By students, for students: A production-quality multimedia library and its application to game-based teaching

Abstract

The attractive idea of using game development for teaching programming can only meet student expectations and modern software engineering requirements if it uses advanced multimedia technology, at the level of the best commercial solutions. In implementing novel pedagogical techniques, we have developed a powerful multimedia library, with major contributions from students, and used it to offer games as course projects. More than 150 games have been developed, many of very high quality, and publicly available for everyone's enjoyment. This experience combines advanced software development with student participation, strong O-O software engineering principles, and the excitement of one of the coolest areas of technology.