An educational project for students by team Pixel 8
Pixel Arcade is a 2D interactive game built with Unity with the purpose of teaching binary to students ranging from middle school to college. Unity uses C# for programming games in 3D, 2D, or even AR and VR. Pixel Arcade has two games that were used for teaching and one extra game that was more creative and fun that students could play after they learned the basics. The project provides students with the opportunity to develop an interest in the technology field through engaging with educational games. According to the surveys, games were found to be an effective method of teaching technology concepts such as binary.
Four workshops were conducted. Two workshops were online while the other two were in-person. The workshops allowed students to play the different games while testing their knowledge of binary. A short presentation was given before the students played which included: introducing the group and TAP, teaching students what binary is and how to convert from decimal to binary and vice versa. Afterward, participants got the chance to play the game and enforce what they just learned. There were tips and tricks provided in each game to help further enhance the concepts.
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Difficulty Level: Beginner
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Target Audience: Middle School - College
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Duration of Workshop: 1 hour
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Needed Materials: Pencil, Paper, Calculator, Computer with internet access
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Learning Outcomes: The primary goal of this project is to teach participants what binary is, what it is used for, and how to convert from binary to decimal and from decimal to binary.
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Our Main Technology : Unity with C#
Technology Ambassador Program (TAP) is a project-based class that provides a collaborative environment for students to work with their classmates on a semester-long project using technologies of their choice. TAP strives to increase participation in IT through numerous outreach activities and workshops that are designed to showcase the creative and fun side of technology.
Pixel.Arcade.720p.mp4
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Seohyeon Kim
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Shianne Lesure
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Celeste Echols
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Zuberi Thompson
- Dr. Cengiz Gunay
- Dr. Cindy Robertson
Pixel Arcade is a collection of interactive 2D games that will instruct students about the basics of binary. It was built using Unity and C#. Binary is the basis of how computers, photo editing, RGB, audio, and many other technologies work, which is why we wanted to get students familiar with it early on. Participants will play a tutorial and then 3 mini-games.
- The 1st level will go over a base power of 2
- The 2nd level will go over 4-bit
- The 3rd level will go over 8-bit.
- CREATE Symposium - Lesure, S., Thompson, Z., Echols, C., Kim, S., Gunay, G., Robertson, C. (2024, November 14) Comparison of the Effectiveness of Two Games at Teaching Binary to Students.CREATE Symposium, Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA.
- CCSC - Poster "Comparison of the Effectiveness of Two Games at Teaching Binary to Students" by Lesure, S., Thompson, Z., Echols, C., Kim, S. presented at the workshop by Anca Doloc-Mihu, Cindy Robertson and Cengiz Gunay titled “Tips and Tricks for Developing Successful Technology Projects for Introduction to Programming and Outreach” at the 38th Annual CCSC: Southeastern Conference at Furman University on Nov 1-2, 2024.
- TAP Expo: October 8, 2024, Georgia Gwinnett College: to promote the IT field and encourage college students to sign up for TAP.
- Class Workshops: October 22-25, 2024, Georgia Gwinnett College: to promote the IT field to non-IT students.
- Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC): November 1-2, 2024, Furman University: to promote tips for developing a successful project to introduction to programming and outreach.
- GGC CREATE Symposium: November 14, 2024, Georgia Gwinnett College: to promote the IT field to non-IT students.
- Super Saturday Series(S3): November 16, 2024, Georgia Gwinnett College: to promote an IT and STEM career to middle school students.
The project is built with Unity as the main technology. Unity is a popular cross-platform game engine used for developing 2D, 3D, AR, VR, and simulation-based projects. This technology was used to build an interactive 2D game that instruct participants about the basics of binary conversions and decimal conversions. The game was posted online on itch.io so participants could play straight from the web which allows for easier access to the game for both our in-person and online participants.
Unity is a powerful game engine that makes it easy for developers to get a game up and running very quickly and smoothly. One of our team members already had prior knowledge of unity which made it a great option. C#, which is the programming language that unity uses, is also similar to Java which is taught at GGC. We originally were going to make the game 3D which is another reason why we chose Unity. But ultimately, unity had more resources available for people learning how to use the game engine such as assets, videos, and documentation.-
Go to the Pixel Arcade Website
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Read the description under the game to understand the details.
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When you're ready to play, click the "Run game" button.
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Once the game loads, hit the full screen icon at the bottom right corner of the game view for the best experience.
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Start by playing the assigned game.
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If you finish early, feel free to explore and play the RGB paint game.
Pixel8_Demo.mp4
Pixel8_Instalation.mp4
Instructions for playing each game are provided within the game itself by utilizing the help buttons~!
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Tutorial: There are three question types that are shown within the tutorial that mimic questions that will be asked in the games. Attempt to answer them! If a user gets stuck, press the help button and it will provide guidance. If a user ever gets a question wrong, a pop-up will appear that displays a hint for the user. Multiple hints are provided for people who need extra guidance! Once all three questions are answered correctly, click the exit button to enter the main menu!
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Binary Maze: There are three seperate levels for this game. The objective is to answer all the questions for each level while staying under 12 minutes for each level.
- 1st level: Users must go through the maze to find and answer all 10 questions on the base power of 2 questions. There is a minimap that can be toggled. There is also a help button that pauses the in game timer and provides further guidance. A level complete screen will pop up when users have correctly answered all questions and it will display the time it took to answer the questions on that level.
- 2nd level: Users must go through the maze to find and answer all 10 questions on binary conversion and decimal conversion using 4-bits. There is a minimap that can be toggeled. There is also a help button that pauses the in game timer and provides further guidance. A level complete screen will pop up when users have correctly answered all questions and it will display the time it took to answer the questions on that level.
- 3rd level: Users must go through the maze to find and answer all 10 questions on binary conversion and decimal conversion using 8-bits. There is a minimap that can be toggled. There is also a help button that pauses the in-game timer and provides further guidance. A level complete screen will pop up when users have correctly answered all questions and it will display the time it took to answer the questions on that level.
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Planet Binary: Users are competing against an NPC(non-playable character), to answer all the questions and make it to the end of the board game. The questions include conceptual binary questions, conversions from binary to decimal and from decimal to binary using 4-bits and 8-bits, and lastly the base power of 2 questions. Users will roll the dice to determine how many spaces they can move if they get the answer correct. Then they can answer the question and see if they are allowed to move. The game ends when either the player or the NPC answers all the questions and reaches the end.
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RGB Paint: This game is an explorative, creative game that allows users to visually see how binary changes RGB colors.