Game Development with Scratch

This course introduces students to the essential tools of programming while building a fun, interactive game. They can follow the guidance closely, or let their imagination run wild.

Each week represents approximately an hour of work. To get a working game, classes can take a minimum of 5 weeks, or run for up to 12 by adding in the additional sessions as necessary.

Week	Topic	Description
1	Sprites and Movement	This session introduces students to the concept of sprites – the characters in their games – and gets them used to the movement blocks needed to get their character moving around the screen in response to user input
2	Sprites – moving automatically	Game characters often need to move automatically, or chase other characters. We’ll look this week at the coordinate system in Scratch and how sprites can move around the screen
3	Stage and graphical editing	This week students work on the visual aspects of their game, adapting and designing characters, and learning how to change the look of the stage that is the background of your game
4	Sprite Interaction	This session lets students add an element of interaction to their game, adding multiple sprites such as ‘baddies’ or using them as ammo to shoot targets
5	Variables and scoring	Building on last week’s additional sprites, students will use variables to track scores and lives
+1	Design and Play	Adding design and play weeks throughout longer courses gives students a chance to develop more polished games, and to do more personal graphic design work
+1	Introduction to platform games	Looking at getting a scrolling stage and moving character to represent a simple platform game
+1	Theory – loops	Taking a closer look at the different sorts of loops available in Scratch, how they’re different, and what they’re useful for.
+1	Functions	Creating re-usable blocks of code using functions.
+1	Turtle-style drawing	Introduction to computational thinking, drawing shapes and patterns with sprites and the pen.

Information for Parents and Teachers

We use Scratch3, an online version of the scratch editor. To allow students to continue this work at home, and between sessions, I recommend that students have their own scratch account.

I need parental permission for these accounts to be created. Teacher-created accounts will only exist for the life of the course, though they will be able to view and copy any projects they share. On request, student access can be revoked at the end of the club

Scratch accounts provide access to user discussion forums. Students will not be allowed to use these during the workshops, but please note that codewithkat takes no responsibility for student use of the accounts outside the sessions.

Current Events:

Parkside Middle School, Thursdays from 12 September