First off, Thank You. ;)

: Second, I've always been interested in game design but have disliked the
: obstacle of learning programming.

: How has this been for you when it comes to making a game experience? Do you
: think this Spark project is going to be one of those surprises no one
: expects for 2014?

I feel your pain. My 3D and Video skills are nowhere near as advanced as they should be due to the learning curves. That plus I procrastinate a lot. lol

But to answer your question, MOST DEFINITELY!!
Just like with any program, there is a learning curve, and this one is no different. But it's primarily based on your ideas and how advance it is. But everything is very well labled with both text and colorful images to express each tool's purpose. The key is learning how to fit everything in the proper order. And with warning labels popping up on each kode tile that requires a additional kode, there's little quess work. And the next required tile automatically takes you to the appropriate set of possible kodes. Then it's up to you with trail and error.

Each base character has a simple brain of kodes with about 10 or so lines on one page. Each line is adjustable to your will and needs. There's also a copy and paste option if you need it. Additional pages are required if you want the character or player to perform different actions at any given time. With a player model, pages are mostly used to assign different more then one action to a single button press.

For example:
To have my player model switch camera views from 1st person to 3rd, I made a line of text telling it to switch to a specified page (by name) when I press the up button on the d-pad. On the other page, every line of code is the same (copied and pasted) because I want the same functions. The only difference in the kode being the Dpad command where I tell it to switch back to the other page. At the end of the video I start flying (down on Dpad) Same rules apply (if I want them to), but they have their own pages and I change movement to include flight.

EVERY ITEM has the option of being given a brain. Rather you want a tree to grow certain fruit (or trolls) from it's branches or just want a rock to follow the player and...well pee on your enemies. Anything is possible. Just be smart enough to watch the built-in tutorials. Wish I had when I started. I sure would have saved myself a ton of time had I known the Undo command.

The game (..er program?) is still in Beta so Xbox users don't have all of the options PC users have (yet) and there are glitches when resizing a group of attached opjects. There's also crashes. But the game autosaves every minutes so no worries of a crash. It's simply incredible what can be made. This IS NOT Halo's Forge nor FarCry's Editor modes. This is oh soooooooooooo much more. This is the dream tool for those of us that can't afford to be a part of the Independent Gamer Creators club. They are already working on figuring out how to let creators share builds and make money on their creations. The only downside is that every game piece has a certain style only found in Parject Spark (& Disney's Hercules).

I realize that was long and bit winded. But I hope ithelps to answer your questions. I plan to make a 5min video showing my player character's brain and show off the current stage of the Hunter build soon. ;)