A Domain-Specific Modelling Language for Adventure Educational Games and Flow Theory

Designing educational games is a complex task and needs collaboration between game developers and an educator. Domain-Specific Modeling Language (DSML) offers an approach to simplify the design activities of educational games and support the involvement of both game developers and educators. This paper presents an extension of Serious Game Logic and Structure Modeling Language (GLiSMo), a DSML that designs the logical and structural views of educational adventure games. The gap in the original GLiSMo is that it did not allow an educational game to be designed according to any learning theories. Furthermore, the original GLiSMo does not cover all concepts in the adventure genre. The authors intend to extend the original GLiSMo by adding the concepts of Flow Theory and concepts of the adventure genre to make it more expressive. The extended DSML is called FA-GLiSMo. The authors evaluated the expressiveness of FA-GLiSMo using Framework for Qualitative Assessment of DSLs (FQAD). The result shows that the expressiveness of FA-GLiSMo is still ‘incomplete’ due to the lack of clarity of semantics for several domain concepts. Improvements were performed, and the finalized FA-GLiSMo now has fifteen (15) concepts of the Logic diagram, nineteen (19) concepts of the Structure diagram, and a new diagram called the Flow diagram containing five (5) concepts of the Flow Theory. The authors also demonstrate in this paper the concrete syntax of FA-GLiSMo using the Tales of Monkey Island game as a case study

Domain-specific modelling language for belief-desire-intention software agents

WOS: 000441398800008Development of software agents according to belief-desire-intention (BDI) model usually becomes challenging due to autonomy, distributedness, and openness of multi-agent systems (MAS). Hence, here, a domain-specific modelling language (DSML), called DSML4BDI, is introduced to support development of BDI agents. The syntax of the language provides the design of agent components required for the construction of the system according to the specifications of BDI architecture. The implementation of designed MAS on Jason BDI platform is also possible via model-to-text transformations built in the DSML. The comparative evaluation results showed that a significant amount of artefacts required for the exact MAS implementation can be automatically achieved by employing DSML4BDI. Moreover, time needed for developing a BDI agent system from scratch can be reduced to one-third in the case of using DSML4BDI. Finally, qualitative assessment, based on the developers' feedback, exposed how DSML4BDI facilitates development of BDI agents.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [115E591]This work is funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under grant no. 115E591

Conception, Implementation and Empirical Evaluation of a Domain-Specific Language for Multi-Agent Traffic and Transport Simulations

Conception and implementation of agent-based simulation programs is a complex task. One of the key problems is the requirement of technical agent-based software engineering expertise on the one hand and professional knowledge of the application domain on the other. Either skill set is rare and only few people possess adequate knowledge of both domains. A joint development of software engineers and domain experts is often impeded by inaccurate communication resulting from the incompatible terminologies of the technical and the application domain. This is especially problematic since every change commences a new development cycle based on inapt communication. Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are a promising approach to overcome this gap. A well-designed concrete syntax can serve as the communicational basis. An expressive meta-model in combination with a concise concrete syntax allows modelling on a more abstract level close to the application domain. Via pre-defined transformations, executable simulation software can be generated from DSL-models. DSLs thus have the potential to increase the quality of the software and at the same time accelerate the entire development process. Realisation of this potential demands a perfectly designed language which in turn renders a proper language evaluation indispensable. However, this crucial step is often neglected by DSL developers. Therefore, there is a general demand for further contributions in this area of language engineering. This thesis presents the development of a DSL for the domain of agent-based traffic simulation and vehicle-routing optimisation together with a comprehensive empirical language evaluation. It depicts how an expressive meta-model was developed and merged with a concise concrete textual syntax. It also presents transformations that allow the generation of executable software for different platforms. Most importantly, it provides empirical evidence that language users with little programming knowledge as well as modellers with advanced software development skills can benefit from the application of the DSL in terms of software quality and development time