The Incredible Rainbow Spitting Chicken: Teaching Traditional Programming Skills Through Games Programming

Haden, P.

Introductory programming courses must provide sound instruction in basic programming skills while still maintaining a high level of student engagement. At Otago Polytechnic we have recently introduced a second year programming course that teaches traditional core topics in the context of 'games programming'. While building a variety of computer game applications, students study algorithm design, complex data structures, recursion and class architecture. Early experiences with the course have shown it to be both effective and enjoyable. In this paper we present the rationale and structure of the course, and describe some of the course materials.

Cite as: Haden, P. (2006). The Incredible Rainbow Spitting Chicken: Teaching Traditional Programming Skills Through Games Programming. In Proc. Eighth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2006), Hobart, Australia. CRPIT, 52. Tolhurst, D. and Mann, S., Eds. ACS. 81-89.

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