Let the Games Begin - Inviting Young Learners to Code

No matter whether young or old, almost everyone likes to play games. Even though digital games have the opportunity to motivate students and foster digital skills, games in an educational context are typically described as a minor matter in class. However, games can provide an environment to work intensively on and consolidate topics from the classroom. Especially if students have the task of developing a game themselves, it is necessary to work on the topic in depth while the content is learned and anchored playfully. As part of the COOL Informatics project, which had the goal of spreading digital education and programming in the educational sector, a Game Design Challenge was launched. In this challenge, pupils, and teachers from all over Austria were invited to develop their own educational games. It is planned to relaunch the Game Design Challenge in 2021 with the goal that more and more students can be introduced to the basics of Computational Thinking.