Robot ON!: A Serious Game for Improving Programming Comprehension

Abstract

A number of educational games have been created to help students programming. Many of these games focus on problem solving and the actual act of writing programs, while very few focus on programming comprehension. We introduce a serious game called Robot ON! aimed at players who have never programmed before. Unlike other serious programming games, Robot ON! focuses on comprehension rather than problem-solving challenges; players do not actually write any programs, but are instead given the task of demonstrating their knowledge and understanding of a program's behavior. Robot ON! includes tools that allow players to demonstrate understanding of variable values, data types, program statements, and control flow. We include an evaluation plan to assess Robot ON!'s playability, enjoyment, and benefits to program comprehension.