Activity 4: 

We are learning how to make the ball move at random speeds to make the game more interesting. 

1) Building on the pong game you have already made use of variables to make the ball move at random speeds.  

2) Follow the tutorial to the right to help you.

3) In the end, it should look like this example.

By the end of the activity, you should 

• Make your game more interesting by adding randomness to the speed of the ball.

Extension:

• Sometimes you have to press start more than once to get the ball to move freely, why? How could you fix this?

Activity 5: 

We are learning how to add start and end screens to our games focusing on using conditional statements and comparison operators. 

1) A game that just stops is lame. It looks a lot better if you add an end screen. Even better is if the end screen can tell you how well you did or give you some other feedback.

2) Use the slides on selection statements to help you create start and end screens. 

3) In the end, it could look like this example.

By the end of the spell, you should 

• Describe what a conditional statement is and use one.

• Describe what a comparative operator is and use one.

• Have a 'you win' and 'you lose' screen that appears when a condition is met.

Extension:

• What could you do to make the game more interesting? For example, 

  • • Have different objects to collect worth different points

    • Get the objects to disappear when collected and re-appear in a random location. 

    • Have objects worth negative points.

    • Add lives 

    • Have a win/lose screen. 

Activity 6: 

We are learning how to make a character fly and identify ways we could make the game. The next game you will create is based on the Make It Fly tutorial.

1) Create a new document and name it Make it Fly.

2) Follow the tutorial. Once you have completed it you will learn new concepts to improve the game.

By the end of the activity, you will:

• You will have a pretty lame game that we will try and make better

• You will be able to change the costumes of the sprites 

• You will have used a variable for a score. 

Extension:

• What could you do to make this game better

Activity 7: 

We are learning how to add depth to the scene.  You've got it going. But it looks pretty flat.

There are lots of tricks that animators use to give a scene a sense of depth. Have a look at these slides and bring some of the ideas into your project.

An example project

1) Add onto your Make it Fly game to add depth. Use the slides to help you. 

By the end of the activity, you will:

• Have added depth to the scene by 

  • Using layers,

  • Using colour 

  • Using different speeds

Extension:

• Talk with an end-user and see what else you could do to improve the scene. 

• Apply the feedback you got.

Activity 8: 

We are learning how to use a different algorithm to improve the code.

You've got it going. But the movement is very rough! When you are programming computers there is usually more than one way to solve a problem. Different ways are good for different situations.

1) With the class learn what an algorithm is. 

2) Complete the Movement Algorithms instructions in a new project.

3) Use what you have learnt to improve the movement of your cat. 

Your class might do an offline algorithms activity too.

By the end of the activity, you will:

• Know different ways to code movement in Scratch and trialled them out. 

• Improved the movement in your flying game. 

Extension:

• Some games will use both algorithms for different actions. Add this to your game.

Activity 9: We are learning how to add gravity to our games. 

The previous game had the cat flying like Superman. Let's add some challenge by adding gravity! Doing this needs you to use variables in an interesting way.

• Create a new game and call it 'gravity example' 

• Follow the gravity tutorial to make the cat move and apply gravity

By the end of the activity, you will:

• Be able to move the sprite. 

• Apply gravity to the sprite's movement.

Extension:

• Can you stop the sprite from getting stuck on the ceiling?

• Can you make the sprite jump?

Activity 10:

We are learning how to make character animations for our scratch games. A character that moves can add to the feel of your game.

1) Have a go at creating an animated character to explore your maze with Piskel by following the slides on the right.  

2) Add the character to the Maze. 

By the end of the activity, you will:

• Design and make an animated character in Piskel. 

• Change the character used in the previous task to the sprite you have just made. 

Activity 11:

1) Using what you have learnt so far about scratch, develop a game that demonstrates the use of gravity and a range of other skills such as score, and lives getting objects to move across the screen.

By the end of the activity, you will have a game for a friend to play. 

Activity 12:

We are learning how to make a maze game which we will improve on. 

1) Follow the Maze game instructions up to step 4

Extension:

• Personalise it with better graphics

• Finish the instructions

Activity 13:

We are learning how to use lists in scratch. 

1) Add to your maze game so you can collect stuff while you are going around your maze. In the example, you will pick up a key that you use to open a door.

By the end of the activity, you will:

• Follow the "Have a go" instructions in a new project

• Add a key and door to your maze game

Extension:

• What else can you find? What do they do?

• Add more things to collect

Activity 14: 

We are learning to use the Broadcast feature in Scratch to coordinate sprites. 

1) Follow the tutorial MazeRooms Instructions to create new rooms for your maze. This will use the broadcast feature in Scratch. 

 Example Maze with rooms 

By the end of the activity, you will:

• Added two rooms to your maze. 

• Be able to describe what the broadcast feature does in Scratch

Extension:

• Add more rooms!

• Personalise the maze.