Learning Concurrency Concepts while Playing Games

We think that people will find it easier to learn concurrency concepts if they can play a game that challenges the player to solve puzzles using the same techniques required by a programmer to develop concurrent programs. This article presents two such games in which multiple threads of control are represented by multiple avatars that can perform actions concurrently in a game environment. The player controls the avatars by specifying a sequence of actions for each avatar to execute using a block-based visual syntax, independent of programming language. The avatars execute their actions in the game environment, showing the effect of every action.