Teaching coding through videogames

1. We might think that teaching coding is something boring and
complicated. But when you base your exercises on games then…
your students get astonished!
Introducing a new subject can be threatening for some people.
Things get worse for those students not prone to STEM matters.Then, how to make them buy
your fabulous lessons about coding? Act as an illusionist.
First of all switch your digital board and open your IDE (I’ve used Basic256). Start speaking about
video games: how long they think a game needs to be coded, types of games, etc. Let them
express themselves about the topic.
Then start to explain what Tron is: a film by Disney which gave way to several games. Let them
go on speaking about different aspects of the game while you start typing code. For sure you’ll
listen to the silence (students suddenly shut up hypnotized by what you are doing) as you go on
striking your keyboard, but break it to explain what you are doing and how (different aspects of
coding, as main loops, debugging, variables, strategies, etc).
Some tips:
1. Use the help window: they should realize they don’t need to know everything by heart. If
doubts pop up a helping window can also pop up.
2. Make some mistakes on purpose: that’ll give them a good view of what debuging and
trial­and­error
are.
3. Show some hesitation and use the expression “let’s try…”
4. Use a scaffolding approach, constructing the main algorithm, and adding new elements
around it as you continue.

2. My basic version of Tron game needs about 10 minutes top to be coded. When you execute the
final code and the students see the results they get way surprised by how easily you can make
games.

3. The coding phases go like this:
1. Create a main loop and listen to the keyboard. If ESC is pressed exit the loop.
2. Insert the code for the motorbike (a point) to go down the screen when pressing the
down arrow.
3. Do the same for the rest of the keys.
4. Move the point around, with no physical restraints.
5. Make the algorithm detect the walls left by the point, and make them “real”.
6. Let the player win when getting to the bottom right corner.
7. Add random spheres as obstacles.
The lines of code look like this:

4. For more ideas about what games to code check the following list. MVC stands for
model/view/controller, and AI for artificial intelligence. The grades have been given taking in
count: that a student has to code them, and Basic’s features.
Difficulty Text/graphic MVC Sprites Data AI
Animal,
vegetable, difficult text yes no matrix basic
Arcanoid difficult graphic yes yes matrix no
Asteroids medium graphic no yes array no
Battleship medium both no no matrix no

5. Bejeweled difficult both yes yes matrix no
Biggest card easy both no no array no
Checkers difficult both yes no matrix yes
Connect four medium both yes no matrix yes
Conversation easy text no no variable no
Dodger easy graphic no yes array no
Escape the maze easy graphic both both matrix no
Guess the number easy text no no variable basic
Hang man medium both no no array no
Land on the
moon medium graphic no yes variable no
Life's game medium graphic yes no matrix no
Marble, chips... easy text no no variable no
Master mind medium text no no array no
Math sequences medium text no no array no
Poker medium both yes no matrix medium
Pong medium graphic no yes variable no
Puzzle: match
pairs easy both yes yes matrix no
Puzzle: sliding medium both yes yes matrix no
Simon says easy both yes no array no
Snake difficult graphic yes yes matrix no
Space invaders difficult graphic no yes array no
Text adventure medium text yes no matrix no
Three in a row medium both yes no matrix medium
Tic­tac­toe
easy both yes no matrix basic
Tron easy graphic no no variable no

6. BIO
Andoni Sanz /ʌnˈdɔnɪ sʌnθ/ is a Computer Scientist working as a STEM Teacher
and IT researcher. Google Certified Educator and Moodle expert he’s
immersed in a non-stop research on technology applied to education combined
with the latest pedagogy trends, as b-learning, gamification or flipped
classes.
Actually he’s working on a project called Gamecodization: teaching coding
through video games.
For more information or to contact him:
Blog: http://andonisanz.blogspot.com
Website: http://www.andonisanz.com
Coding: http://www.gamecodization.com
Twitter: @andonisanz