May’s Journey is a 3D puzzle game in which players solve an environmental maze by using the game’s pseudo code to manipulate the game objects. The game is designed to teach the basics of programming, focusing on logic and object oriented abstractions, while asking learners to type simple instructions in the game’s programming language. In a fictional programmed game world that lost its balance, the player is asked to help, May, the protagonist who is attempting to solve the mystery behind the broken world in order to fix it.
Jemmali, C., Ithier C., Cooper S., & El-Nasr, M. S. (2020, October). Grammar Based Modular Level Generator for a Programming Puzzle Game. (To appear) In AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE) Workshop on Experimental AI in Games
Jemmali, C., Kleinman, E., Bunian, S., Almeda, M. V., Rowe, E., & El-Nasr, M. S. (2020, March). MAADS: Mixed-Methods Approach for the Analysis of Debugging Sequences of Beginner Programmers. In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education.
Jemmali, C., Kleinman, E., Bunian, S., Almeda, M. V., Rowe, E., & El-Nasr, M. S. (2019, August). Using game design mechanics as metaphors to enhance learning of introductory programming concepts. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (p. 65). ACM.
Jemmali, C., Bunian, S., Mambretti, A., & El-Nasr, M. S. (2018, August). Educational game design: an empirical study of the effects of narrative. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (p. 34). ACM.