Inclusive Computer Science Education Using a Ready-made Computer Game Framework

Leveraging the prevailing interest in computer games among college students, both for entertainment and as a possible career path, is a major reason for the increasing prevalence of computer game design courses in computer science curricula. Because implementing a computer game requires strong programming skills, game design courses are most often restricted to more advanced computer science students, yet real game design involves a diverse and creative team. This paper reports on a ready-made game design and experimentation framework, implemented in Java, which makes game programming more widely accessible. This framework, called Labyrinth, enables students at all programming skill levels to participate in computer game design. We describe the architecture of the framework, and discuss programming projects suitable for a wide variety of computer science Courses, from capstone to non-major.