Use the resources folder on the right hand side: ‘MEDIA RESOURCES’ google drive - add this to your Drive.
Building a Mars Rover Game
Using your knowledge of broadcasting, sensing and making sprites move, your task is the make a working game.
Use the embedded example below or go to this link to see it in full screen.
You are now going to start building your game. You have until the end of term to complete this game. Below offers you some guidance on what should go into your game and why.
Use the resources folder if you want, else search for resources online such as images and sounds.
Planning
This game will take you to the end of term to complete. It needs a quick plan so that you can stay focused. Here we will use a type of Pseudocode [Pseudocode is basically regular english but you are writing in a way that includes ‘IF’ and ‘WHILE’ etc. There is a table of how this is written below.
When game start
Forever IF ‘W’ key pressed
Sprite change Y by 5
Forever IF touching rock sample 1
Wait 1 second
change score by 1
IF score = 5
Level up.
To plan, work with a partner or as a three.
- Use a whiteboard to plan out each part, then use the camera on your laptop to put into the Google Classroom wall. Your partners can then add to their coding journal.
- At the same time as the plan, open Scratch on the other two computers and load a sprite, say, curiosity, the mars rover. Follow the Pseudocode and build it taking screenshots as you go to add to the Classroomwall for your partners to use.
- As you build a sprite on each computer and you know it works as you expect it to, right click on the sprite and export it. This export contains all the code too. Share this sprite with your team. Now all you have to do is ‘import’ this sprite and you have saved yourself and your team a lot of valuable time.
| Items you maybe need in game |
|---|
| Custom Sprites |
| Backdrops |
| splash screens |
| Credits |
| Instructions to play |
| control [W,A,S,D?] |
| battery sprite |
| timer |
| scores |
| Level Ups |
| Game over/ Reset |
| Sound effects |
Hit the Scratch symbol in the top right to take you here.
| Item | Pseudo Code | Game Feel |
|---|---|---|
| Sprites | Change costume | Good looks - appeal to the player |
| Backdrop | Change backdrop with broadcasts | Good looks - matches the sprites |
| Sounds | Sounds matching the actions | not always a soundtrack, match the actions |
| Sensing | If touching, then... disappear, score + or - or broadcast an action | some level of expectation from the player |
| Broadcasting | If this, then send a signal to other sprites or backdrops to perform an action | If the player does something then a reaction is performed by the game - such as ‘Game Over’ |
| Points | If this, then score goes up or down. If a score = 5 then what could happen? | Humans love scores and numbers added to actions. It keeps the game ticking over and the player seeking the next level. |
| Timer | Time = 60: Game starts. Time = 30: Battery = 50%. Time = 10: battery = 5% Time = 0: Game Over + broadcast. | The knowledge for the player that there has to be a score before the time equals zero pushes the player to continue to play better and come back to the game. |
| Maths | Operations: If score = 5: broadcast to comet to show and move. | Maths and numbers are called absolutes. 1 = 1 no matter where in the world you are. Same with games and code. Players will expect there to be some level of progress in difficulty not from 1 to level 20 in two moves. That progress from a comet traveling at speed of 2 in level 1, will travel at speed of level 4 in level 2. A steady factor each time controlled with maths. |
| Randoms | Hide. Go To RANDOM position. Show | The unexpected keeps the player always on the lookout for something to defeat. |
Learning Intention:
Can I code a game in Scratch?
Can I debug broken code?
Can I use a coding Journal?
Can I code as a team?
Success Criteria:
I can code to make sprites detect one another.
I can make remote actions work using broadcasting.
I can import/ copy/ paste evidence of learning into my coding Journal.
I can sort through a list of problems and identify needs and actions.
I can import, export sprites and share my media on the Google Classroom wall.
Teacher's Resources:
Teacher's Google Folder is here.
Media Resources.
You may want a background, sprites or sounds for the beginning of your game which are here.