Learning Through Game Modding

Learning Through Game Modding

MAGY SEIF EL-NASR and
BRIAN K SMITH


There has been a recent increase in the number of game environments or engines that allow users to
customize their gaming experiences by building and expanding game behavior. This article describes the
use of modifying, or modding, existing games as a means to learn computer science, mathematics, physics,
and aesthetic principles. We describe two exploratory case studies of game modding in classroom settings
to illustrate skills learned by students as a result of modding existing games. We also discuss the benefits of
learning computer sciences skills (e.g., 3D graphics/mathematics, event-based programming, software
engineering, etc.) through large design projects and how game design motivates students to acquire and
apply these skills. We describe our use of multiple game modding environments in our classes. In addition,
we describe how different engines can be used to focus students on the acquisition of particular skills and
concepts.

Categories and Subject Descriptors: k.3. Computers and Education, I.6. Simulation and Modeling, D.m.
Software.Miscellaneous
General Terms: Experimentation, Design
Additional Key Words and Phrases: Games and Education, Game Engines and Classrooms, Learning and
Design
INTRODUCTION
In the late 1990s, game developers began to separate gaming experiences (e.g., rules, behaviors, characters)
from the underlying engines that power them. These game engines allow designers to create new game
behaviors and graphics by plugging into reusable architectures that handle polygon rendering, camera
control, lighting, and so on. Many popular game engines come with scripting languages that allow users to
modify their behaviors, create new worlds for exploration, or even modify existing games into completely
new ones. This process, often referred to as modding, still requires designers to understand how to
communicate with game engines, but the overhead of creating a working product is significantly less than
working without the functionality that these engines provide.
Modding offers a number of advantages over designing games from scratch [Emmerson 2004].
The time and costs related to video game development are enormous, preventing most individuals from
being able to create games that resemble those built by corporate designers. However, modifying existing
games is within the reach of many game players, as companies provide tools to allow designers to tweak
their games. Since modding begins with popular, proven game concepts, the resulting variations are more
likely to resemble games that players/modders are accustomed to than if they had to build entire game
infrastructures on their own.
In this article, we discuss the use of game modding as a pedagogical activity. Although much of
the complexity of creating games can be eliminated by modifying existing games, there are still
opportunities for designers to learn about concepts such as 3D graphics, vector geometry, event-driven and
object-oriented programming, artificial intelligence, and computational and aesthetics principles that are
tied to game development. In fact, modders may be able to focus on learning these fundamental design
skills because game engines and their tools eliminate much of the overhead associated with building
convincing products. We begin by discussing the benefits of learning by designing computational artifacts.
We then describe the computer science skills and concepts required to mod games through two case studies
of students working with game engines in classroom settings. Specifically, we report observations of high
school and college students enrolled in game design courses at The Pennsylvania State University and
present examples of their games and the skills they acquired to create them. Through these examples, we
will suggest how different game modding environments can be used to help students develop particular
skills and concepts.

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Authors’ address: Magy Seif El-Nasr, School of Information Science and Technology, The Pennsylvania
State University; Brian K Smith, School of Information Science and Technology &
College of Education, The Pennsylvania State University; email: [magy, bsmith]@ist.psu.edu
LEARNING BY DESIGN
Modifying existing games to create new ones is a design activity that we believe may have educational
benefits. There are several reasons why design tasks are useful for learning content, skills, and strategies
[Puntambekar and Kolodner 2005]. Design activities provide meaningful, engaging contexts for students to
explore skills and concepts and understand how they can be applied in the real world. During the design
process, skills such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and revision must be used, providing opportunities
for learning content and metacognitive skills such as planning and monitoring. Students can receive
ongoing feedback from peers and experts when constructing working artifacts. Feedback also comes during
the process of construction as students work to understand how and why their designs fail, can be
optimized, and so on. Finally, real design problems have multiple solutions, allowing students to see and
evaluate alternatives. This leads to iterative activities where students incrementally build, evaluate, discuss,
and revise their constructions.
Design, and learning from the process, can occur in many domains with different types of
construction activities, but we will focus on the design and development of game software. Since the
development of the Logo language in the 1960s, educational researchers have investigated ways that
programming computers can facilitate learning about mathematics, computation, and more general
planning skills [Lehrer 1986; Papert 1980; Pea et al. 1987; Resnick and Ocko 1993)]. Seymour Papert, the
father of Logo and perhaps the strongest advocate of programming as a pedagogical pursuit, used
programming as one example of a larger theory of learning called constructionism.
Constructionism involves two activities [Papert 1980]. The first is the mental construction of
knowledge that occurs with world experiences, a view borrowed from Jean Piaget’s constructivist theories
of learning and development. The second is a more controversial belief that new knowledge can be
constructed with particular effectiveness when people engage in constructing products that are personally
meaningful. Those products could be dollhouses, Logo programs, or particle accelerators. The important
issue is that the design and implementation of products are meaningful to those creating them and that
learning becomes active and self-directed through the construction of artifacts.
Constructionist approaches to using video games in education involve students designing and
developing their own games. For instance, Harel’s work in elementary schools demonstrated children
working for prolonged periods on the creation of educational games using the Logo programming language
[Harel 1991]. Kafai [1994] noted similar engagement as students developed their own games, and she also
tracked their abilities to incrementally create, evaluate, and revise their designs over time. Hooper’s
longitudinal study of software development in schools showed students expressing notions of cultural
identity in their programs—ideas that were not likely to find expression if students had just played existing
games [Hooper 1998].
These studies used Logo as the primary programming language, but a number of programming
environments have been created to help novices learn by designing and implementing working computer
programs [Conway et al. 2000; Ingalls et al. 1997; Repenning and Ambach 1997; Resnick 1994; Smith et
al. 1994; 2000]. Toolkits like these have been used to help novices turn design ideas into working
prototypes as well as to learn computational fundamentals.
Numerous universities have adopted game design into their curricula in hopes of increasing
undergraduate enrollment in computer science programs [Angiolillo 2005]. The belief is that students’
familiarity with games can be used to motivate computer science learning and attract and retain future
generations of computer scientists. Students enrolled in experimental computer science classes that used
game design averaged higher grades than control classrooms. Additionally, 88% of the game students
continued in the major compared to 47% for the control groups [Moskal et al. 2004]. Combining
constructionist pedagogy with game design seems to help some students dig deeper into computer science
fundamentals.

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The case studies described in this article can be considered another example of using games to
teach computer science skills. Time, cost, and expertise are significant barriers to experimenting with video
game design in educational settings, but customizing existing games may reduce the difficulty and make it
possible for learners to create credible prototypes. Therefore, we have focused on understanding if and how
game modding can lead to the same types of personal learning experiences described by Papert and others,
and what types of skills can be acquired using different game engines.
MODDING IN CLASSROOMS
Since the release of Doom in the late 90s, game enthusiasts have been eager to customize their maps and
modify their gaming experience by modifying the game through programming or scripting. Lately, the
modding community has increased tremendously, with more gamers eagerly building and sharing their
customized game experiences [Hyman 2004]. For example, Will Wright reported receiving over 74,000
character and object models built by people for the Sims [Wright 2004]. Another example is Counter
Strike, a game mod built using the Half Life game engine. This mod was so popular that it is now included
with the Half Life 2 game release.
Providing engines or editors with games is becoming more popular. Many games have released
engines or tools that allow users to modify game maps, mechanics, events, and behavior. Examples include
War Craft III, Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004, Half Life, Half Life 2, and Morewind. Game modding
has also become a good source of game industry recruiting and game prototyping.
In this section we describe two classroom sessions where game modding played a major role in
helping learners work with computer science concepts. Our evaluations of these sessions are formative,
relying on our observations of students performing game design for extended periods. Although these
observations are exploratory, we believe that the descriptive results we present may be helpful to others
looking to implement game design in introductory and advanced computing curricula.

Game engines differ in their flexibility and the skills needed to use them. Discussing the
differences between all engines in the market today is beyond the scope of this article. Instead, we describe
three different engines—WarCraft III, Web Driver, and Unreal 2.5 Engine—and how they were used in our
case studies.
FIRST SETTING – GAME DESIGN WORKSHOP
Classroom Setting
Our first case study describes a class on game design and programming for high school students as part of
the Pennsylvania Governors School for Information Technology (PGSIT). Twenty high school students
interested in IT enrolled in this summer class. The course was held on three consecutive days for three
hours a day. The main aim of the course was to engage students in teams of two to build a game in three
days.
Process
Since this was a short class, we needed an easy-to-learn, rapid prototyping engine. We chose the WarCraft
III engine because it provides simple visual methods for customizing game templates and requires little or
no programming skills to create interesting designs. The game engine is composed of several editors: the
world or map editor, trigger editor, character editor, etc. The editors are implemented as visual
programming tools that allow designers or users to visually customize game behavior, including character
behavior, game map, and game play. The map editor (shown in Figure 1) is specifically used to create or
customize maps for the game. As illustrated in the figure, the editor is composed of several visual tools that
allow users to place different types of terrains, objects, and characters within the scene. Users can also
create or identify special regions for triggering specific game behaviors. The trigger editor (shown in
Figure 2) allows users to modify game behavior when a specific event or condition occurs. For example,
one can include a trigger to start a specific song once the player enters a specific region in the map. A
typical trigger consists of an event or a condition and an action. The event and condition part of the trigger
specify when the trigger will become active. When the trigger is activated, the actions specified in the

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action part of the trigger will be executed. Therefore, creating several triggers can develop a different game.
The game engine typically checks all user-specified triggers in parallel. The engine checks if the trigger
condition and event are met: if they are, the game engine will then run the trigger actions.

Fig. 1. Warcraft III’s world editor.

Fig. 2. WarCraft III’s trigger editor.
The students were asked to each find a partner and work together to develop a game concept on the first
day. On the second and third days, they developed prototypes of their game using the WarCraft III engine.
The games and ideas were critiqued during team meetings with the instructor and a graduate student with
experience in game design. These critiques occurred informally as the instructors observed student
progress.
The best way to illustrate the concepts that students learned is to look at the games they created.
For instance, one group created a football game. Transforming the original WarCraft III game from a
military strategy game to a sports scenario involved extensive modifications to the engine’s rules. The
students borrowed the team rules from the original game but developed their own graphical map and
football characters (Figure 3). They repurposed an existing item, a treasure chest icon, to be the ball.

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Fig. 3. Students created these graphical levels for their football game.
The students had to create new rules to implement scoring actions while removing those that allowed
characters to use weapons. Figure 4 shows an example rule that they created to implement a touchdown in
WarCraft III’s visual trigger editor.

Fig. 4. The scoring trigger created by the students for the football game.
WarCraft III is an ideal game engine for novice programmers. It also provides a good and quick engine to
work with, considering the short duration of the class. Although modding takes place with highly structured
visual tools, students have to develop some notions of game design and computation in order to create
working products. In this example, students were able to create a simple graphical map and characters to
create the setting for a football game. They also had to develop some understanding of production rules and
Boolean logic in order to create the game’s scoring rules. Building the scoring system also required them to
understand how WarCraft III’s rule system works. For instance, they had to be explicit about marking map
regions where events could occur, recognize if the ball is in one of these locations, and specify which
player is carrying the ball. Accomplishing these three tasks requires conceptual knowledge of unique
identifiers (variables) and their use in identifying regions and positions on the map. They also had to
understand conditional tests when comparing the position of the ball to these specific map regions.

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The football game went through three different iterations with instructors providing feedback to
enhance the students’ work. This allowed the students to develop their understandings of user interface and
game design issues. For instance, in the first iteration, the students created a map that was visually
complex, but it detracted from the goal of the game. They corrected this in their second version after
receiving tips on how to strike a balance between aesthetics and game play.
Another student team modified WarCraft III to create a Tetris-like game. This introduced more
complexity, as the students had to develop mathematical functions to rotate and translate puzzle objects.
Tetris also involves more modifications to the original WarCraft III game than the earlier football example.
The level design was simple, a large room to mimic the Tetris playing field (Figure 5). Several triggers and
functions were added to rotate and translate puzzle units depending on user inputs. Figure 6 shows one of
their functions that captures keyboard events in order to move the puzzle pieces. The figure shows several
triggers on the left. We have expanded the rotate trigger in order to show an example trigger. This trigger
in particular registers another trigger that sets rotations on keyboard events. Students were able to
successfully create these triggers through consulting instructors and web resources, including message
boards and tutorials on setting functions and triggers within the WarCraft trigger editor.


Fig. 5. The level design for the WarCraft III version of Tetris.

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Fig. 6. Functions created by students for the Tetris game.
OBSERVATIONS
Game design, like software design, often involves many iterations to get the game concept and mechanics
right. In the class, we first introduced different theories of game design, including Marc LeBlanc’s MDA
(Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics) theory [Hunicke et al. 2004]. We then discussed the game design
process. They were warned about the polishing time commitment needed. They considered this in their
plan. Our critiquing sessions extended over two days, which allowed some groups to go over 3 to 4
iterations of their designs. Through this process, we believe they learned, on a small scale, the design and
development cycle and the benefits of iterative design. We also observed that they were able to use and
apply the MDA framework. Even though we didn’t ask them to critique each other’s games, they
volunteered to do so.
Students were able to use the tools and quickly construct games in three days. They iteratively
revised their games based on critiques and were able to understand the relationships between game
mechanics and aesthetics. Since this was a group project, they also learned how to work in a group and
divide the work evenly among group members, taking skills and the different tasks into account. They also
learned several programming constructs, including threading, event-based programming, and rule-based
programming. The Tetris group went a step further, writing their own functions to compute graphical
rotations and translations.
The project encouraged them to work in groups of two. They were asked to develop a concept
design, conceptualize the tasks involved, and divide them among team members. They were asked to fit
their schedules within two, six-hour class periods. Such deadlines are unrealistic by professional game
development standards where projects often take months or years to complete. We were surprised to see
that students were able to keep their schedules and submitted their prototypes for review in the time
allotted. We were also pleased to see that the teams worked outside of class and used instant messaging and
e-mail to communicate about their progress. Although this was a small project with a very small team size,
we believe that they were able to engage in teamwork and were successful in developing a good project
plan.

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SECOND SETTING – GAME DESIGN CLASS
Classroom Setting
This second case study took place in a game design/programming class taught at The Pennsylvania State
University. It was an advanced undergraduate class where 35 students from the Department of Computer
Science and Engineering and School of Information Sciences and Technology worked together to design
and develop a game of their choice. Since these students were more familiar with programming, we were
able to introduce more complex game engines into the curriculum.
Process
The first part of the course introduced two engines: Wildtangent’s Web Driver and Unreal Tournament
2003. For their first assignment, students were asked to build a small prototype to move characters around
using the Web Driver library and C# as the programming language. For their second assignment, they were
asked to make up a simple game modification to Unreal Tournament’s DeathMatch game using Unreal Edit
(map editor) and Unreal Script (scripting language, similar to java). These assignments were designed to
help students become familiar with the engines before starting the process of creating their own games
through their final projects.
During the second half of the course, students worked in groups of five to develop a game of their
choice using any of the engines they learned in class. Note that the Web Driver is an engine that allows
students to build their own games from scratch, thus it gives them flexibility and most of the functionality
they need. On the other hand, Unreal is a game modding environment, where students implement their
games by modifying existing game types, and thus they can reuse many of the functionalities already
implemented in the Unreal games.

Web Driver Exercise. The Web Driver engine is a library composed of several classes that
students can use to add 3D objects, maneuver them in 3D space, change camera view, etc. In their first
assignment, we wanted to expose students to the main Web Driver functionality, such as animation, adding
and maneuvering objects and characters, without overwhelming them with a very complex assignment.
Therefore, we asked them to build a 3D environment with a character that receives stage directions, in the
form of button clicks, dictating how it should behave.
To complete this assignment, students need to accomplish the following:
• Build a 3D environment using the Web Driver level editor, WTStudio. This entails understanding
3D coordinates. It requires them to place walls, objects, make textures and apply them on walls
and objects, setup lights in terms of placement, angle and direction, and finally export that level
into code.
• Add a character model (provided by the teaching staff) to the 3D environment using the Web
Driver classes (specifically understand and use the WTActor class from the Web Driver Library).
• Given a destination position, figure out the forward orientation vector of the character, which
requires applying dot and cross product.
• Given a destination position and a forward vector, animate the character to move to the
destination in a natural way, which requires knowledge of threading and event based
programming.

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Fig. 7. An example Web Driver student assignment.
We use a student project to demonstrate the complexity of the assignment and the content learned as a
result. This example includes 865 lines of code written in C#, the code uses the Web Driver libraries.
Figure 7 shows two screenshots of the example assignment. The opening scene is on the left, showing the
environment created by the student with the correct textures and an aesthetically pleasing light setup. The
screenshot on the right shows the scene after executing the command asking the character to move to
“upstage left”. The camera was programmed to move with the character, locking it in the center of view at
all times (using the WTCamera class from the Web Driver Library). To get from the screenshot on the left
to the one on the right, the character was programmed to rotate towards the destination (upstage left) then
to move using a walk cycle animation. Using Web Driver classes, the student plays the walk cycle
animation and moves the character a specific distance on a time interval. Manipulation of position and
direction requires 3D math and simple vector geometry. The process of fixing the animation, distance, and
timing to appear natural requires careful synchronization, threading, and event-based programming.
The following snippet of code was used to determine turning direction and to turn the actor:
IWTVector3D tempActorPosition = actor.getPosition();
WildVector ActorPosition = new WildVector(tempActorPosition.getX(),
tempActorPosition.getY(), tempActorPosition.getZ());

IWTVector3D tempOrientation = actor.getOrientationVector();
WildVector Orientation = new WildVector(tempOrientation.getX()*-
1,tempOrientation.getY(),tempOrientation.getZ()*-1);

WildVector GoalOrientation = new WildVector(GoalLocation.X - ActorPosition.X,
GoalLocation.Y - ActorPosition.Y, GoalLocation.Z - ActorPosition.Z);

Orientation.Normalize();
GoalOrientation.Normalize();

float angle = GoalOrientation.TurnAngleXZ(Orientation);

actor.setRotation(0,1,0,angle,1);

All students wrote similar code, and only one of the 35 students was unable to complete the exercise. Many
students attempted the extra credit part of the assignment, which required handling mouse events and
adding collision detection using math and vector geometry techniques.
As we talked to students during this exercise, we noticed that many of them were unfamiliar with
Pythagorean theorem or its relevance to game programming. The theorem is important because it is used to
calculate the distance between two points in space. Since students were required to have a character move
from one point to another, they needed to calculate the distance that the character had to travel. We also
found that students had little knowledge of basic geometry and vectors. The instructor provided a lecture to
help them understand these concepts. After the lecture, students reported that they understood the content
and could display their knowledge when solving simple math equations provided in class exercises.
However, they still had difficulties moving from solving equations to applying these concepts to 3D game
programming.
Working with the Web Driver allowed them to apply and gain a better understanding of 3D
geometry and vector mathematics. In particular, they applied the Pythagorean theorem and were able to
calculate and use tangents, vector geometry (dot product), 3D transformations, and 3D rotations. These
were difficult concepts to understand. We believe that by applying them in visual 3D space, students were
able to visualize and assimilate their use and application.
In addition to learning basic math and geometry, students had to understand the use of object-
oriented programming and component-based development. Most of the students had only taken a single
object-oriented design course before this one, and they explained that they did not fully understand the
advantages of object-oriented programming. Through this exercise, they were able to apply object-oriented
concepts during the Web Driver exercise, using its libraries and component structure to successfully
animate character movements.

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Furthermore, any game development involves threading and event-based programming. In this
particular assignment, students were required to handle mouse, keyboard, and render events as well as use
threading for synchronizing character animation. Web Driver facilitates the use of event-based
programming by supplying several methods to trap events, such as keyboard, mouse, and rendering events.
Web Driver functions are then used to handle these events. This concept was hard for students to
understand. We gave them a quick tutorial using an example. Using this tutorial as a base, they were able to
understand and develop their own events and event-handling mechanisms.

Unreal Tournament Exercise. The second assignment required students to modify the game
behavior of Unreal Tournament by developing their own level and adding some Heads-Up Display (HUD)
features to the Unreal’s Deathmatch game. The assignment required students to create a level of two or
more rooms using the Unreal Edit tool. It also required them to add a radar texture using the scripting
language and display characters on the radar, depending on their position and orientation relative to the
player.
The Unreal engine, unlike the Web Driver engine, requires modders to implement their
modifications by extending functionality of existing engine classes via Class Inheritance. This particular
assignment requires that they understand (1) how to modify the code for the game using Object Oriented
Design concepts, e.g. inheritance; (2) how to get positions of all characters in the level using the game
classes; (3) how to calculate positions and orientations of different characters relative to the player; and (4)
how to map this information on the radar. They were also required to color the blips on the radar depending
on how dangerous the character is to the player. This requires that they access the internal state of each
character to calculate danger in terms of the number of people they killed, their current weapons, etc. In
addition, they were also required to indicate severe danger to the player via auditory or visual alarms. This
required them to research different methods of displaying information through audio and/or the HUD.
All 35 submitted assignments met our requirements and were fully functional. Figure 8 shows
screenshots from one of the assignments. The figures show the level design. Creating this level required
them to understand 3D architectural design, texturing, lighting setup, and character navigation, since they
had to lay out navigation points in their levels for the embedded Unreal navigation system.



Fig. 8. An Unreal Assignment created by a student.
The radar map shown in Figure 8 required students to create a radar texture and display it on the HUD
using Unreal Script. They also needed to figure out how to reference all characters in the level, get their
positions, and map their positions on the radar. This required them to understand Unreal’s class structure
and some simple math. A piece of the code from the example assignment displayed in Figure 8 is shown
below to suggest the depth of programming knowledge required to complete this task. This particular piece
shows how the student iterated through all characters within the level, drawing them on the radar based on
their distance and orientation in relation to the player. As can be seen from the code below, this involves

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