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Agile development of multiplatform educational video games using a Domain-Specific Language

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Abstract

Educational video games are becoming an increasingly popular alternative in the academic field. However, video game development is a very complex task that requires programming skills and knowledge of multiple technologies, as well as lengthy and costly processes. This has hindered the adoption of educational video games in real settings, and therefore the global acceptance of educational games as a viable approach. In contrast, teachers with limited time and resources are a key factor for educational video game adoption. If enthusiastic teachers can be empowered to create games to engage their students, and if these games were ready to be played in a variety of devices and platforms, we could bring a new generation of low-cost games for immediate deployment in the classroom, using the students’ own devices. We aim to achieve this goal by creating a Domain-Specific Language for the development of multiplatform educational video games without requiring any programming skills and with a reduced time investment. This approach should reduce the barriers for using educational video games in the classroom and ease the way towards generalised adoption of educational video games.

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Acknowledgements

This work was performed by the ‘Ingeniería Dirigida por Modelos MDE-RG’ research group at the University of Oviedo under Contract No. MITC-11-TSI-090302-2011-11 of the research project Gade4all. The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, and Commerce under its National Plan for Scientific Research, Development and Technological Innovation.

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  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain

    Cristian González García, Edward Rolando Núñez-Valdez, B. Cristina Pelayo G-Bustelo & Juan Manuel Cueva Lovelle

  2. Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Logroño, Spain

    Pablo Moreno-Ger & Rubén González Crespo

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González García, C., Núñez-Valdez, E.R., Moreno-Ger, P. et al. Agile development of multiplatform educational video games using a Domain-Specific Language. Univ Access Inf Soc 18, 599–614 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-019-00681-y

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