Codeless3D: Design and Usability Evaluation of a Low-Code Tool for 3-D Game Generation

In recent years, the game industry has experienced significant growth from both a financial and a social viewpoint. Developing compelling games that rely on novel content is a challenge for 3-D firms, especially in terms of meeting the diverse expectations of end users. Game development is performed by multidisciplinary teams of professionals, in which game/level designers play a crucial role. Inevitably, they often depend on programmers for technical implementations creating bottlenecks, even for prototyping purposes. This issue has raised the need for introducing efficient low-code environments that empower individuals without programming expertise to develop 3-D games. This work introduces Codeless3D, a prototype for low-code 3-D game creation by nonprogrammers. The proposed approach and the tool aim to reduce design and development time, bridging the gap between conceptualization and production. To evaluate the usefulness of Codeless3D, in terms of usability and its vision, an evaluation study was conducted. The findings suggested that Codeless3D effectively reduces design and development time for stakeholders in the game development field. Overall, this article contributes to the emerging trend of low-code tools in the entertainment domain and offers insights for further improvements in game design and development processes.