Image credit:
Code of Aegis
Code of Aegis, developed
by the University of Houston-Clear
Lake and Tietronix
Software, Inc., was selected as a finalist in the 2018
Serious Games Showcase and Challenge in the Business
Category.
Code of Aegis is an Educational
Serious Game that introduces a new way to engage players in learning to code
and understanding programming concepts and robotics, in the context of an adventure-based
storyline and relatable characters.
The Plot: The plot
of the game involves a character named Sidney who lives on Aegis, a planet that
was destroyed causing the inhabitants to live underground. As the story
evolves, Sidney is learning more about the ancients who built the underground
world as she works to reunite with her mother and father who were sent to the
planet’s surface. Players will solve the mystery by completing missions using
science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Gameplay: In the
game, players are immersed in the multi-tiered underground world of Aegis,
following a group of friends as they try to find a way to the surface. Since
their world was destroyed and they were forced to move underground, they must
only explore outside their safety areas through the use of robots. Through
graphic novel artwork, animated explorations, and character dialogue, players
will uncover the story of Aegis to become a member of the Aegis Robotics
League. To be a successful member, students must learn to write a narrative, build pseudocodes, create flowcharts, export code to physical robots and more.
Image credit:
Code of Aegis
By merging a graphic novel with an interactive game, players are
scaffolded through the instruction while introduced to programming concepts and
robotics programming knowledge.
The game is a multi-platform solution that is currently available for
the 6–8th grade classroom. Usability testing during development, along with
Formative and Summative testing in the classroom reinforced the learning
effectiveness.
Game Development
Background
Partnering
classroom educators with robotic and programming experts, the project was
initially funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The
development partners (Tietronix Software, Inc. and University of Houston- Clear
Lake successfully competed for and were awarded Phase I and Phase II funding.
Two field studies have been conducted with school districts locally and across
the nation. The results of the studies show significant improvement in student
skill and knowledge growth in the engineering process and basic programming.