Learn to code with Scratch Programming for Everybody

An introduction to moving sprites around the screen.

All programming languages have loops and so does scratch.  Learn loops here.

Nested loops add a lot of power to your programs.  In this demo we see how a short block of code with nested loops performs the same function as a long block of code with multiple loops.

Every programming language has variables and so does Scratch.  You code can do much if you don't use variables be sure to learn them here before moving on.

We see how changing the variables in a program can give us different shapes without even changing the code.  COOL

Real hockey players slide on the ice so does Scratch, if you do the code right.

Real hockey players slide on the ice so does Scratch, if you do the code right.

Real hockey players slide on the ice so does Scratch, if you do the code right.

Learn to change the costumes that the sprite is wearing.  Changing costumes can make the game look real and simulate movement.

I decided to create my Hockey game like this.  Can you think of other ways that you could create the game?  How would you write the code?

You cant have a game without a puck.  The key here is the puck has a direction even though it looks like a circle so you cant tell the direction by looking at it.  Use point in the direction of ....... whichever sprite you want to redirect the puck.

AI players can be fairly simple to extremely complex.  Use your imagination to create great AI.  An example of an AI computer player is provided here.

AI players can be fairly simple to extremely complex.  Use your imagination to create great AI.  An example of an AI computer player is provided here.

I test the game it seems to be working well but there are a lot of buttons to manipulate.  Its pretty difficult to play for my game playing skill level, although I was getting better.  The focus of this course is learning to program but we still like cool games, I am learning a lot of thought and experience goes into making fun to play games.

Vicious BEES YEAH!  my daughter and I love this game.  I took the first Kamikaze Bee from some code I saw on line, then I just went with it adding Bomber Bee decoy bee various flight patterns.  Doesn't get much funner thatn this it's amazing how fast you can make cool games in Scratch.  !!!!!

Every rocket needs to move and we learn to do just that in this video.

Kamikaze Bee, Awesome.  Watch out this guy will dive bomb you, if he crashes into you, you explode but he is fine.  Hey thats not fair.

As if dive bombing you wasn't enough this guy doesn't give up he lands then crawls around trying to wipe you out.  Learn to write that code in scratch here.

Games just aren't very good without some sound.  Learn to add sound to your games with the code in this video.

HEY! Don't shoot BEES in real life.  Bees are awesome they give Honey, pollinate things and probably do other cool things that I don't know about.  But in this game its open season on the BEES.  You need a missile first and the code that you learn in this video shows you how to add a missile to your rocket so that you can wipe out the vicious bees.

What the heck? I push the button and the missile fires out of the back.  If you use sprite costumes provided by Scratch you are good to go. But you will want to grab clip art online to make cool things.  You will soon discover your computer doesn't know which end is up, this video shows you have to fix that problem.  Don't just randomly rotate things hoping to get it right.  Follow this video to get everything going in the right direction.

Learn how to show and explosion when you rocket gets hit.  

Even better Learn how to write the code to show an explosion when your rocket hits the vicious BEEs.  

Did you notice the fire button wasn't working great?  I did fix it here.  Be careful putting the control statements together its easy for them to go together in a way that you didn't intend.  I left this in as a learning experience for all of us, and I fix it in this video.

Title says it all, just a little troubleshooting on the code.

As if a dive bomber and a crawling Bee wasn't enough.  Learn to write the code for this bomber bee.

Create complex flight patterns for the Bomber bee to throw off the player.  Learn the code here.  I urge you to try to integrate the code from the Ice hockey game that makes as circle as a Bees flight path.  GO for it.

Did you see when I set it on 50% of the time dropping bombs?  No hope of winning there.  Probability makes game playing fun.  Learn to determine the probability and use it in you games with Scratch programming in this video.

Did you see when I set it on 50% of the time dropping bombs?  No hope of winning there.  Probability makes game playing fun.  Learn to determine the probability and use it in you games with Scratch programming in this video.

We just aren't mean enough to add a 3rd Bee that attacks in some way, but hey if the player is clueless enough to spend their effort chasing the decoy bee while the other bees are attacking him then TOO BAD!

OPPS! Lets fix that in this video.  Easy Peasy.

Every game has to have a score, start learning about Global and local variables, It seems so simple in Scratch but harder to Grasp in a traditional programming language, If you are learning it here first, lucky you.

If I only got 1 rocket for a quarter I would be pretty mad.  Do they even have arcades anymore?  Well learn to use variables to add as many rockets as you like.

Mix it up with the backgrounds.  Distract the player by changing backgrounds.

This problem seems ridiculously complex.  HAHA its intended that way.  That is the real world of programming often understanding the problem is the hard part.  You just cant write the code if you dont really know what it is supposed to do. Learn this be sure you understand the problem before you write the code. SO listen up during this video because we are going to fit code to this problem.

Feel free to download the attached .pdf file of the slides for this project if you need more reference.

Add a star to the star map.

Create the solar system map.  You don't have to create backgrounds and planets for each solar system just reuse the background and planets that you have by turning on and off the ones that you need. Confused yet?

Add code to make more stars and turn them off when you go to the solar system map.  Broadcast is awesome.  I like to think of it as an event handler variable.  Huh?

This is it just turn on and off everything at the right time, easy.

After following this project You can really add endless functionality and create a super awesome game here.

Here is the broadcast again on the End turn button.  Why didn't we go back from the planet surface to the Solar system map instead on the star map?  WOW! Great question can you add the code to do that?

This is really the problem description.  I actually simplified it a lot because the first time I went though it this game would have made a 20 hour course.  I think it is simplified enough such that you learn all the concepts and can go forward to create any additions to the game that you like.  Have fun.

This first button is a monster, keep at it try to understand everything here.  If you don't that's ok but pick up as much as you can.  After this its copy and modify and our lives get a lot easier.

This first button is a monster, keep at it try to understand everything here.  If you don't that's ok but pick up as much as you can.  After this its copy and modify and our lives get a lot easier.

This first button is a monster, keep at it try to understand everything here.  If you don't that's ok but pick up as much as you can.  After this its copy and modify and our lives get a lot easier.

Whew!  good luck.

Its just copy and modify now.  Was there an error here?  Write it in the Q and A section if you can find it.

Nice easy copy and modify.

Too easy now, I have to make this harder on you guys.

Notice were created but never actually used these colony ships and bases in the game.  You may want to add code to such that the player can colonize planets. Let us know in Q and A how you would do this code in Scratch.

Got to have Battleships, and this is the way to do it.

Should probably have Battlesations too, No difference in this game between Battleships and Battlestations, But my original idea was to have Battlestations give defense points and Battleships give offenses points.  Also the closer a fleet is to the Battlestation the more its defense points would be scaled up.  The sky is the limit lets us know what you do if you have the guts to try HAHA.

I can see it, that enemy AI is scared now.  The Battlestation is ready.

Things are serious now we are moving up in the universe.  We have a battleship and we are ready for business.

Win or lose its an all out attack. I would like to see the battle broke into tenths then at each turn you can decide to continue or stop.  But the defender can't stop an attack only the attacker.  What do you think?

AI many ways you could do this, as you play the game more you can keep the AIs level closer to the Players level.  I would imagine some exponential growth for the AIs military points.  Because you will see exponential growth for the player as he colonizes more planets and stars.

Hey Time to fight back quit being a door mat go get em.  This code lets the player do just that.

This video gives lots of ideas to improve the game. I hope someone enjoys these projects as much as I did it was super fun and I have been addicted to Scratch for too long now.

This is the Hello Kitty game that I helped my 4 year old daughter make.  She loves this.

Adults learning to code and older kids may want to skip this section.  If you want to work with your young child to teach them to code please watch this section and work through this project with your child.

Andrew

You will learn how to get clip art and bring it into Scratch.  

You will learn how to add Sprites and Backgrounds.

Learn to move the sprites and control the speed by using loops.

Learn how to set the initial position of the sprites,  You may not want to explain x,y coordinate system to little kids just yet.  Just put the sprite where you want it and read the x,y values off the screen then use those values for the initial position.

Learn to use the broadcast.  It is important to understand that the sprites opererate without knowing what the other sprites are doing.  So you need to broadcast information if you want a Sprite to respond when a different Sprite completes a task.

Learn to add sound, Once you import sound you still have to put it in the code where you want it executed. Understand Sprites are separate if you import a sound in one Sprite it is not available in the other Sprites until you import the sound onto the Sprite that you want to use it with.

Learn to make Sprites look like they are coming towards you by slowly making them bigger.  There were 2 bugs in this code by the end of the video, I debug the code in the next video.

Andrew

Debug and Conclusion.  Say bye bye Kanna.