VideoGame.PDF

Constructionism 2012, Athens, Greece RoboBuilder: A Program-to-Play Constructionist Video Game David Weintrop, dweintrop@u.northwestern.edu Learning Sciences, Northwestern University Uri Wilensky, uri@northwestern.edu Learning Sciences, Computer Science and Complex Systems, Northwestern University Abstract As the popularity of video games continues to grow, we see the medium as an increasingly important venue for giving young learners an opportunity to engage in constructionist learning. This paper introduces RoboBuilder, a blocks -based programming game that draws on constructionist design principles as well as video game norms to create a fun, challenging computational learning environment. After describing the game and discussing previous work that informed its design, we introduce two innovative features of RoboBuilder. Keywords Video games, Low-threshold Programming Environments, Visual Programming, Design Introduction The constructionist community has a rich history of creating innovative computer-based learning environments. These environments range from exploratory microworlds to story and game authoring environments to scientific modelling tools. In this paper we introduce RoboBuilder, a constructionist video game, and discuss some of the interesting features that arise when bringing constructionist design principles to the video game medium. RoboBuilder is a blocks-based programming game that seeks to introduce players to fundamental programming concepts through challenging and fun gameplay. This paper proceeds with a description of RoboBuilder and a review of prior work that inspired RoboBuilder’s design. We then present two innovative aspects of the environment before discussing the next steps in o