research-article

Say it with systems: expanding Kodu's expressive power through gender-inclusive mechanics

Authors:

Matt MacLaurin,

Michael Mateas,

Noah Wardrip-FruinAuthors Info & Claims

FDG '11: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games

Pages 227 - 234

https://doi.org/10.1145/2159365.2159396

Published: 29 June 2011 Publication History

Abstract

While game mechanics are a primary focus in game design and game studies, they have been little discussed in the context of introductory game creation and programming environments. But game mechanics are central here as well, with different tools supporting the elements needed for some game mechanics (and genres) but not others. Research suggests many children, especially girls, want to create games based on dynamic relationships, social interactions, and storytelling. But game creation tools aimed at beginners offer no support for game mechanics that would enable such games. This inspires our work on Kodu AI Lab, a set of extensions to Kodu Game Lab, which we are iteratively developing and evaluating with middle school girls. This paper describes our first extensions (attitudes, learning, and fuzzy logic), the principles guiding them (simplicity, understandability, and expressiveness) and the results of our first evaluation. We conclude with our next planned development: extending the "say" command into a game mechanic.

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Cited By

Banzato MTosato P(2020)Gender Difference in Self-Efficacy for Computational Thinking in K-12Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies10.1007/978-3-030-10576-1_193(827-842)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10576-1_193
Banzato MTosato P(2019)Gender Difference in Self-Efficacy for Computational Thinking in K-12Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies10.1007/978-3-319-60013-0_193-1(1-16)Online publication date: 13-Apr-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60013-0_193-1
Bossavit BParsons S(2017)From start to finish: teenagers on the autism spectrum developing their own collaborative gameJournal of Enabling Technologies10.1108/JET-02-2017-000411:2(31-42)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2017
https://doi.org/10.1108/JET-02-2017-0004
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Index Terms

Say it with systems: expanding Kodu's expressive power through gender-inclusive mechanics
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language features
        Frameworks

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cover image ACM Other conferences

FDG '11: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games

June 2011

356 pages

ISBN:9781450308045

DOI:10.1145/2159365

Conference Chair:
Marc Cavazza
Teesside University, UK
,
Program Chairs:
Katherine Isbister
Polytechnic Institute of New York University
,
Charles Rich
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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SASDG: Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 29 June 2011

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Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings

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FDG'11

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SASDG

FDG'11: Foundations of Digital Games

June 29 - July 1, 2011

Bordeaux, France

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FDG '11 Paper Acceptance Rate 31 of 107 submissions, 29%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 152 of 415 submissions, 37%

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Cited By

Banzato MTosato P(2020)Gender Difference in Self-Efficacy for Computational Thinking in K-12Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies10.1007/978-3-030-10576-1_193(827-842)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10576-1_193
Banzato MTosato P(2019)Gender Difference in Self-Efficacy for Computational Thinking in K-12Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies10.1007/978-3-319-60013-0_193-1(1-16)Online publication date: 13-Apr-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60013-0_193-1
Bossavit BParsons S(2017)From start to finish: teenagers on the autism spectrum developing their own collaborative gameJournal of Enabling Technologies10.1108/JET-02-2017-000411:2(31-42)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2017
https://doi.org/10.1108/JET-02-2017-0004
Batsila MTsihouridis CTsichouridis A(2017)Introducing “Kodu” to Implement Cross Curricular Based Scenarios in English for K-12 LearnersTeaching and Learning in a Digital World10.1007/978-3-319-73210-7_67(572-581)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2017
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73210-7_67
Gee ETran K(2016)Video Game Making and ModdingHandbook of Research on the Societal Impact of Digital Media10.4018/978-1-4666-8310-5.ch010(238-267)Online publication date: 2016
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-8310-5.ch010
Fowler APirker JPollock Ide Paula BEcheveste MGómez M(2016)Understanding the benefits of game jamsProceedings of the 2016 ITiCSE Working Group Reports10.1145/3024906.3024913(119-135)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3024906.3024913
Hermans FStolee KHoepelman D(2016)Smells in block-based programming languages2016 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)10.1109/VLHCC.2016.7739666(68-72)Online publication date: Sep-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/VLHCC.2016.7739666
Marghitu DCoy S(2015)Robotics rule-based formalism to specify behaviors in a visual programming environmentProceedings of the 2015 IEEE Blocks and Beyond Workshop (Blocks and Beyond)10.1109/BLOCKS.2015.7368999(45-47)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/BLOCKS.2015.7368999
Wardrip-Fruin N(2015)We Can and Must Understand Computers NOWIntertwingled10.1007/978-3-319-16925-5_14(105-112)Online publication date: 2015
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16925-5_14
Denner JWerner LOrtiz E(2012)Computer games created by middle school girlsComputers & Education10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.00658:1(240-249)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.006

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