Achievement Surfers: A Gamified Runner-Based Learning Tool for Supporting Revision and Reinforcement of Learning Outcomes

Achievement Surfers is a 3D runner-based gamified learning framework designed to turn instructor-supplied spreadsheet question sets into playable revision levels, with questions encountered during gameplay and answered afterward. The authors present it as a lightweight, reusable, and content-decoupled tool intended to boost engagement and short-term reinforcement of course material in higher education, rather than to sustain long-term motivation. The central premise is that such a framework can be adopted without curriculum redesign, filling a gap the authors identify in gamification research, where evidence is positive but highly dependent on design choices and where few instructor-friendly, reusable tools exist.

The validation study involved 45 undergraduate students and five instructors and was built on a spreadsheet-driven content pipeline using Unity. Student responses were broadly favorable, with an engagement rate of 0.756, 75.6% of students reporting that the game reinforced their material, and mean usability scores between 3.7 and 4.2 on a five-point scale. These results are interpreted cautiously as evidence of technical feasibility and user acceptance rather than demonstrated learning gains. The study also surfaced substantive limitations, including Windows-only deployment, hitbox and timing problems, and, most notably, instructor difficulty with CSV loading and with an unintuitive, poorly formatted expected data structure.

The authors conclude that the framework is conceptually viable for teaching contexts, but that accessibility for instructors remains a meaningful barrier to adoption. Planned work includes standardized data templates, a simplified content pipeline, and controlled evaluations with delayed retention testing and instructor workload assessment. Until such experimental validation is completed, the educational effectiveness of Achievement Surfers remains an open question.