Teaching introductory programming with popular board games

Abstract

Games assignments are increasingly popular in computer science education. This paper advocates and analyzes the inclusion of board, card, and dice games as programming assignments in introductory programming courses (CS1/2). The simple interface and strategy-based play of these types of games complement the immersive multimedia and agility-based play of video games. The implementation of board, card, and dice games typically demands less background knowledge from the instructor and offers fewer opportunities for extraneous work by the students. The paper lists 32 specific games that are suitable for teaching the major topics in CS1/2 and discusses the implementation of some of these games and their successful use as programming projects.