PRODUS is a project at Hochschule Bielefeld, Campus Minden. Its goal is to spark early interest in computer science, programming, algorithms, and artificial intelligence among school students. PRODUS combines game-based learning environments with hands-on programming tasks, career orientation, and insights into real-world software work. Herder-Gymnasium Minden published a German-language school report on Project PRODUS in March 2026.
At the center of the project is the Dungeon: a 2D game world in which learners solve puzzles, control characters, and apply programming concepts step by step. Based on this framework, PRODUS developed three workshop formats for different levels of prior knowledge:
- Blockly Dungeon introduces programming logic through visual blocks.
- Java Dungeon bridges the gap from blocks to real Java code in Visual Studio Code.
- Advanced Dungeon offers more complex Java tasks, advanced puzzles, and AI-adjacent concepts.
Blockly Dungeon is designed for beginners. Learners control the game character through a browser-based Blockly interface. This allows them to experiment with sequences, conditions, loops, and variables without first having to deal with programming-language syntax.
Java Dungeon uses the same game idea but introduces textual programming. A Visual Studio Code extension sends Java code to the running Dungeon instance. This creates a gradual transition from visual blocks to real programming languages, including editor workflows, files, and code execution through an extension.
Advanced Dungeon is aimed at learners with prior programming experience. Participants edit
prepared Java classes directly inside the project. Puzzles involving portals, light bridges,
laser walls, switches, and game logic make it visible how code creates behavior in a game
world. The Portal mechanics and riddles are part of the advancedDungeon module.
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All variants require Java 25. Ready-to-use builds are available on the GitHub Releases page.
- Start Blockly Dungeon: Download
Blockly-web.jarfrom the latest release and start it by double-clicking it or by runningjava -jar Blockly-web.jar. The Blockly interface opens automatically. - Start Java Dungeon: Download
Blockly-desktop.jarand the VS Code extension (.vsix) from the latest release. Start the JAR, install the extension in Visual Studio Code via "Install from VSIX...", and send Java code to the game with the commandBlockly: Run Blockly-Code. - Start Advanced Dungeon: Clone the repository, open it in a Java IDE, and run it through
Gradle:
./gradlew runPortalon macOS/Linux or.\gradlew.bat runPortalon Windows.
Detailed step-by-step instructions are available in the PRODUS guide. Additional Blockly and extension documentation is available in the Blockly documentation and the extension documentation.
PRODUS stands for Programming Dungeon Adventures at School. The project runs from 12/2024 to 08/2026 and connects the university, schools, companies, and extracurricular education partners in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region. Alongside programming content, career and study orientation are an explicit part of the concept: students learn not only about code, but also about people, roles, and pathways into computer science.
It is acknowledged that parts of the materials contained in this repository have been developed as part of various publicly funded projects.
For PRODUS, the funding reference is: 12/2024 - 08/2026, EFRE-20300105, Pakt für Informatik 2.0, EFRE/JTF NRW 2021--27.
The project aims to promote interest in STEM subjects - especially computer science - among school students in the surrounding region. The primary goal is to inspire young learners to consider a future path in computer science by engaging them in hands-on, game-based learning experiences.
The project is a collaborative effort between local schools and companies in the OWL (Ostwestfalen-Lippe) region, with HSBI providing both academic leadership and operational coordination.
- Java SE Development Kit 25 LTS
- For Java Dungeon: Visual Studio Code and the Blockly Code Runner extension from the releases
- For Advanced Dungeon: Git and a Java IDE, for example IntelliJ IDEA
Currently, the path to the project files must not contain spaces, special characters, or umlauts.
The project was developed as German-language teaching and workshop material. Questions, problems, and suggestions are welcome in either German or English.
PRODUS turned the Dungeon framework into a coherent workshop series for different levels of prior knowledge. Students can start without installing a development environment, later write real Java code in Visual Studio Code, and eventually work on prepared Java classes in a full IDE.
The workshops were conducted and evaluated with 294 participants:
The evaluation includes 144 Java Dungeon participants, 115 Blockly Dungeon participants, and 35 Advanced Dungeon participants.
Across the full evaluation, 219 male, 55 female, and 20 other or unspecified participants were represented. The age clusters show the breadth of the target group, from participants younger than 10 to participants aged 19 or older.
The assets in dungeon/assets/ are a mix from free and self modified resources:
- Textures and animations:
- https://0x72.itch.io/16x16-dungeon-tileset (CC0 1.0)
- https://0x72.itch.io/dungeontileset-ii (CC0 1.0)
- Music and sound effects:
- https://alkakrab.itch.io/free-12-tracks-pixel-rpg-game-music-pack (CC0 1.0)
- https://opengameart.org/content/50-rpg-sound-effects (CC0 1.0)
- https://opengameart.org/content/hurt-death-sound-effect-for-character (CC0 1.0)
- https://opengameart.org/content/80-cc0-creture-sfx-2 (CC0 1.0)
- https://freesound.org/s/578488/ (CC0 1.0)
- Adapted and modified by @Flamtky:
- Files, except Health Potion, in
dungeon/assets/items/potion/originating from @dkirshner - Files in
dungeon/assets/dungeon/*/floor: eachfloor_damaged.pngoriginating from @dkirshner dungeon/assets/dungeon/fire/floor/floor_1.pngoriginating from @dkirshner
- Files, except Health Potion, in
Unless otherwise noted, this work by contributors is licensed under MIT.
