Human Resource Machine is a puzzle game in which you play an employee who has to complete tasks using a few possible actions. The tasks are mathematical-informational problems. The player gives the instructions in the form of typical programming commands, which are processed by the employee in the chosen order. As the level progresses (years of work in the game), both the number of available commands and the complexity of the tasks increase. The focus of the game is clearly on the chains of command, which are presented clearly and comprehensibly and can be intuitively changed and adjusted via drag and drop. Each level offers additional challenges in which the aim is to create a chain of command that is as efficient as possible or consists of as few commands as possible.

The research project aims to investigate to what extent games can contribute to facilitating the learning of programming languages. In the digital age, mastering information and communication systems is as much a cultural skill as reading or writing (Lehrplan Informatik RLP: 5). The English game commands are based on real programming languages and the higher-level game levels themselves are tasks for algorithmic problem solving. Developing a basic understanding of the latter is the goal of computer science lessons in schools (Lehrplan Informatik RLP: 19), which is why Human Resource Machine is also to be tested with regard to its suitability in school lessons. The test persons should learn the basics of programming syntax in a playful way and then solve given tasks in a programming environment. Their success will be compared with a control group that has neither programming experience nor played the game. The focus of the research is therefore on the acquisition of computer science knowledge and transferability for learning programming languages.

Curriculum Computer Science Secondary Level 1: Elective Subject and Compulsory Elective Subject, retrieved from https://static.bildung-rp.de/lehrplaene/gymnasium/Informatik_LP-SekI.pdf (26.03.2020)