ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Learning Innovations
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1585602
Programming Competencies in University Students through Game Development
Provisionally accepted
Luis Castillo-Salvatierra1
Jesennia Cárdenas-Cobo1Claudia De La Fuente-Burdiles2
Cristian Vidal-Silva2,3*- 1State University of Milagro, Milagro, Guayas, Ecuador
- 2University of Talca, Talca, Chile
- 3University of the Americas (UDLA), Granados, Chile
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The growing importance of programming in higher education requires innovative approaches to facilitate learning. Video games have emerged as an engaging tool that enhances problem-solving skills and logical thinking. This study examines the effectiveness of Unity Visual Scripting in fostering programming competencies among university students. A project-based methodology was employed in the course "Physics for Videogames" during the third semester of the Engineering in Video Game Development and Virtual Reality program at the Universidad de Talca, Chile. Through game development, students overcame challenges associated with text-based programming. The results indicate significant improvements in students' computational thinking, motivation, and collaboration. By reducing syntactical barriers, Visual Scripting promotes an accessible learning experience that supports the transition to advanced programming concepts. These findings suggest that integrating game development into university curricula enhances digital literacy and fosters an inclusive programming education environment.
Keywords: Video Games, higher education, programming, unity, Visual scripting
Received: 28 Feb 2025; Accepted: 14 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Castillo-Salvatierra, Cárdenas-Cobo, De La Fuente-Burdiles and Vidal-Silva. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Cristian Vidal-Silva, University of the Americas (UDLA), Granados, Chile
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