JavaStrike: a Java programming engine embedded in virtual worlds

In this paper, we describe JavaStrike1. JavaStrike is a Java development and execution environment that was developed from scratch inside Unity. The engine currently supports classes, functions, inheritance, polymorphism, interfaces, key-value stores, and much more. JavaStrike allows code to be displayed, executed, and debugged in the virtual world. We then create a third-person shooter game called CodeBreakers, which leverages the JavaStrike engine. CodeBreakers covers basic programming concepts such as variable types, intermediate programming concepts such as stacks, queues, and hashmaps, and advanced programming concepts such as inheritance, interfaces, and method overriding. JavaStrike is a first step towards general purpose programming engines embedded in virtual worlds.

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