“We Can Create Our Own Games” : An analysis of programming initiation activities for young adults

While the creation of digital games using visual programming languages is a method that has been used either to transmit information or to initiate programming activities in different corners of the world, in Mozambique there are few studies that illustrate the applicability of this method. The qualitative study described in this paper aims to identify the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the activity of creating digital scratch games by Mozambican students. Learning workshops were held, with 53 Mozambican higher education students - with no prior knowledge of programming - using the scratch language to implement game narratives. Most students were able to create their games and identified the ease of creating games, even for beginners, and the scratch software programming environment, as the main strengths of this approach. Although there are several studies that illustrate that creating digital games using visual programming is a good practice for beginners in programming, the lack of studies illustrating this method in the Mozambican context makes it impossible to show its success in this local context.