Once the students have built their clicky game, we move to a version of “crossy road” or “Frogger”. It’s in the old version of Scratch, but the principle is the same. Here is a link to a short tutorial on creating a “score” variable in Scratch. Here is a link to the game, which you can use as-is or remix. One of the most important skills to learn in this game is how to create a variable, in this case score. At this point, the game builder can either have the game end or have the player move on to the next level. If they reach a certain, predetermined score, the background changes.

Each time the player clicks on the object, they raise their score by one. The object is to design a space game where an object (star, rocket ship, space rock, astronaut) appears and disappears at random places. The first game we build is a clicky game. I also always have extra challenges, for those who quickly figure out what to do and need the challenge. I give the class-specific instructions about what to do to start and then I go back and forth between helping students and actually building the game on my projected laptop, so those who are lost can follow along. In each case, I take time to explain exactly what the game should do. And in building the set game, they develop skills that they can use in building their own games! We build 3 different games to start – a clicky game, a “crossy road” game, and a collecting clones game. After that, every time I come back we learn the basics of how to build a new type of game. The first thing I do is have a quick visit with the class, introduce them to the look of Scratch, show them some of the functionalities, and assign them the Scratch tutorials as homework. So this year, when I go in to help classes, I teach the students how to build games by….ready for it….building games!! Revolutionary, huh?! I never claimed to be a fast learner! For other students, this just wasn’t enough to help them go past the very basics.

And lots of them did…especially the kids who already had developed some coding prowess, either through personal interest or summer camps. My hope was that they would take these skills and figure out how to put them together into a game. The first few years that I supported the students I focused on teaching them some basic skills in Scratch, but mostly in isolation. For the most part, the kids build their games in Scratch. By Cari Wilson that time of year in our district again – students in many of our schools are hard at work, designing and building curriculum-based video games as part of Coding Quest.

Crossy road backgrounds scratch