1. Platform Games: Intro and Design

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Hey! Welcome to day four of Scratch Games.

Today, you will create a platform game.

In this type of game, a sprite must move across raised platforms or obstacles.

Some popular platform game samples include Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, and more recently, Doodle Jump.

Look at how if statements and events are used in one of the earliest platform games, Donkey Kong.

In Donkey Kong, a character named Mario must rescue another character while climbing a tower and avoiding Donkey Kong's barrels.

First, look at how events are used in this game.

Remember from day two's racing game that events allow computer scientists like you to tell a computer when to run code or complete an action.

When the user presses the right arrow, Mario moves right.

When the user presses the left arrow, Mario moves left.

And when the user presses the space key, Mario jumps.

These examples all represent an important computer science concept you're going to work with today: events.

Events tell the computer when to run code.

Next, take a look at how Donkey Kong uses if statements.

You used if statements in day three's maze game to instruct the computer to make decisions.

If statements look like this: if a condition is true, then do this action.

In Donkey Kong, if Mario is touching a platform, then he will fall.

If Mario touches a barrel, then he loses a life.

If Mario reaches the sprite, then the user wins!

The platform game that you will create today features a sprite that must jump into platforms to reach another sprite.

This game is similar to Donkey Kong and uses the same types of events and if statement code.

In this game, the sprite moves when the arrow keys are pressed.

If the sprite is not touching a platform, then it will fall until it dies.

If the sprite reaches the sprite at the top of the platform, then the user wins.

To get started, open the starter project by clicking on the link next to this page.

Sign in!

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Click remix.

If you don't click remix or sign in, any work that you complete will not be saved, so please be certain that you complete this step.

Next, add two sprites to your project.

To select a sprite, click choose new sprite from library.

You can choose whichever sprites you would like for your project.

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Then, arrange the sprites on the screen in a way that makes sense for your game.

You can change the sprite size.

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Use the time during this step to make your project look the way you want it to look.

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Then, return to the screen and click the green arrow to move on to the next screencast.

Now, it's your turn.

Open the platform starter project.

Then, sign in to Scratch and click remix.

Add two sprites, and position them correctly for your game.

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