Scratch

Somebody?Before another thread gets buried and lost?

MistralWing wrote:

My friend and I have been interested in making computer games for years,and I felt that Scratch was a good place to start.

Bouncer(platformer)
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/MistralWing/2501229

Rocky the Rocket(highscoring game)
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/MistralWing/2557058

Shifting Shade
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/MistralWing/2583477
(platformer with a twist)

Eclipse Part 1(platformer)
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/MistralWing/2461654

Any advice on these projects would be appreciated-I've made much better projects on the PC and will upload these soon.I feel they all went unnoticed :'(

I've made various projects trialling various styles.Scratch has been a great start for me ,but the language is too simple for my liking.Does anybody know what kinds of language are there out there that would be the most suitable for making computer games?

Too simple? Scratch ranges from the most basic to very very complicated stuff, there are loads of little tricks and methods to make the most amazing things.

Game maker could be an alternative although I personally don't think it is going to help you more than scratch to be a better programmer.

A good alternative, python - a scripting language which is relatively easy but is still quite a lot more advanced than scratch. If you want to move on to python then here are some books which I have myself which helped a lot.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Python-Programming-Absolute-Beginner-Dawson/dp/1435455002/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349612382&sr=1-2 and http://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Python-Programming-Absolute-Beginner/dp/1435459806/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349612382&sr=1-1

Last edited by arthurz (2012-10-07 08:21:17)

When I say too simple I mean this:

when gf clicked
repeat until <touching edge?>
 move 10 steps
end

-It's the layout that throws me-it's not a "professional language"that I can present to an employer in the future.
But I'll definitely give Python a shot.Thank you very much for your attention 

Any more opinions on the games?Does anybody think the animations are clumsy or need improving?I'm not that great at drawing the sprites...

MistralWing wrote:

When I say too simple I mean this:

when gf clicked
repeat until <touching edge?>
 move 10 steps
end

-It's the layout that throws me-it's not a "professional language"that I can present to an employer in the future.

You don't have to use this, but you can use scratch to train your skills on programm. Maybe you could try to built blocks with blocks.
Try to think about a block like "if sprite 1 is touched" and try to make this without the easy blocks.
I programm sometimes in java or C#, but i like scratch much better. I can do with all 3 languages the same things, but with scratch i can finisch them 10-20 times faster. You can't make syntax errors and have long lines of code (or in scratch blocks) together in just one line (one block).
Look at some of my projects, like laser quest, and try to make a similar project, without looking at the scripts. You will notice, that it is harder than it looks. In scratch you have just the block  " if on edge, bounce", but without the "edge" you need more lines of script. And i could give you many more examples like this. In scratch you have an idea and can immediatly start to programm. In java and C# you need to think about "Classes" you need. Then you have to google and google for the "blocks", because they aren't all on one place. And after thinking "It's done!" you will notice, that you have to debug 50% of the code.

So all in all you could take a look at some complex languages, which you can later use in a job, but when you notice, that you have many problems and ned for everything tutorials, then go back to scratch and try to make your ideas here.

Last edited by TM_ (2012-10-09 18:06:17)

Nothing to thank