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. [Link]
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. [Link]
❑ 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:
[Link]
maze, pong, or scrolling. Give students time to start
❑ Games studio
building their games or let them remix one of the
[Link]
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.
 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:
[Link]
/487504
+ Swap games with a partner
and walk each other through
your creations.
 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:
[Link]
/487504
+ Swap games with a partner
and walk each other
through your creations.
 SCROLLING
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 Flappy Bird, where
the goal is to keep an object from falling to the
ground or touching certain objects.

START HERE
❑ Create two sprites: one for the player to control Controls sprite movement

(helicopter) and one to avoid (gliding bars).

❑ Make the helicopter interactive.
❑ Bring your game to life by adding scripts to
make the gliding bars scroll across the stage!

THINGS TO TRY
This creates clones, which are used in the
Causes sprite to constantly fall downward
script below to make the bars scroll across
❑ How do you add difficulty to your game? the screen:
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
game by editing the backdrops!
❑ Explore using different key presses to control
your sprites!
Specifies when the game ends

FINISHED?
BLOCKS TO PLAY WITH FINISHED?

+ Add your project to the

Games Studio:
[Link]
/487504
+ Swap games with a partner
and walk each other
through your creations.
 UNIT 4 REFLECTION
STARTER
NAME:

GAMES RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING REFLECTION PROMPTS

USING THE SPACE PROVIDED BELOW OR IN YOUR

REFLECTIONS
DESIGN JOURNAL.

+ What was challenging about designing your game?

+ What are you proud of?