Inspiration
Inspired by the aesthetic of Undertale, an interactive introduction to git is brought about through a web-based game. The joys of version management has been made just a tad more accessible. As well, merge conflicts have become more prevalent... Can you get Octocat to teach you git before it goes crazy with aggressive merge conflicts!?
Our Approach
The game is based entirely in JavaScript with dependencies on jQuery. The game starts with a kind and helpful Octocat eager to teach you all about git. The Octocat becomes progressively more unstable as the user learns to deal with merge conflicts. A simple menu interface is driven by the model-viewer-controller (MVC) design paradigm. This expandable interface allows for a complex story to unfold before the user. Using jQuery to record user inputs, the game alters the Octocat's disposition to get the user familiar with git tools. This humorous approach teaches the user important developer tools while serving as a great yet unusual piece of entertainment.
What's next for Gittale
The Gittale published today is a functional framework for a completely interactive git tutorial. It's an immersive and inviting introduction that makes it easier for users to gain skills in git. Future work would expand on the story embedded into the game. Using a finite state machine approach with a MVC design, the game is easily expandable. Additional assets for the game have been created than what is shown in this demo. This JavaScript game has the potential to be a education tool that's far more effective than big blocks of text. With more time and script writing, a full title will be able to cover all facets of git repositories in a manner that's very easy to learn. While a functional framework was created as a proof-of-concept, further work would get more involved in the education of additional git commands and general entertainment capabilities of the game.
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