Design of a serious game to support database learning
Abstract
Introduction: Teaching databases and SQL often faces barriers related to students’ lack of motivation and difficulty in understanding conceptual and practical content. Serious games have shown promise in promoting engagement and facilitating the learning of technical content. Objective: We propose a serious game to help learn database concepts playfully and intuitively, without the need to write SQL commands directly. Steps: The following steps were carried out: literature review and analysis of existing games, definition of the scope (contents covered), game design (narrative, characters, mechanics), specification, and prototyping of minigames. Expected Results: The game is currently under development for later publication and evaluation. It is expected that it will provide a meaningful learning experience, serving as an educational resource in database courses.
Keywords:
Serious games, Game-based learning, Database, SQL
References
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Atal, R. e Sureka, A. (2015). Anukarna: A software engineering simulation game for teaching practical decision making in peer code review. In 1st International Workshop on Case Method for Computing Education (CMCE 2015), pages 63–70. CEUR-WS.org.
Baker, A., Navarro, E., e van der Hoek, A. (2003). An experimental card game for teaching software engineering. In Proceedings 16th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, 2003. (CSEE&T 2003)., pages 216–223.
Batista, A., Martins, R., e Filho, A. (2019). Sql planet - a game proposal to teach sql language. In ICERI2019 Proceedings, 12th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, pages 4372–4377. IATED.
Canale, L. e Farinetti, L. (2022). Sql murder mystery: a serious game to learn querying databases. In 2022 IEEE 46th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), pages 129–138.
CodeCombat (2025). Codecombat. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 16 abr. 2025.
CodinGame (2025). Codingame. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 16 abr. 2025.
Connolly, T. e Begg, C. (2006). A constructivist-based approach to teaching database analysis and design. Journal of Information Systems Education, 17.
de Castro, R. M., Siqueira, S. W. M., e Monteiro, S. d. S. (2020). Didática da computação na perspectiva da aprendizagem ativa. In Anais dos Workshops do IX Congresso Brasileiro de Informática na Educação, pages 31–40.
dos Santos, A. A., da Silva, A. I. B., de Souza, L. M., Pinheiro, S. L., Neto, J. F. F., da Costa, F. J., Barbosa, P. L. S., e Rolim, T. V. (2019). Data play school: interactive fiction game as a tool to help learning the database discipline. In XVIII SBGames, pages 1461–1464, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. SBC.
Ivory, J. D. (2015). A brief history of video games. In Kowert, R. e Quandt, T., editors, The Video Game Debate: Unravelling the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Digital Games, pages 1–21. Routledge, New York.
Jain, A. e Boehm, B. W. (2006). Simvbse: Developing a game for value-based software engineering. In Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), pages 103–114. IEEE Computer Society.
Laamarti, F., Eid, M., e El Saddik, A. (2014). An overview of serious games. International Journal of Computer Games Technology, 2014.
Lightbot Inc. (2025). Lightbot – a programming puzzle game. [link].
Lord, R. (2025). Lost at sql. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 19 abr. 2025.
Menezes, G. J. d., Hatherly, R. M., Oliveira, E. G. d., e de Classe, T. M. (2024). Sqland: aprendendo sql com suporte de um jogo digital educacional. RENOTE, 22(1):426–435.
Michael, D. R. e Chen, S. (2006). Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform. Cengage Learning.
Nepomuceno, J. G. e de Souza, J. (2022). Enola: Jogo sério para ensino de sql. In Anais do XXXIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Informática na Educação, pages 345–356, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Poulsen, S., Butler, L., Alawini, A., e Herman, G. L. (2020). Insights from student solutions to sql homework problems. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE ’20, page 404–410, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Prabhu, S. e Jaidka, S. (2019). Sql and pl-sql: Analysing teaching methods. In Proceedings of the 2019 Computing and Information Technology Research and Education New Zealand (CITRENZ) Conference, pages 105–109.
Prensky, M. (2001). Fun, play and games: what makes games engaging. In Digital Game-Based Learning, chapter 5, pages 5–31. McGraw Hill, New York.
Saga, E. (2025). Elevator saga. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 16 abr. 2025.
Santos, E. F. e Ribeiro, P. B. (2016). LudoSQL: Jogo de Apoio ao Aprendizado de Comandos Básicos do SQL. Caderno de Estudos Tecnológicos, 4(1).
Sawyer, B. (2007). The “serious games” landscape. Presented at the Instructional & Research Technology Symposium for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Sawyer, B. e Smith, P. (2008). Serious games taxonomy. Slides from the Serious Games Summit at the Game Developers Conference.
Schildgen, J. (2025). Sql island. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 16 abr. 2025.
Silveira, J. L., Thiry, M., e Zoucas, A. (2013). Spi city: Jogo educacional para apoiar o ensino de melhoria de processo de software. In Anais do Simpósio Brasileiro de Qualidade de Software (SBQS), pages 51–62. SBC. Acesso em: 21 abr. 2025.
Souza, M. R. A., Furtini, L., Moreira, R. T., Figueiredo, E., e Costa, H. (2017). Games for learning: Bridging game-related education methods to software engineering knowledge areas. In Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), pages 162–171. IEEE.
Susi, T., Johannesson, M., e Backlund, P. (2007). Serious games: An overview. Technical Report HIS-IKITR-07-001, University of Skövde.
Williams, A. (2017). History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction. CRC Press, London.
Wrapped Castle Limited (2025). Sql police department. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 19 abr. 2025.
Atal, R. e Sureka, A. (2015). Anukarna: A software engineering simulation game for teaching practical decision making in peer code review. In 1st International Workshop on Case Method for Computing Education (CMCE 2015), pages 63–70. CEUR-WS.org.
Baker, A., Navarro, E., e van der Hoek, A. (2003). An experimental card game for teaching software engineering. In Proceedings 16th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, 2003. (CSEE&T 2003)., pages 216–223.
Batista, A., Martins, R., e Filho, A. (2019). Sql planet - a game proposal to teach sql language. In ICERI2019 Proceedings, 12th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, pages 4372–4377. IATED.
Canale, L. e Farinetti, L. (2022). Sql murder mystery: a serious game to learn querying databases. In 2022 IEEE 46th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), pages 129–138.
CodeCombat (2025). Codecombat. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 16 abr. 2025.
CodinGame (2025). Codingame. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 16 abr. 2025.
Connolly, T. e Begg, C. (2006). A constructivist-based approach to teaching database analysis and design. Journal of Information Systems Education, 17.
de Castro, R. M., Siqueira, S. W. M., e Monteiro, S. d. S. (2020). Didática da computação na perspectiva da aprendizagem ativa. In Anais dos Workshops do IX Congresso Brasileiro de Informática na Educação, pages 31–40.
dos Santos, A. A., da Silva, A. I. B., de Souza, L. M., Pinheiro, S. L., Neto, J. F. F., da Costa, F. J., Barbosa, P. L. S., e Rolim, T. V. (2019). Data play school: interactive fiction game as a tool to help learning the database discipline. In XVIII SBGames, pages 1461–1464, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. SBC.
Ivory, J. D. (2015). A brief history of video games. In Kowert, R. e Quandt, T., editors, The Video Game Debate: Unravelling the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Digital Games, pages 1–21. Routledge, New York.
Jain, A. e Boehm, B. W. (2006). Simvbse: Developing a game for value-based software engineering. In Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), pages 103–114. IEEE Computer Society.
Laamarti, F., Eid, M., e El Saddik, A. (2014). An overview of serious games. International Journal of Computer Games Technology, 2014.
Lightbot Inc. (2025). Lightbot – a programming puzzle game. [link].
Lord, R. (2025). Lost at sql. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 19 abr. 2025.
Menezes, G. J. d., Hatherly, R. M., Oliveira, E. G. d., e de Classe, T. M. (2024). Sqland: aprendendo sql com suporte de um jogo digital educacional. RENOTE, 22(1):426–435.
Michael, D. R. e Chen, S. (2006). Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform. Cengage Learning.
Nepomuceno, J. G. e de Souza, J. (2022). Enola: Jogo sério para ensino de sql. In Anais do XXXIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Informática na Educação, pages 345–356, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Poulsen, S., Butler, L., Alawini, A., e Herman, G. L. (2020). Insights from student solutions to sql homework problems. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE ’20, page 404–410, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Prabhu, S. e Jaidka, S. (2019). Sql and pl-sql: Analysing teaching methods. In Proceedings of the 2019 Computing and Information Technology Research and Education New Zealand (CITRENZ) Conference, pages 105–109.
Prensky, M. (2001). Fun, play and games: what makes games engaging. In Digital Game-Based Learning, chapter 5, pages 5–31. McGraw Hill, New York.
Saga, E. (2025). Elevator saga. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 16 abr. 2025.
Santos, E. F. e Ribeiro, P. B. (2016). LudoSQL: Jogo de Apoio ao Aprendizado de Comandos Básicos do SQL. Caderno de Estudos Tecnológicos, 4(1).
Sawyer, B. (2007). The “serious games” landscape. Presented at the Instructional & Research Technology Symposium for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Sawyer, B. e Smith, P. (2008). Serious games taxonomy. Slides from the Serious Games Summit at the Game Developers Conference.
Schildgen, J. (2025). Sql island. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 16 abr. 2025.
Silveira, J. L., Thiry, M., e Zoucas, A. (2013). Spi city: Jogo educacional para apoiar o ensino de melhoria de processo de software. In Anais do Simpósio Brasileiro de Qualidade de Software (SBQS), pages 51–62. SBC. Acesso em: 21 abr. 2025.
Souza, M. R. A., Furtini, L., Moreira, R. T., Figueiredo, E., e Costa, H. (2017). Games for learning: Bridging game-related education methods to software engineering knowledge areas. In Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), pages 162–171. IEEE.
Susi, T., Johannesson, M., e Backlund, P. (2007). Serious games: An overview. Technical Report HIS-IKITR-07-001, University of Skövde.
Williams, A. (2017). History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction. CRC Press, London.
Wrapped Castle Limited (2025). Sql police department. Disponível em: [link]. Acesso em: 19 abr. 2025.
Published
2025-09-30
How to Cite
CAETANO, Adrieli Alexandre; LIMA, Tiago França Melo de.
Design of a serious game to support database learning. In: WORKSHOP MAGICA: GAMES IN SCHOOL AND UNDERGRADUATE COURSES - BRAZILIAN SYMPOSIUM ON COMPUTER GAMES AND DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT (SBGAMES), 14. , 2025, Salvador/BA.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
.
p. 389-395.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbgames_estendido.2025.14671.
