Game design
Lesson 2
MakeCode Arcade
Introduction
In this lesson you will become familiar with the code that sits behind Eat the fruit and what modifications you can make when designing your own game. You will decide on your target audience and theme for your game.
Watch the video for an introduction to the lesson.
Understanding the tasks
Rating the tasks
This lesson contains a few activities. Each activity will have one or more tasks. These tasks have been given a rating.
Some of the tasks in this lesson are must do. These are important to help you understand the introductory ideas or skills.
Have a go at the should do tasks and reach out to your friends or teacher if you need some advice. These will usually take a bit longer to complete than must do tasks.
Could do tasks will probably take you some extra time and might need you to get creative or problem solve. We strongly encourage you to try these.
Activity 1 - Using MakeCode Arcade
Task 1 - MakeCode Interface
Watch the MakeCode interface overview video. You can follow along with this process by pausing the video.
Demonstrate your understanding of the information provided in the video by completing the interactive below.
Activity 2 - Game modification
Task 1 - How to modify Eat the fruit
Work through the interactive presentation below to explore the code that makes Eat the fruit work and what modifications you can make when designing your own game.
Task 2 - Adding extra function
Follow the Microsoft MakeCode instructions below to create a sprite that will bounce around the screen. This will not be an essential component of your finished game but could be a nice addition.
Activity 3 - Your audience
Note: While we have linked to videos in this activity, any other pages or other material linked to beyond these videos are not endorsed by the department.
Task 1 - Choosing your audience
Read the Arcade games Google Slides below.
Using your understanding of context (age, gender, culture, appropriateness), choose a target audience for the game you are going to develop. Remember to avoid stereotypes – the most successful game designers know their audience well, and what appeals to them.
Use the My audience profile Google Slides template to create an audience persona which outlines characteristic such as their interests, likes and dislikes.
Click on the button above to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.
Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.
Task 2 - Choosing your theme and moral
It is time to develop the theme for your game. A game theme refers to the subject matter the game is built around. A theme could be very abstract, like “shapes” in Tetris. A game could also be story driven and have a theme like “problem solving”.
Story driven games can also have a moral. The moral refers to the lesson that story teaches us about how to behave in the world.
Use the Game theme and moral Google Slides template to develop your game’s theme, moral and key moral messages.
Click on the image to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.
Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.
Task 3 - Criteria for success
For your chosen audience and theme, plan how your game will meet each of the criteria for success explored in Lesson 1.
Use the Criteria for success Google Slides template to complete this activity. An example has been completed on the first slide.
Click on the image to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.
Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.
Handing in your work
Don't forget to hand in the work you completed today!
Your teacher will have told you to do one of the following:
Upload any digital documents you created and any photos you took of your written work to your Learning Management system (MS Teams, Google Classroom for example).
Email any digital documents you created and any photos you took of your written work to your teacher.
Make sure you keep any handwritten work you did in your exercise book or folder as your teacher may need to see these when you are back in class.