Adaptivity in scenarios in an educational adventure game

Computer games are very popular among several age groups. In this respect, they could be exploited to render educational content more motivating and attractive. Especially, adventure games have positive effects towards students due to their novel environment. Furthermore, adaptive educational games can offer a motivating environment reinforced with a personalised learning experience. However, there are only few educational adventure games that encompass adaptive features or their adaptivity is very limited. This paper describes an educational adventure game for learning computer programming. A student modelling component based on fuzzy logic is used to create a profile for every student and provide individualized help. The game incorporates many adaptive characteristics such as providing help through agents whenever needed. However, it's main feature is the ability to extend the scenario depending on the player's weaknesses. In this way, the game aims to motivate and engage the student by providing new screens and riddles and lengthening the total necessary time to finish it. A preliminary evaluation took place during a summer school organized by University of Piraeus and its results about the game were very encouraging.