Exposing High School Students to Concurrent Programming Principles Using Video Game Scripting Engines

Introducing programming using an imperative language often requires a steep learning curve due to the significant emphasis and corresponding time commitment placed on a particular language’s syntax and semantics. This paper presents two separate video game scripting engines focusing on nurturing computational skills that can be explored in as little as one hour. Scripting engines run code developed by students to control four concurrent players on a team; up to four teams (four different code scripts) can play in a head-to-head competition. To achieve a quick learning curve, the scripting engine only supports a limited number of instructions to define initial player qualities, movements, and game actions. Students are faced with the computational thinking challenge of mapping their game strategies into code. Successful strategies require teams to appreciate the complexities of concurrent programming to control all game players simultaneously. We have observed that students quickly learn that writing code for all team players individually does not result in a competitive match, but requires a mixture of collaboration and parallel programming to be competitive in a short amount of time. The need for more advanced control flow semantics are also motivated, since students must rewrite similar code for performing similar routines through the game simulation. The video game scripting engines have been used in two high school outreach programs and results from these events indicate that the learning objectives were met and students were engaged in the activities the entire duration by modifying their code to be more competitive. Lessons learned from the first scripting engine (Dodgeball) that went into creating the second engine (Boomtown) are also presented.