Remove Watermark Wondershare

PDFelement

UNIT 4
GAMES

YOU ARE HERE WHAT’S INCLUDED

DREAM GAME LIST
STARTER GAMES
4 SCORE
0 1 2 3 5 6 7 8
 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

UNIT 4
OVERVIEW
THE
THE “BIG IDEA”IDEA”
“BIG
Personalization is an important guiding principle in the design of the creative computing experience. By “personalization”, we
mean both connecting to personal interests and acknowledging that personal interests can vary considerably. There are many
ways of knowing and doing – and exploring these multiple ways can help support interest, motivation, and persistence among
young learners. In this unit, learners explore some of the advanced concepts and challenging problems associated with game
design. An advanced concept or challenging problem can be made more accessible if rooted in activities that are personally
meaningful. As an example of the power of context, we turn to a story shared by Mitch Resnick – the director of the Scratch
project at MIT.
A few years ago I was at one of our Computer Clubhouse after
school centers and I saw a 13-year-old boy working on creating his
own game. He was able to control a character, in this case, a fish. He
wanted the game to keep track of the score, so you could see how
many little fish had been eaten by the big fish, but he didn’t know
how.

I saw this as an opportunity to introduce the idea of variables. I

showed this to him and he immediately saw how he could use this
block to keep track of how many fish had been eaten in his game. He
took the block and put it in the script right where the big fish eats
the little fish. He quickly tried it. Sure enough, every time the big
fish ate a little fish, the score goes up by 1.

I think that he really got a deep understanding of variables because

he really wanted to make use of it. That's one of our overall goals of
Scratch. It's not just about variables, but for all types of concepts. We
see that kids get a much deeper understanding of the concepts they
learn when they are making use of the concepts in a meaningful KEY WORDS, CONCEPTS, & PRACTICES
and motivating way.
+ abstracting and modularizing + sensing
+ conditionals + feedback fair
LEARNING OBJECTIVES + operators + arcade day
Students will: + data + puzzle jar
+ variables and lists + brain dump
+ be introduced to the computational concepts of
conditionals, operators, and data (variables and lists)
NOTES
+ become more familiar with the computational practices of
experimenting and iterating, testing and debugging, reusing + Many new concepts are explored in this unit, so we’ve
and remixing, and abstracting and modularizing by building included added support in the form of example project
and extending a self-directed maze, pong, or scrolling game studios, new programming puzzles for extra practice, and
project starter game projects that we encourage you to remix
+ identify and understand common game mechanics and reuse as needed.
 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

In this unit, learners will become game designers and

experience creating their own game project. Guided by the
activities in this unit, students will be introduced to game
mechanics and game development while building
understandings of computational concepts (conditionals,
operators, data) and computational practices (abstracting
and modularizing).

You could get students started on their game projects with

the Starter Games activity and then support further
development through other activities. From learning
common game mechanics such as keeping score and
side-scrolling, to the creation of multiplayer games
(e.g., Pong), Unit 4 activities offer students multiple
opportunities to practice game development.

POSSIBLE PATH

SESSION 1 SESSIONS 1- 3

DREAM GAME STARTER

LIST GAMES

What do all games How can you use

have in common? Scratch to build an
interactive game?
 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

UNIT 4 ACTIVITY
DREAM GAME OBJECTIVES
By completing this activity, students will:

LIST + identify common design elements of games

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION RESOURCES

❑ Divide students into small groups of 2-3 people. ❑ paper to write down game design elements
❑ things to sketch with (pencils, pens, markers, etc.)
❑ In their small groups, ask students to generate a list of
games that they enjoy playing. They can compose the
list using their design journals or a sheet of paper. We REFLECTION PROMPTS
suggest facilitating the brain dump brainstorming
activity: give students a short time period (1-2
+ Make a list of your favorite games.
minutes) to write down as many games as they can.
+ What do the games have in common?
Then, have students narrow down their favorites from
+ What features of their design make them a game?
the brain dump list.
+ Create a list of design elements for your dream
❑ After a few minutes, ask groups about their list of game.
games:
What do the games have in common?
What features of their design make them a game? REVIEWING STUDENT WORK
❑ Facilitate a class discussion about what characteristics
make up a game and generate a class list of common + Do the dream game lists include features of games?
game mechanics. Next, ask students to imagine their + What design elements are similar or different from
dream game and write a list of design elements for the class group list?
that game. + What do the lists tell you about the kinds of games
and the types of play your students enjoy?
❑ Invite students to share their dream game lists in their
small groups or critique groups (see Unit 0 Critique
Group activity) to get feedback and suggestions.

NOTES NOTES TO SELF

+ Invite students to refer back to this dream game list ❑ _______________________

while programming games in other Unit 4 activities.
❑ _______________________
❑ _______________________
❑ _______________________
Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement
 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

UNIT 4 ACTIVITY
STARTER GAMES OBJECTIVES
By completing this activity, students will:
+ develop greater fluency with computational
concepts (conditionals, operators, data) and
practices (experimenting and iterating, testing and
SUGGESTED TIME
debugging, reusing and remixing, abstracting and
45–60 MINUTES
modularizing) by working on a self-directed game
project

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION RESOURCES

❑ In this activity, students will create a starter game ❑ Maze handout

project that can be revisited and extended during the ❑ Maze example starter project
Score, Extensions, and Interactions activities. http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11414041
Optionally, show the Maze, Pong, and Scrolling ❑ Pong handout
example starter projects, and have the Maze, Pong, and ❑ Pong example starter project
Scrolling handouts available to guide students. http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/10128515
❑ Scrolling handout
❑ Choose one game project to facilitate as a class or let
❑ Scrolling example starter project
students choose which game they want to create:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/22162012
maze, pong, or scrolling. Give students time to start
❑ Games studio
building their games or let them remix one of the
http://scratch.mit.edu/studios/487504
starter projects.
❑ Encourage students to get feedback on their
games-in-progress. We suggest the feedback fair REFLECTION PROMPTS
activity: half of the students stay in their seats with
their projects open while the other half walks around + What was challenging about designing your game?
exploring projects, asking questions, and giving + What are you proud of?
feedback, then switch sides. Optionally, have students
add their final game projects to the Games studio or a
class studio.
REVIEWING STUDENT WORK
❑ Ask students to respond to the reflection prompts in
+ Do games include conditionals, operators, and data?
their design journals or in a group discussion.

NOTES NOTES TO SELF

+ To celebrate and share final game creations, we ❑ _______________________

recommend hosting an Arcade Day. Final game projects
are placed in presentation mode; students walk around ❑ _______________________
and play each other’s games.
+ The Scrolling game option introduces cloning. Help ❑ _______________________
students learn more about the cloning blocks with the ❑ _______________________
Cloning handout from Unit 5 Advanced Features.
 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

MAZE
HOW CAN YOU USE SCRATCH TO BUILD
AN INTERACTIVE GAME?

In this project, you will create a game. This

game includes interactions between sprites,
score, and levels. You move a sprite from the
start of a maze to the end without touching
the walls.

START HERE
❑ Draw a maze-like background and use different
colors for the walls and end-of-maze marker.
❑ Add a sprite.
❑ Make your game interactive!
These scripts give the player control over sprite movement in the
maze.

THINGS TO TRY
❑ Add multiple levels to your game! This can This tells your sprite where to begin
be done through the use of different and marks the start of the maze.
backdrops and using broadcast blocks to
trigger the next level. This tells the end-of-maze sprite
❑ Use the make a variable block to keep score! that players win when the ball
❑ Experiment with timer blocks to add new touches this sprite.
challenges to your maze!
This will cause your sprite to bounce off
the blue walls of the maze.

BLOCKS TO PLAY WITH FINISHED?

FINISHED?

+ Add your project to the

Games Studio:
http://scratch.mit.edu/studios
/487504
+ Swap games with a partner
and walk each other through
your creations.
 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

PONG
HOW CAN YOU USE SCRATCH TO BUILD
AN INTERACTIVE GAME?

In this project, you will create a game. This

game includes interactions between
sprites, score, and levels. The game is
similar to the classic game of pong, where
the goal is to keep the sprite from getting
past you.

START HERE
❑ Create two sprites: a paddle for the user to
control and a ball the user will be playing with.
❑ Make your paddle sprite interactive.
❑ Bring your game to life!

THINGS TO TRY
❑ How do you add difficulty to your game?
Creating different levels, using a timer, or
keeping score are a few examples of things
you could do.
❑ Experiment with changing the look of your Interacts with the walls
game by editing the backdrops! Interacts with the paddle
❑ Explore using different key presses to control
your sprites! These control the ball - if touching the paddle or a wall, it continues moving. If
touching red (meaning the ball moved past the paddle) the game ends.

FINISHED?
BLOCKS TO PLAY WITH FINISHED?
FINISHED?

+ Add your project to the

Games Studio:
http://scratch.mit.edu/studios
/487504
+ Swap games with a partner
and walk each other
through your creations.