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Game Development As A Pedagogical Method
Game Development As A Pedagogical Method
Abstract - Video games have been long established to be an effective educational tool to engage learners in the process of active
learning. However, few studies have been performed to investigate the outcomes of employing game development, rather than
video games per se, in the classroom. This posed a large gap in the existing body of literature of integrating the game industry into
the education sector. Thus, this study served to address this gap, and argued that game development could serve as a pedagogical
methodology much like video games for introducing related Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills such as
programming and multimedia topics, among other things. Conducted over three consecutive trimesters, this study explores game
development as an educational tool in promoting the development of related ICT literacy skills among freshmen students in
addition to the learning acquisition of the game development itself. More specifically, this exploratory-descriptive study sought to
investigate how game development fits within the realm of learning ICT topics, and which of the following do freshmen find
essential in developing their own original 2D web game. The findings show that game development, when used as a pedagogical
methodology, poses the same potential just like any other educational tool used in a learning environment. While it warrants for
more validation, the results of this study should be enough to give educational leaders and educators something to consider as to
whether integrating game development in learning ICT concepts is worth the try or not.
Keywords - Video Game, Game Development, Game Engine, ICT Literacy Skills, Information and Communications Technology
the paper will be pursued or not. For this study, ICT related
skills that were discussed and examined were limited on the list
given on Table 1. Moreover, the study was also set to explore
which of the following skills do freshmen find essential in
creating their own two-dimensional (2D) basic game as well as
their learning experiences in general during the game activity
inside the laboratory class.
TABLE I. ICT SKILLS IN RELATION TO GAME DEVELOPMENT
ICT Skills Related Game Development Concepts
Responsive web game, mobile-ready game user
App Development
interface, mobile app development.
Gameplay logic, player skills, scoreboards, game
Programming
menu selection.
Sprite sheet animation, animated characters and
Animation Figure 1. Construct2 2D Game Editor.
environments.
Game user interface, character design, game world
Visual Design
design.
Construct2 [17] is one of the powerful game creators that
Game sound cues, Background music, Preloaded allows anyone to design and build two-dimensional games
Audio Design
sound effects. which can be exported to various web languages (HTML,
Promotional game website, HTML5 game script, CSS, JavaScript) and published on the web as native apps.
Website Creation
CSS web design.
Through its inbuilt layout editor, students can develop their
Software Native app publication, multi-platform computer-
Deployment based video game. own working game prototype in no time. It was the chosen
Storage of web games in a cloud, game iteration game engine because of its powerful features that can allow
Cloud Computing
using cloud tools. freshmen students, the target sample for this study, to do
Online multiplayer game mode, LAN multiplayer game development even with limited prior skills.
Networking
game mode.
Device integration such as joystick, gamepad,
I/O Devices
controller and dual monitor.
Multimedia Locating, editing, and/or adding media files such as
Systems video, audio, and images.
Among the 239 participating respondents, 45% believed engine has a capability to compile games into different
that they could learn new concepts easily using technology, platforms and operating systems, and then to the cloud
40% affirmed that they are good at using computer to solve storage (mean = 3.5). Animation (mean = 4.02) and
various problems, 44% stated that they could learn how to programming (mean = 4.01) got a mean score close to each
write computer programs when using a technology, and only other because they go hand in hand in the game activity.
19% wanted to see the correct answer to the problem than This was what students do interchangeably on the activity
figure it out on their own. In general, the students’ attitude most of the time since game development requires game
towards the use of technology when learning new concepts logic for the gameplay and sprite animation for the game
is fairly positive which is in accordance with previous study characters. Mean score for visual design (mean = 3.91) can
[24]. Moreover, this result was already expected since the be attributed to the layout editor of the game engine which
respondents are enrolled in a technology-related program. allowed students to focus more on the aesthetics of the game
rather than how to do it. Since students were required to add
E. Students’ ICT Literacy Experiences
background music and sound cues, they were able to
Figure 6 shows the student’s experiences during the explore the audio feature of the game engine. With this, they
game activity. ICT literacy is a necessity for students not were able to quickly familiarize the graphical user interface
only in promoting learning processes and outcomes but also and on how to use it to add game audio and plot it on a
for being an active learner on academic environment and conditional structure or in a timeline convincing them to rate
lifelong learning settings [25]. Based on the figure, most of audio design as 3.89. Another requirement of the game
students agreed that they were completely able to use the set activity was to embed the game on a promotional website
of ICT skills during learning the game development. With (mean score = 3.79) using a downloaded template. With
the employment of the skills, 41% of the students approved this, they were able to learn few basic markup tags and were
that they have developed a logical thinking in developing happy to build a simple website in just a few minutes. As
game applications. During the game activity, each student part of the additional lesson, I/O devices (mean score =
was given a set of tasks for them to experience how to build 3.65) such as controller, joystick, and dual monitor were
apps from scratch. With this, 60% of the students agreed also demonstrated on how to integrate it with their final
that this activity gave them an overview of building game. Lastly, networking (mean score = 2.9) was rated the
applications. Game development was also perceived by 40% lowest among the ICT skills. Perhaps, the game was focused
of the students as an interesting way to apply IT concepts on a non-multiplayer format and students were not able to
and 38% of them became interested on future IT courses. try to play a game with multiple players in different devices.
Nevertheless, game development showed students on what
will comes next on their program and the overview of the
concepts needed in order to acquire these ICT related skills.