This innovative practice full paper presents an inter-disciplinary Project-Based Learning (IPBL) approach that relies on a challenge as a key part of the learning process. A project is proposed to the students from the perspective of creating a direct association between learning and doing. In this paper, we present a variation of PBL adding the interdisciplinary factor: we united students from different areas (digital games and music production) under the common objective of producing a complete sounded digital game. An additional difficulty was overcome since all classes took place remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. To accomplish this challenge, a remote structure of classes was created to facilitate interaction between students as much as possible. During one semester, 2 groups of undergraduates from these two areas studied different modules organized in parallel under the general objective of an integrative project. The integrated project spanned 17 weeks, with classes structured to accommodate the evolving needs of project development. Initially, the first three weeks operated independently, allowing for focused exploration within each module. Subsequently, collaborative efforts were emphasized during weeks 4, 6, 9, 10, 12, and 15, fostering synergy and collective progress across both domains. Game students were given the mission of producing a game from scratch. To music production students the mission was making a full package of sound and music to each respective game. Facing a common schedule, all students had periodic meetings to align production and deadlines. In the end 10 games were produced and sounded. Initial hypotheses were raised about what we expected because of this experience. To assist in the analysis of the results, all the students involved responded to surveys about what they experienced. The successes and the need for improvements observed are detailed in this paper based on the application of the proposed methodology during the period in question.

Within the tradition of Digital Game courses, the use and teaching of programming is seen as essential for students to work on skills and gain knowledge to develop an artifact. However, for students at a more basic level, this can be a major difficulty considering the complexity of understanding a language they have never seen before. Narrative, sound, and music are critical elements in game creation and can be used to teach programming concepts in a more intuitive and engaging way. Recently, the “Creative Experience: Text-Based Game Development” module has strengthened the use of narrative as a way of teaching programming concepts. Narrative creates contexts and stories for players, while sound provides feedback and guidance during the game. According to Kelleher (2006), the use of games to teach programming is an effective form of learning because it allows students to experiment with concepts in a fun and playful way and develops important skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and teamwork. The use of narrative, sound, and music in games can be an effective way to teach complex programming concepts clearly and engagingly. This is an article that addresses the strategies created in the digital game module “Creative Experience: Text-Based Game Development” exploring narrative, sound, and music as learning elements for programming and comparing the results within the period of two course offerings, one with only programming teaching and another with the introduction of narrative and sound as the basis for constructing this knowledge. It is hoped that these teaching strategies can contribute to the development of valuable skills in the field of education and programming.

This Innovate Practice Full Paper presents how a group of teachers at our university have used Discord as an extension of the emergency remote teaching classroom due to the challenges imposed by the pandemic, caused by the coronavirus, for educators and students worldwide. Novel teaching and learning strategies, and several online tools, have been used to teach different subjects. In this paper we present how some teachers in a game development undergraduate course from the Polytechnic School have used the Discord communication tool as an extension of our virtual classroom. This paper presents some of the teaching strategies we have used with Discord as well as the students' perception and feedback about the use of this tool.