KCSB: A Game Construction Framework for Kids Coding in Taiwan

Abstract

In this research, we proposed a game construction framework for designing games to teach young children programming in Taiwan. We focused on kids around 6-7 years old. For kids at such ages, solutions such as LEGO or Scratch may not be acceptable (considering that in Taiwan there is no official curriculum for teaching programming or computational thinking for kids at such ages). Although the blueprint setup a goal of information education for elementary schools, no real time slot is allocated in the current curriculum of elementary schools. The fact shows that teaching programming for young kids in Taiwan is difficult with existing tools/products. In this research, we proposed KCSB, a game construction framework which includes a set of runtime objects, a gd file parser, and a game creator. The framework is based on the Godot game engine. Designers can use the proposed framework with the Godot game engine to develop games that are suitable for teaching programming concepts for young children. At the current stage, the framework supports these progamming concepts: problem solving, algorithm evaluation, function (reusable component) definition, and loop. In the manuscript, an example demonstrating the use of the framework is also included.