VerilogTown

VerilogTown is a game about cars, crashes and hardware design. The game allows players to learn, practice and play with the Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL). The game asks players to solve a variety of traffic puzzles using digital logic designs specified through an HDL, which is what hardware designers use to create applications synthesizable to integrated chips. This paper outlines the design and final product, including the fundamental benefits of such approach. It is provided as a case study in domain specific game design that should prove useful to other researchers looking to employ the potential of play to facilitate learning of complex systems, models and theories.