Scratch

Here I'm creating a simple guide on how to make your first (or just a simple) game!

Part one: Introduction

   Do you want to make your first game? And be able to share it without being insulted about how bad it is? Then you've come to the right thread (I hope ^.^")! I'll be showing simple steps to create simple, yet good quality games here! Results may vary

Part two: Ideas

   Ok, you've decided to make a game, but what should it be? One easy way to think of ideas is to hit somebody and use the first word they say as a starting point (just kidding, although it sometimes works!). Just look around you for inspiration. For example:

Computer mouse- could be a mouse...
Mouse- cheese...
Cheese- moldy cheese...
Moldy cheese- cheese monster
Cheese monster- rotten food wars

See?

Or...

Fridge- food
Food- cucumbers
Cucumbers- "good" in sandwiches
"good" in sandwiches- moldy cucumber
Moldy cucumber- living cucumber
Living cucumber- rotten food wars

I believe that was the inspiration for bachelor fridge by Jagex. And it's one of their top games. See what you can do by just looking around?

After that, you should decide how your game goes. Platformer? Bird's eye view? Will it be turn based? Real time? Just think of the rough idea before going on.

Part three: Programming
Ok, now that you have your idea, it's time to program! I'm including a simple guide to some types of games, try experimenting!

1. Platformer
A platformer game where you have to jump and move, maybe with an attack or something. Since this is meant to be a simple game, I'm not gonna go into complicated variables that still slightly confuse me.
It's good to reduce your scripts, but at the same time not cramming them together so much that you lag a long time. So first, your character!
Basically, here's a picture of your character's script. The variable (orange block) "movement speed" is how much you move, so replace it with how quickly you want to move (or keep it a variable). The variable "jump height" is how high you want the character to jump. Again, either make it a number or make it a variable and set that variable to a number. The variable "gravity" is basically how quickly your character falls.

Replace that color with the color of your land.

Side Notes & Game Engine Editing
When you start, you may find it hard to program something that works. Don't worry, everybody has that problem once in a while! If there's something you REALLY want to do but it's too complicated, you could try searching for a game engine to edit. Basically a game engine is a project that can (normally) be used to easily remix into another game, and is designed to be modified (not complicated scripts for the sake of being complicated and annoying to script editing people). I'll show you an example of a more complex game engine that you can remix (it's mine, so remember to give credit!).

So, I'm going to show you how to edit (not complex, adding body segments etc.) the blob game engine (made by me  ). It's basically a platformer engine that can be hard to edit if you want to program, although just editing land is easy.

The project is here: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/juststickman/914469

Now look at the scripts.

*five minutes later*

Are you conscious yet? I guess you didn't hear me when I told you that you don't have to edit that... Now go to the land sprite. Draw your own costume. Turn AI on. Delete the AI button. You just edited the engine to create your own game!    NOT! 

Let's have a look at the player's script... (click for larger image)



*five minutes later*

Did you pass out again? Ok, now let's look at the script. Open the zoomed in image to read my comments.



Done? Ok, sorry about that then... Anyway, I'm going to show you how to make a level!

Now right after the go to block, add this:
[blocks]
<if><touching[ the thing to touch for the next level
<broadcast[ next level
<end>
[/blocks]
See? That wasn't so hard! Unless your computer crashed from trying to edit that other script... Look for some platformer tutorials if you want to know what to do next, I'm only showing you how to edit here. Hint:

[blocks]
<when I receive[ next level
<next costume>
[/blocks]

But I'm not telling you where to put that  , figure it out yourself.

Part four: art
There are many ways of getting art for your games. You can look at the requests forum and request something there. Or you could search on the internet, there are many lists on where to find sprites.

OR you could draw them yourself.

There are a few simple ways of drawing sprites, for more information search "spriting tutorials".

1. Just drawing the sprites
Just draw them either in the paint editor, in some image editing software, or on a piece of paper. Generally, you should try to smooth sprites if you use this method.

2. Pixel by pixel drawing
Draw the sprites pixel by pixel. Search "spriting tutorials for information". This method is better for smaller sprites, but takes longer.

3. 3D modeling
You can also create 3D models in programs such as blender and sketchup. And then take screenshots.

Part five: views
Ok, so you've got the project. But nobody is looking at it! What should you do?
There are many things that you can do. Don't believe people when they say show and tell is the best place. It's so crowded that unless your title is really attention grabbing,  only one or two people will view it. But it's worth a try if you have the time. Some ways of getting views include:

1. Show and tell forums
Not the best place to go unless the title is really eye catching.

2. Advertising in signatures
You can put a link to your project in your signature. A really cool image helps to attract attention. Some people will also give free advertising space in their signatures if you ask, although there are normally long lines for this.

3. Making friends
Making REAL friends, not just somebody on your friends list, can get you some views. They will probably look at your projects, and might tell their friends about it! You can also end up having your project suggested for featured like this! One way to make friends is commenting on other people's projects.

4. Advertising in other places
You can advertise on other forums and places too! This generally is the worst way, unless you're the admin (or just well known) of the site.

5. Making good projects
Making good projects will mean that people want to look at your stuff more.

6. Being helpful
This really just means helping people with things. You may get a reputation for being helpful, and people might look at your stuff even more!

And also, remember. There are some things that you should NOT do if you want views. They include:

1. Spamming
Nobody likes a spammer.

2. Flaming
Nobody likes somebody who just insults people.

3. Making pointless projects
People will look less often.

Part six: File size and lag
Lag
Ok, let's say you've made a super awesome epic project. But it's soooooo slow! A lot of guides will say some things, but here are the main tips about improving project running speed:
1. Loops
The more forever loops you use (with things inside them), the slower they will all run. Every loop will run at the same speed (exceptions are with loops inside loops with stuff inside that and loops with wait for blocks), so no matter how long a loop is, your other loop with one block in it will be executed at the same time.
However, less loops can also cause problems. If you put too many things inside a loop, it'll be slower. It's important to find the balance so that you don't have LOADS of scripts, and you haven't crammed everything into one.

2. Graphic effects
Those graphic effects in the looks section look awesome, right? Well there are some problems with them. Setting effects like whirl and fisheye to large amounts (or constantly changing them) can really slow down your project. There is also another problem that often happens unintentionally. This is sort of a bug, but it's sometimes helpful. Here's a scenario to help you understand:
You're scripting a sprite that changes costumes from a small one to a big one. So you switch to the small costume and set size to... Let's say 1000%. All is well, there is no lag. But then you switch to the large costume. LAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!
Sprites may have size caps, but they won't automatically decrease in size after changing to a larger animation frame.

3. Broadcasts
Ah broadcasts. Generally the easy way to change levels etc. There's one problem with them. As I have said:

I wrote:

There is one huge problem with that though.

BROADCASTS LAG LIKE [removed]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By that I mean that there is a short (long if you're trying to make your game smooth, I DO care about 0.1 second delays, and you probably will too later on) delay between the broadcast and when I receive blocks. You can use broadcasts, but don't use them if you need something to be constantly done (example: stamping all the graphics).

File size
1. In-game rendering
Remember the blob game engine I mentioned earlier? That actually has no sprites that are shown, only a stamp! That's why it's so much faster offline...
Anyway, projects like that generally have a lower file size because there are almost no graphics (maybe a small white circle on one or two sprites, every other sprite is a 1x1 dot). All you use is the pen down, pen up, set pen size to, and set pen color to blocks.

2. Re-using graphics
Sometimes you need a bunch of sprites with the same animations. They could be 3D, taking a huge amount of file size. One way to fix this is stamping. In my blob game engine, I use stamping (well, not in the currently released version, but I do). Every costume is only on one sprite, and for collisions, there are solid version of those costumes (less colors= less file size). That means you could just have one sprite that stamps everything.

3. Re-using sounds
Sometimes, you'll decrease your file size with more scripts. For example, sounds. Maybe you have 200 soldier sprites (maybe with stamping) that all have the same sound effects. Instead of putting 200 of the same sound effect, you could have one sprite that would receive broadcasts to play the sounds!

4. Compressing
Compressing is normally very helpful. In the "edit" tab of scratch, select compress sounds or images. With most sounds, you can't hear much of a difference between highest and lowest quality. But with graphics (especially smoothed ones), there's a huge difference. Sometimes with compressing smooth graphics, there will be blocks of color that really make the picture look bad. So be careful how much you compress your graphics!

5. Getting rid of spare blocks
I often make this mistake. Look at the script for the blob game engine. In there, you can see that there were some useless scripts with no cap on them. They still add to your file size, after all they're there when you download! So get rid of them, unless it's something you're telling people to attach if they want (or something like that).

Part seven: some stuff you could use
This section is just a small collection of a few things made by me that you can use (but remember to give credit!)

Game engines

1. Bouncing
Basically a game engine for easy bouncing.

2. Bouncy ball
A platformer game engine for a bouncy ball character.

3. The waffle engines
There is no link in the title of this because there are two: a scrolling and a non-scrolling one. NOTE: VERY GLITCHY
Scrolling (more glitchy)
Non-scrolling (not as glitchy

Graphics

1. Random guy
Sure, it was for a competition. That doesn't mean you can't use it!

2. Epic shadow robot
An animated creation that was originally for an AI competition, but sizing issues made it illegal, so feel free to use! NOTE: due to graphic effects, may lag.

Last edited by juststickman (2010-04-06 08:49:01)