst the first quest creators.
On Freund
@or_weis thanks. Really happy to have you and Permit.io on board!
shem
@or_weis thank you!
Reut Shechter
What an amazing tool! Good luck to the great Wilco team! @aloncarmel & @roypovar
Roy Povarchik
@aloncarmel @reut_turbo Thanks so much. ❤️
Matan Guttman
This is really cool. Looks like an amazing tool for coders who mentor others / create content
Roy Povarchik
@matanguttman Yes! 100% :)
On Freund
@matanguttman @roypovar thanks Matan. We agree :)
shem
@matanguttman thank you!
Yoav Vilner
Go team!
Roy Povarchik
@yoavvilner we ❤️ you and Walnut :)
Alon Carmel
@yoavvilner thank you!
shem
@yoavvilner thank you!
Shelly Eisen Livneh
Been waiting for this one! Love to see the power of gamification put in the hands of developers to drive professional progress!! Onwards and upwards!
On Freund
@wabisabi575 thanks for the kind words Shelly!
shem
@wabisabi575 thank you!
Roy Povarchik
@wabisabi575 Love seeing you here :) Great honor to get your feedback!
Moeen Mahmud
Looks amazing! Congratulations on the launch team 🚀
On Freund
@moeen_mahmud thanks so much!
Roy Povarchik
@moeen_mahmud Thanks so much! love seeing what you do with our quests so far :)
Tal Peretz
Looks great!!! good luck
On Freund
@tal_peretz Thanks!
shem
@tal_peretz thank you!
Ran Segall
Sounds cool, Is it free?
On Freund
@ransegall as long as you’re publishing your quests for anyone to use, we’ll publish and distribute them for free. If you want a private quest that can be accessed only by your company, it’s available as part of our commercial offering - Wilco for Teams. In the future we might charge for certain enterprise features but we expect that the personal use of the quest builder will remain free.
Jonathan Kahn
Awesome, do I need to be a developer to create a quest?
On Freund
@jonathan_kahn1 not really. You can absolutely create a narrative and build simple pass conditions without knowing how to code beyond understanding regular expressions. That said, to fully utilize the power of the Wilco platform, you need to know how to code.
Guy Magen
Congrats on the new feature! looks amazing.
On Freund
@guy_magen4 thanks Guy!
shem
@guy_magen4 thank you!
Or Hiltch
Amazing!
Alon Carmel
@or_hiltch1 thank you!
shem
@or_hiltch1 Thank you Or!
Abhishek Shekhawat
Congratulations on the launch 🎉
On Freund
@abhishekhawat thank you!
shem
@abhishekhawat thank you!
Ari Shein
Nicely done. It can give dev educators and courses a whole new dimension of training.
shem
@ari_shein Definitely, this is what we're trying to achieve.
On Freund
@ari_shein thanks Ari!
Advait Vaidya
Congrats on the launch! Much needed product.
On Freund
@advait_vaidya3 thank you!
shem
@advait_vaidya3 thank you!
Ehud b
Love it! congrats on the launch 🌈
On Freund
@ehudbasis thanks Ehud!
shem
@ehudbasis thank you!