eFish'nSea: Unity Game Set for Learning Software Performance Issues Root Causes and Resolutions

Prior research has revealed eight recurring types of software performance issues, their root causes, and resolutions. People who do not have a strong programming background may benefit from learning about these concepts to form “performance-aware” thinking in general problem-solving and also prepare them for future studies in related fields. This paper intends to share a set of eight Unity games, named eFish 'nSea, with the community to generate broader impacts. Each game maps to one of the eight performance issue types, conveying the technical concepts through fun and easy-to-capture game mechanisms, and providing feedback to players regarding how “efficient” they played the games. The authors have conducted stress testing and delivered several practical sessions of the games, showing great promise in the indicated intention.