Games as a "flavor" of CS1

Abstract

Introductory programming courses have a specific set of expected outcomes. One of the most often heard complaints in such courses is that they are divorced from the reality of application. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find areas for application that all students have the background knowledge for and that are engaging and challenging. One such area is computer games and we have developed a cohesive CS1 course that provides traditional outcomes from within the context of games as an application area in both the lecture and lab components of the course. This course was piloted as a ten-week distance program for incoming computer science students with the defining features that the program carried no academic credit and offered no end grades. We discuss the overwhelming interest in this course as well as objective and suobjective student experiences. One of the most important outcomes of the summer course was that it brought students with similar interests and goals together. We discuss this and the different ways we have found to discuss computer science course topics from within a games context.