CUSTOMIZABLE 3D VIDEO GAMES AS EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE

CUSTOMIZABLE 3D VIDEO GAMES AS EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE Boyan Bontchev Dep. of Software Technologies, Fac. of Mathematics and Informatics Sofia University, J. Bourchier Blv. 5, Sofia 1164, Bulgaria (currently with Brainstorm Multimedia, Maestro Gozalbo St. 23, 46005 Valencia, Spain) Abstract In last two decades, educational video games have been proven as a modern platform able to enhance substantially traditional e-learning in K12 and higher education. Many recent studies demonstrate using such video games tends to be effective in helping students to obtain new knowledge and to develop useful practical skills; however, lacking free tools and platforms for creation and customization of educational games hampers their mass usage. The paper presents an open software platform for easy creation and flexible customization of video games for teaching students in any subject based on 3D mazes and embedded mini-games for assessment or fostering visual skills and creativity. Teachers can construct easily customizable mazes in their educational domain as a non-restricted hierarchical graph allowing non-linear student gameplay and, next, customize maze nodes using a property editor by shaping each node as they like and by adding multimedia content to it. Playing such maze games, students can learn new ideas, concepts and theories while exploring the customized 3D maze at each hierarchy level for finding the final maze node which may contain some special gift for them. As well, they can play several embedded mini-games for developing fine-motor brain skills, visual and spatial thinking, context-based reasoning and entrepreneurial creativity. The reported results of first field trial are very promising in terms of high appreciation by master students of the created 3D maze video games. Keywords: video games, game-based learning, maze, customizable. 1 INTRODUCTION Nowadays, game industry products serve for much more than pure entertainment. Different game genres are highly used in various areas such as technology enhanced learning and social therapy. Games are successfully used as teaching tools [1], as learning environment to facilitate reintegration into society of marginalized youth and young people [2], as tools as rehabilitation platforms for various types of patients [3], and as e-inclusion solutions to improve cognitive and social activities of elderly people as well as for tele-rehabilitation and preventive gaming [4]. They are reported many approaches of game-based learning (GBL), studies proving its effectiveness [5] and software platforms for creation of educational games [6]. As stated in [7], games test not only current knowledge and skills, but also preparation for future learning and also measure skills like collaboration, innovation, production, and design by tracking many different kinds of information about a student. The present research is focused on innovative ways of applying game-based learning in higher education. Although many ambition projects in the area of serious games were successfully tested in last two decades [5, 8], educational games for higher education are still not a popular mean for teaching. Most important, there are no free and customizable software platforms for easy creation of attractive video games by non-it specialists. Simple drill-and-practice computer games oriented to curricular goals of the traditional classroom appear not to be a universal tool for K12 and higher education [9]. Obviously, this hampers massive use of such games for educational purposes. At the same time, tools for creation of educational games should be available for domain specialists, as far as they know better urgent needs of modern education and training. Thus, the research question was stated as Is it possible to find new opportunities for practical and massive exploitation of the serious video games for higher education, by offering teachers and students free tools/platforms for customizable video game creation by non-software domain specialists?. Therefore, the main research goal was focussed on designing and developing such a tool and, next, on studying ways of its efficient practical use for education in applied disciplines as that one of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship education was selected intentionally for the first field trial of constructed customizable 3D video game platform, due to the increasing significance of teaching

entrepreneurship as a key factor for economic growth and social progress [10]. Revelation of game platform s potential for creating more exciting, interesting and immersive games will have a great impact on both the public and private sectors. 2 BACKGROUND 2.1 Serious games for education Serious games (SG) are defined as tools that add entertainment to teaching and training and have proven impact on sustainable development [11]. They integrate decision activities into the game play, usually in a three dimensional format. One of the most intriguing challenges of SG design is how the player can make meaningful choices in a serious context. Though there exists a great diversity of types of players in serious gaming, players cannot make many meaningful choices according their skill levels, game styles, cognitive abilities and improvement of performance [12]. SG are regarded as an alternative to entertainment games, although the last have been shown to support development of skills such as spatial skills, strategic skills and, learning and recollection capabilities, as well as attention skills [13]. 2.2 Game-based learning in entrepreneurship education According to the Serious Games Initiative launched in 2002, SG are appropriate tool for treating management and leadership challenges and are widely used in education, training, health, army and public sector. In recent years, SG s are proposed as an efficient tool for entrepreneurship education filling the gaps among education, research and innovation. The esg (entrepreneurship through Serious Games) project 1 aims at stimulating innovative and entrepreneurial mindsets of students at University via video games. ENTRExplorer (Serious Game for Immersive Entrepreneurs) is another European project focused at entrepreneurial motivation and risk taking as important factors accelerating the speed of economic development [14]. Video games have been used to support entrepreneurial e-learning in conditions of uncertainty [10]. However, the potential of SG as a mean for fostering central dimensions of entrepreneurship such as innovation, risk-taking and pro-activeness is yet to be revealed [15]. 3 RESEARCH METHODS The described study uses a detailed version of the research methodology approach based on the Shaw methodology for advanced research of software architectures and applications [16]. This methodology was combined with the iterative and agile approach defined by Kirjavainen [17] especially for generation of game concept and game development. Kirjavainen has analyzed four computer game software projects and has formulated a multi-disciplinary prescriptive process model of development of game-based environment, using an iterative and incremental approach and agile techniques. Thus, the research and development work passed much iteration from sample trials of 2D and 3D video mini-games to a software platform for creation and customization of 3D maze video games. 3.1 3D maze video games for education Many of recent GBL approaches in higher and lower education rely on using mazes for educational purposes [18]. Mazes are broadly used in entertainment games and can be represented by graphs, therefore are very suitable for non-linear gameplay, where the player has several options to proceed. This makes mazes very attractive to be used in educational games. There exist simple tools for maze creation such as Quandary 2, which makes possible creation of web-based 2D action mazes or other types of interactive case-study. Usually, given state (dedicated to information about a concept or situation) is presented to the player, with several possible choices (actions) to proceed within the maze (course). After selection of an option, player moves to the resulting state of the transition graph and explores its information and set of options. 1 http://www.esg-project.eu/ 2 http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary.php

Thus, mazes (combined with quizzes and other games) can be used as universal tool for didactic GBL - the player navigates through a branching tree designed by the educator for given domain and chooses on his/her own how to move within the story. For using them in mass for education, teachers should be able to construct hierarchical acyclic mazes and mazes with cycles in any domain, suitable for non-linear gameplay and, next, to customize rooms using the property editor. Moreover, to utilize the full power of modern computer games, mazes should be three-dimensional and player have to navigate freely there as in contemporary video games. Fig. 1 presents a sample customizable 3D maze. Its creator (a domain specialist) can update the transition graph and customize its states and transition s conditions. For example, he/she can set textual and graphic content for each room as far as changing each look-end-feel. For this purpose, domain specialists need a software tool for easy construction and customization of mazes. Fig. 1. A sample customizable 3D maze. 3.2 A tool for customizable 3D maze video games for education The constructed software tool serves for easy creation and customization of 3D video mazes. The tool is based on the Brainstorm estudio platform and API 3 and is intended to help game-based learning, far not only in the entrepreneurship domain. Teachers can construct 3D video mazes by using the graph editor and, next, can customize rooms for any domain through the property editor (fig. 2). The property editor sets values to pre-defined and fixed set of properties, however, for the next version will be controlled by property metadata. By video games based on customized 3D mazes students are able to learn new ideas, concepts and theories while navigating within the maze. Naturally, maze-based learning alone could be boring and therefore not efficient. This can be avoided by embedding into the maze game various mini-games such as for developing fine-motor brain skills, visual and spatial thinking and context-based reasoning. In the context of entrepreneurship education, all these will foster entrepreneurial creativity. The embedded mini-games might be mainly entertainment games or might provide additional didactic value. 3 http://www.brainstorm.es/products/estudio/

Fig. 2. Principal software architecture of the video game platform. 3.3 The Pro-Enter video game for entrepreneurship education For proving supposed viability of the software tool described over, a 3D video maze game for entrepreneurial education named Pro-Enter has been created. Textual and graphic educational content inside each maze room (fig. 4) represent effectuation theory, processes and practices [19], which gained significant popularity during last decade. Fig. 3. Initial and intermediate rooms of the Pro-Enter 3D maze. For learning while moving throughout the 3D maze, player pays by points (i.e., by virtual money). The initial sum of points decreases each time when he/she moves to another room, in order to create the notion that all the essential things in life are not free of charge, even GBL itself. After spending all the points, the player has to earn some inside the game. In order to stimulate learning and foster creativity and innovation thinking while playing for fun, several video mini-games were developed as complementary educational tools. Fig. 4 presents a screenshot of the 3D dynamic matching minigame, where the player has to solve a quiz by selecting among moving and rotating objects (texts) in 3D space. Both the linear and angular velocity of the moving objects is adjustable, thus, the dynamic difficulty in reading and selecting them can be varied. As well, for finding all the objects, the player has to explore all the space room. 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Preparation works The field trial of using the 3D maze video game platform was selected to be in the area of entrepreneurship education. For this purpose, a Pro-Enter educational game was developed and customized using the maze game platform. The customized version of the Pro-Enter 3D maze video game runs as a standalone application for Microsoft Windows platforms and provides an introduction to the effectuation, discussion over effectuation versus causation, expose of effectuation principles and its entrepreneurial process.

Fig. 4. Initial view of a sample 3D dynamic matching mini-game. Fig. 5. Game play of the zooming sequence mini-game. As a mini-game for winning points in order next to invest them in learning while traversing the maze, the dynamic 3D matching game was selected due to its didactic value. It was customized with questions and answers about basic concepts in entrepreneurship such as initial costs, overhead, net income, etc., in order to ask students to select their correct definitions and to make them understand more deeply their meaning and correct use. The field trial maze game contains another embedded mini-game for ordering moving images from the famous illustrated zoomed sequence of Istvan Banyai [20]. Students see an unordered sequence of pictures taken by zooming an initial image. They have to order the zoomed images by considering their different contexts based on coincidence of some of the details at consequent images. Unlike use of still images (traditional for game-based learning in entrepreneurship), here the unordered image move from left to right and back with different velocities. The player selects a moving image by clicking on it, which make the image to appear in bigger size. Next, the player should click on the appropriate position in the ordered sequence (below in fig. 5). If the image position within the sequence is correct, the selected image flies down and the good points increase by one. Otherwise, the image recovers its original size and continues moving, while the bad points are incremented.

Both the 3D matching and zooming mini-games may be customized for given level of the educational zoom allowing the students to learn easier and having much more fun than in traditional drill-andpractice games. 4.2 Field trial Field trial was executed using the constructed 3D video game in practical teaching University students in entrepreneurship, in the scope of the Master program of technological entrepreneurship at Sofia University. In the practical experiments, there have participated 23 students of that master program, by playing individual game sessions with time duration about 15 minutes each. Immediately after the game play, players were asked to fill in a questioner. Some of the questions were as follows: Q1: Do you think that computer games can be used as an efficient tool for technology enhanced learning at all? Q2: Do you think that 3D maze video games are very suitable for technology enhanced learning in entrepreneurship? Q3: Do you find for appropriate winning points in the game to be realized by playing other video mini-games just for fun? Q4: Do you find for appropriate winning points in the game (for spending it for learning within the maze) to be realized by playing other video mini-games with didactic purposes? Q5: Do you find the 3D matching mini-game as a good complementary educational tool? Q6: Do you think dynamic difficulty of the 3D matching mini-game has to be adapted to individual player fine-motor brain skills? Fig. 6. Extract of survey results. Fig. 6 presents students' answers using the 5 levels Likert scale as: 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=not sure, 4=agree, and 5=strongly agree. The results demonstrate very high appreciation of computer games and especially of 3D maze video games an efficient tool for technology enhanced learning and, in particular, in learning entrepreneurship, although the majority of students had no previous experience in GBL. On other side, students prefer winning points in the main game by playing other video mini-games with didactic purposes but not just for fun. The collected answers are rather encouraging in developing and using funny mini-games with didactical purposes, which need some fine-motor brain skills. At the same time, such games have to be adapted to these skills, in order to foster creativity and innovation thinking in an optimal way. 5 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK Thanks to their merits, educational video games may improve substantially traditional e-learning teaching in higher education [1]. Educational video games make e-learning more appealing and effective thanks to the different way students gain new knowledge and practical skills, without

traditional effort of studying theory and doing boring exercises. Video games offer new ways of informal and often implicit solving of various interesting problems. The reported research work was motivated by existing lack of customizable and cheap video games for teaching young people in entrepreneurship. The constructed software system for easy creation and customization of 3D video mazes based on the Brainstorm both platform and API offers a free solution for a massive GBL, and not only in the entrepreneurship domain. Teachers can construct mazes with and without cycles for non-linear storytelling in any domain and, next, customize rooms using the property editor (for the next version, it will be driven by property metadata). Thus, the platform represents a free tool for teachers to create their own mazes with customizable embedded minigames for any of the maze levels in an easy and truly declarative way, without any need of programming experience. Whereas students can learn new ideas, concepts and theories while exploring and perambulating the customized 3D maze, they might play for fun several embedded mini-games fostering fine-motor brain skills, visual and spatial thinking, context-based reasoning and entrepreneurial creativity. It is important to note that students desire to learn and have added value not only when traveling within the maze but when playing mini-games, as well. Therefore, all the embedded mini-games should provide didactic value. Next work is planned to include adaptation of video games based on an enhanced player model. It will include mainly psycho-physiological parameters of individual player using cheap, unobtrusive, accurate and robust sensor devices for measuring physiological signals such as galvanic skin response and heart rate variability. Besides educational content, all the components of the MDA model of Hunicke, LeBlanc and Zubek [21] could be adapted, namely game mechanics (rules, actions and data structures), game dynamics (run-time behavior of the mechanics) and, thus, provoked game aesthetics (emotional responses evoked in the player). Such adaptive video games usually possess greater level of immersion and lead to a better player s satisfaction and more efficient game-based learning. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/ under REA grant agreement n 624184. REFERENCES [1] McClarty, K., L., Orr, A., Frey, P.M., Dolan, R.P., Vassileva, V., McVay, A. A Literature Review of Gaming in Education, Research Report, Pearson, June 2012. [2] Ibáñez, F., Playfoot, J., Fabregat, M. E., Costa, M., Torres, S., Cretu, C. REPLAY PROJECT: Gaming Technology Platform for Social Reintegration of Marginalised Youth, Proc. of CSEDU'2010, Valencia, Spain, 7-10 April, 1, 489-495. [3] Omelina, L., Jansen, B., Bonnechère, B., Van Sint Jan, S., Cornelis, J. Serious games for physical rehabilitation: designing highly configurable and adaptable games, Proc. of 9th Int. Conf. Disability, Virtual Reality & Associated Technologies, Laval, France, 10 12 Sept. 2012, ISBN 978-0-7049-1545-9, 195-201. [4] Barelle, C., Tsirbas, Ch., Ibanez, F., Vellidou, E., Tagaris, T., Koutsouri, G., Koutsouris, D. KINOPTIM: A Tele-rehabilitation gaming Platform for Fall Prevention in the Elderly Community, Int. Journal of Health Research and Innovation, ISSN: 2051-5057, 2014, 2(1), 37-49. [5] All, A., Castellar, E. P. N., Looy, J. V. Measuring Effectiveness in Digital Game-Based Learning: A Methodological Review, Int. Journal of Serious Games, 2014, 1(2), 3-21. [6] Bontchev, B. A Framework for Educational Word Games, Int. Conf. on Intelligent Computational Systems (ICICS'2012), ISBN 978-81-922428-4-2, Dubai, 7-8 January 2012, 2012, 134-138. [7] Gee, J. P., Shaffer, D. W. Looking where the light is bad: Video games and the future of assessment, Epistemic Games Group Working Paper, No. 2010 02, University of Wisconsin- Madison, Madison, 2010.

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