Research

SR Battleship 

SR Battleship is an interactive educational game designed to support the teaching and learning of Special Relativity. Through an engaging mission-based environment, students develop conceptual understanding of spacetime diagrams, inertial reference frames and Lorentz transformations by applying these concepts to solve authentic physics challenges.

The game was developed as part of ongoing physics education research at North-West University, through the Centre for Space Research and the Unit for Data Science and Computing, to improve conceptual understanding through interactive, game-based learning. It is intended as a supplementary teaching and learning resource for undergraduate physics students.

Download and Gameplay Instructions

System Requirements

SR Battleship is an interactive educational game developed by the NWU

  • Windows 10 or later (64-bit)
  • Linux (Ubuntu and compatible distributions)
  • Keyboard and mouse
  • Recommended screen resolution: 1920 × 1080

Installation

SR Battleship is an interactive educational game developed by the NWU

1.    Download the appropriate ZIP package for your operating system.
2.    Extract the ZIP file to a preferred location.
3.    Launch the SR Battleship executable.
4.    No installation is required.

Gameplay

Players complete a rescue mission by interpreting spacetime diagrams and applying Special Relativity concepts, including Lorentz transformations and reference frame analysis, to progress through the game.

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Optional PlayFab Integration

SR Battleship can be played entirely as a standalone desktop application without requiring an online connection or PlayFab login.

For institutions wishing to make use of cloud-based functionality, optional integration with Microsoft PlayFab is available. This enables features such as user authentication, progress tracking and future online functionality. A short instructional video will be provided to guide lecturers through the PlayFab configuration process and demonstrate how to use the available PlayFab features.

Current Development Status

Software developer Mr Ubaidullah Effendi-Emjedi is currently implementing the final refinements to the game and preparing the final ZIP packages for both Windows and Linux. The accompanying instructional videos, including setup and PlayFab configuration, will follow shortly thereafter.

Research Publications

SR Battleship has been developed as part of an ongoing programme of physics education research. The development, implementation and evaluation of the game have been reported in the following publications:

[1] Square, L. SR Battleship. ICERI2022 Proceedings, 2022, pp. 1619–1625.

[2] Square, L. Exploring Game-Based Learning in Undergraduate Physics: A Case Study of SR Battleship. South African Journal of Higher Education, accepted for publication, 41(2).

Version Information

The research presented in the publications above was conducted using SR Battleship Version 1.0, which incorporated gameplay analytics through Microsoft PlayFab.

Following Microsoft's discontinuation of the PlayFab Analytics service, the downloadable version of **SR Battleship** no longer includes the original analytics functionality. Alternative approaches to gameplay analytics are currently being investigated for future releases.

Version 2.0
© 2026 North-West University. All rights reserved.

Contact

Prof Lynndle Square
Associate Professor
Centre for Space Research
Unit for Data Science and Computing
North-West University

Email: Lynndle.Square@nwu.ac.za