Introduction to coding

1.4 PLATFORM GAME IN SCRATCH

This lesson will teach you how to create a simple platform game in Scratch:

What you will learn…

 How to create gravity in your platform games

 How to use the broadcast blocks to coordinate or synchronise events between sprites
 How to create random numbers – these can be very useful for many coding projects
 How to use event handling to control your games
 How to make your game characters jump

You can have a look at our project Evil Daddy now. You’ll find it on the Nerdsville Scratch page or follow this
link. Have a go – try to sneak the boy past Evil Daddy and get to the TV remote control before Daddy catches
him and makes him do his homework.

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/26107515/

After playing the game look inside to see the code. You’ll see that Evil Daddy has one backdrop and four
sprites.

When you are ready to create your own version Sign in to Scratch and click on Create. Make sure you give your
new project a name.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS – CREATE YOUR OWN PLATFORM GAME

BACKDROP

The backdrop for Evil Daddy is based on photographs of rooms in my house – you can create your own
backdrop based on an image from the Scratch library, your own painted backdrop or an uploaded image.
Notice the fluorescent green borders, floors and stairs – these were added using the Scratch paint editor. The
scripts in this project rely on the detection of collisions between the sprites and this green colour.

 Choose, paint or upload your basic background image 

 Go to the backdrop paint editor and paint your ‘platforms’ or ‘floors’ the colour of your choice

The Evil Daddy backdrop –The borders, floors and stairs are all painted the
same fluorescent green colour. This makes it easy to create code that detects
when our sprites are touching these objects.

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Introduction to coding

THE BOY (MAIN CHARACTER) SPRITE

The Boy sprite is from the library of Scratch 1.4 (an older version of Scratch).

 Create your main character sprite – paint it, choose from the library or upload a file 
 Now create your character’s main script. Here’s the Boy sprite main script… 
Look carefully at the script. Make sure you know what each block
does.

During the initial setup we create three variables: Boy x, Boy y and
Lives. These variables are used to set Boy’s x and y coordinates for
the start of the game and keep count of how many lives he has left.
Lives is initially set to 3.

This section simulates gravity – every time the forever loop repeats,
Boy y is changed by -1 – making him ‘fall’ down the screen. However
if he’s touching the green floor, Boy y is increased by 1 so he doesn’t
fall through floors.

Next, a go to x:Boy x y:Boy y block moves the boy to his set

coordinates.

Two if statements are used to detect key presses and change the Boy
x variables accordingly.

Finally, two if statements are used to detect collisions between the

Boy sprite and the Daddy sprite or the Remote sprite. If one of these
events occur, a broadcast_block is used to send a message to all
sprites in the project. You create your own message in the drop-
down box. You’ll learn more about how the broadcast blocks work
below.

(We could have used the change x by_ and change y by_ blocks instead of creating variables for Boy’s
coordinates, however it’s good for you to know that there are often different ways of achieving the same
result. As long as your code works and isn’t buggy then any method is fine!)

 Create a script to handle what happens to the main character sprite when Gotcha! is broadcast… 
In Boy’s main script the Gotcha! message is broadcast when he touches the Daddy sprite. This small script
makes the boy spin around when the message is received.

The when I receive_ block is used to create a new script that will run when a
particular message is received. The drop-down box allows you to choose the
message. In this script the attached blocks cause the boy to spin, then point in
direction 90 again.

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Introduction to coding

There is a second when I receive Gotcha! script for the Daddy sprite that plays the “Do your homework!”
sound and handles what happens to the Lives variable and what happens when Lives = 0.

You can create a number of scripts for different sprites that will all run at the same time when a message is
broadcast. The broadcast_ and wait block can be used to trigger a number of other scripts, then wait until
they have finished before continuing.

 Create the main character’s sound scripts… 

I’ve used two of my favourite TV themes for the soundtrack – the first, from
the Young Ones is the main theme and plays when the green flag is clicked.

The Red Hang Gang theme plays when the boy succeeds in turning on the TV –
along with the show’s image sprite appearing on the TV screen. Both of these
events are triggered by the Win message being broadcast.

THE DADDY SPRITE

The Daddy sprite is from the library of Scratch 1.4 (an older version of Scratch).

 Create your ‘baddie’ sprite – paint it, choose from the library or upload a file 
 Now create the sprite’s main script. Here’s the Daddy sprite script… 
After setting the size, start position and direction of the
sprite a forever loop is set up that contains Daddy’s
movement script…

Daddy is set to turn randomly and then move 10 steps

each time the loop repeats. The random number block
from the Operators palette is very useful for creating
random sprite behaviour in games. Experiment with
the range of numbers until your sprite moves in the
way you like.

An if statement is used to check if Daddy collides with a

green wall or floor and make him bounce off (turn 180
degrees and move 10 steps) if he does.

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Introduction to coding

Daddy’s second script is triggered by the broadcast of the Gotcha! message when the Boy sprite touches the
Daddy sprite (see the Boy sprite main script above).

 Create a script handles what happens to the ‘baddie’ sprite when Gotcha! is broadcast… 
On receiving the Gotcha! broadcast, this script plays the Homework
sound (‘Do your homework!’ – recorded by me doing a funny voice
close to the computer’s microphone) and changes the Lives variable by -
1.

Then an if statement checks if Lives is less than 1 (this is better than

using ‘if Lives = 0’ just in case two lives are lost quickly). If Lives is less
than 1 then Lives is set to zero (so you don’t end up with the silly
situation of having a negative amount of lives), all sounds are stopped,
volume is set to 30% and the wahwah sound (me again!) is played. After
3 seconds all scripts are stopped – the game is over.

THE TV SCREEN SPRITE – ‘GAME OVER’

The TV screen sprite has two small scripts. When you design your own game you can choose to end it however
you like – perhaps choose your own sound or tune and create a ‘Game Over’ message sprite or make your
sprites spin around or disappear into the distance.

Create scripts that handle what happens when it’s ‘Game Over’… 
The first small script sets the position of my TV
screen sprite and then hides it when the game
starts.

The second script is triggered when the Win

broadcast is received. The sprite is shown and then
made to randomly flicker between two costumes.
The two costumes were made slightly different to
give the illusion of a flickering TV screen.

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Introduction to coding

THE REMOTE SPRITE

The remote control sprite simply sits there waiting to be touched by the Boy
sprite in order to win the game (the code for this is in Boy’s main script).

Here’s the code.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS – A PLATFORM GAME WITH JUMPING

Have a look at our Cubit Platformer project here…

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/23593836/

It’s not a complete game, but simply a basic template for a platform game with jumping. We’ve used the
Nerdsville logo, Cubit as our only sprite and drawn a background with a floor and platforms of the same orange
colour.

This is the main script – it should all look quite familiar and is similar
to Boy’s main script in Evil Daddy.

After setting size and initial position, a forever loop sets up gravity
and monitors for the left and right arrows being pressed to change
the sprite’s horizontal position.

This second script uses event handling to wait for the space bar to be
pressed and trigger a script that makes Cubit jump. Event handling is
commonly used in computer languages where code needs to respond
to a certain event – like a key press or a mouse click.

When space is pressed the variable jump is given the value 14, then a
loop is set up in which the sprite’s y value is changed by jump, and
jump’s value decreased by 1. This has the effect of making Cubit
jump, decelerate and then accelerate downwards again.

A touching colour_? block is used to end the jump if the sprite is

touching the orange ground / platform colour.

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Introduction to coding

You should now be able to experiment with creating your own platform game with a jumping main character
sprite and ‘baddies’ that move randomly. Have fun!

What you have learned…

 You should now be quite good at reading somebody else’s code and figuring out how it
works – it’s a handy skill and you’ve had a lot of practice
 How to include gravity in your games and make a character jump
 The broadcast blocks are very useful for coordinating and synchronising sprites
 Event handling allows you to write scripts that run in response to particular events

NOW TRY THIS…

Once again, feel free to remix the Nerdsville projects.

 Now might be a good time to explore some of the six-million plus projects that other Scratch users
have shared – you can look inside and see how their projects work - this is a great way to learn.
 Make sure you ask your teacher for permission if you’d like to do this in class.
 Playing Scratch games might be fun, but make sure you also figure out how the code works!
 You can remix projects or ‘borrow’ scripts and graphics from them using your backpack.
 Make sure you include credits on the project page if you use other people’s material.

QUIZ

Question 1 – Why is it handy to have platforms the same colour?

a) They look prettier that way

b) So that the touching colour_? block can be used to detect when a sprite is touching them
c) Different coloured platforms are not possible
d) Because platforms are all made from the same sprite

Question 2 – How do we create the illusion of gravity?

a) Change the y position of a sprite by a positive amount each repeat

b) Change the y position of a sprite by a negative amount each repeat
c) Change the x position of a sprite by a positive amount each repeat
d) Change the x position of a sprite by a negative amount each repeat

Question 3 –When might we use a broadcast block?

a) When we are making a TV sprite

b) When we want to send a message to another sprite’s script

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Introduction to coding

c) When we want to detect a key press

d) When we want to detect a mouse press

Question 4 – Random numbers are handy for…

a) Making a game character move in a crazy, random way

b) Creating number guessing games
c) Making sprites appear in unpredictable places on the stage
d) All of the above

Question 5 – Which of the following can use event handling?

a) Detecting when two sprites touch

b) Making a ‘Game Over’ message appear
c) Making a key press cause a character to jump
d) Sending a message to other sprites in a project

Log in to www.giantclassroom.com.auto enter your answers.

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