Code Vanguard: A Serious Game for Learning C# Programming

A serious game designed to teach C# programming skills in an interactive and engaging manner.

Master Thesis Abstract:

As the demand for skilled software developers continues to rise, innovative approaches to programming education have become increasingly important. This thesis presents the development process of our serious game Code Vanguard, which is designed to teach the C# programming language in a unique immersive and interactive manner. The game integrates a programming environment that supports editing of real C# code to create a learning experience that closely mirrors real-world programming scenarios. Players are tasked to write code that solves programming challenges presented in the 3D game world through an in-game coding interface. Code Vanguard aims to help engage both beginner and intermediate programmers in a learning experience that involves higher-order cognitive processes described in Bloom’s taxonomy. It features a runtime C# compilation system, line-by-line execution of user written code as well as a feedback system that evaluates code based on several code quality metrics. A user study was conducted to evaluate the game's effectiveness in conveying the covered programming topics of the serious game and the effectiveness of the integrated educational tools.