Introducing a Videogame Project in a Mobile Software Development Academic Course

In the 2020–2021 academic year, the ‘videogame design’ topic has been introduced in the ’Mobile Software Development’ bachelor degree course. Consequently, it has been proposed to students a related project theme in addition to apps oriented towards productivity and mobile services. The ArkanApp project concerned the re-design and the introduction of specific features into an Arkanoid game clone; the other proposed apps were related to safe meeting organization, documents and project data management and a free-theme app. The exploration of data collected during the main part of the academic year related to student preferences and projects delivery, highlighted how leaving the choice about the theme, as well as the introduction of the videogame one, involved the majority of students to finish the project before the starting of the new course edition. Moreover, it also emerged that ArkanApp featured the highest female participation.