Scratch

Welcome Scratchers!
Explanation

Welcome to my new thread dedicated to helping new Scratchers! In this guide you will find...

• Modding (NEW)
• Tutorials on Making Projects
• Tutorials on Script Blocks
• Tutorials on Variables
• Tutorials on Lists
• Getting Sprites
• Video tutorials
• Hall of Fame
• Special Thanks
• Pokemon Game Tutorial
• Guessing Game Tutorial
• PacMan Game Tutorial
• Ping Pong Game Tutorial
• Check Out My Site

Tutorials on Making Projects
Being Successful

Before making a project, just like writing a book you need to plan out what you are doing. This makes everything allot easier to do and understand when you actually start to build your project. You should think about...

• The name of your game [eg; Pacman]
• What its about [eg; Space Invaders]
• Who you play as [eg; Ship's Pilot]
• Where it takes place [eg; Space]
• What happens [eg; War]
• How long you think it might take [eg; 1 day]

One you have listed all of this you know what your game is about and what you need to include when you start to build. Also, you need to think about whether or not you will need help! The best place's to go for help are...

Forums
Forums
Forums
Forums

Tutorials on Script Blocks
Motion

Motion blocks are shown in the colour blue. These control how Sprites move around the stage in a game or animation on Scratch. You can change the amount of pixels it moves from x, y or left to right. You can make sprites rotate and point towards objects [eg; Mouse]. Sprites can jump to positions and even bounce of edges.

Looks

Looks blocks are shown in the colour purple. These control how Sprites or the stage look. You can change the costume (How it looks) or even make Sprites speak! You can make sprites fad in and out of the screen (Using Control Blocks) and the size of sprites. You can hide and show Sprites and control the layer they show in the stage.

Sound

Sound blocks are shown in the lovely shade of pink. These control the sound that is played whilst your project is running. You can make your project play sounds when an even occurs [eg; Gunshot] stop all sounds and even make your own music using the sounds (instruments) provided in the sounds menu by controlling the seconds it plays and the beats.

Pen

Pen blocks are shown in green and or more commonly called 'Stamping'. These control things that can be drawn on the stage without sprites. You can set to where the pen starts and ends and then how it gets rubbed out. You can take a picture of something and stamp it wherever you want and this is useful for making Health and Energy bars etc; for you games.

Control

Control blocks are shown in yellow and are the key that makes everything work. You can make things happen when the Green Flag is clicked and when certain keys are pressed. You can make things happen over and over and make the project wait for something. You can broadcast an event that another sprite can hear, and then will do something. You can make everything end and query by using the 'If' block.

Sensing

Sensing blocks are shown in shallow blue and is all based touch. If something is touching something else, then you can make something happen or a sound be played. If the distance from one sprite to another sprite is one step, then you can again make something happen. You can make it so that when it touches specific colours and when the mouse is clicked on something that an event occurs.

Numbers

Numbers are shown in a brighter shade of green and obviously are related around numbers, When using the control blocks, you can make it so when a Sprites health is [eg;100] something happens and if a number is bigger, smaller equal to something else something happens. You can also make it pick a random number which is crucial to some events.

Variables described in Variables tutorial

Tutorials on Variables
What?

Variables are numbers, or things that can be changed throughout your project. This comes from the word, vary. If something gets damaged and Health is a variable, then you can change it from 100 to say 40. They can get rather complicated later on in more advanced games, so here are some links that may help you...

Thread

Tutorials on Lists
What?

Lists are important things when you are making projects, like RPG or Adventure games. You may need an Bag or a Inventory were you carry things. Say you had to pick up 10 coins. When you collect a coin, it is put into a list so your Coins = +1. It may be hard to understand but it is vital that you know what they do.

Possible Ends

Lists can be used for the following things, that are useful in many sorts of games...

• An Inventory
• Determining Events
• Similar to Variables
• Quests
• Collecting Items
• Deleting Items

Getting Sprites
Great and Safe

Below are some great links to some useful websites that provide you with sprites. Just click the sprite you want and save it, then import it into Scratch. It is simple and effective.

Panel Monkey
DRSHANPS
GSArchives
Spriters Resource
Dan01 Thread

Video Tutorials (You Tube)
Better Than Words

Here are some video's that I found on You Tube. If you are a young user of Scratch, please ask a Parent/Guardian before entering You Tube. Most of these Videos were made on a previous Version of Scratch than the latest (1.4).

Broadcasting
Simple Tutorial
Example Game

Hall of Fame
The Best

1. Illusionist
2. 08jackt
3. Macca
4. coolstuff
5. Lightnin
6. 7scratch7
7. flamegirl
8. m44
9. Daffy22
10. terminator68

Special Thanks
To...

Flexi Studio - For Making All This
coolstuff - Thanks for all your help!
Dan01 - Your sprite thread rules!
Hall of Fame People - You are cool.
Panel Monkey - Sprite site
Sprite Database- Sprite site
GSArchives - Sprite Site
Spriters Resources - Sprite Site
Whoever made Scratch - Thanks for this great community and software!

Pokemon Game Tutorial
Creating a Game

This is my largest thread yet, and I want to make it bigger and better by adding in tutorials for games. My first game tutorial will actually be based on my first game, Pokemon Quartz. Its not the best of games but its good for a starter. View it here...

The Game

The Tutorial

First you need to download the project here.
I'm going to explain how all the Scripts work.

Sprite 1

When the Green Flag (execute button) is clicked, Mudkip will show and change into his first costume. He will go to the specified cords, 142, 69. Then, forever, if you press the key, R, he will switch into his 2nd costume and glide to Pikachu in 0.8 seconds. Then he will switch back into his first costume and go back to cords, 142, 69 and Pikachu's health decreases by 25. Also, if Mudkip's HP is lower than 1, the game ends.

Sprite 2

When the Green Flag (execute button) is clicked, Pikachu will show and change into his first costume. He will go to the specified cords, -141, 69. Then, forever, if you press the key, Q, he will switch into his 2nd costume and glide to Mudkip in 0.8 seconds. Then he will switch back into his first costume and go back to cords, -141, 69 and Mudkip's health decreases by 25. Also, if Pikachu's HP is lower than 1, the game ends.

Sprite 3 + 4

Sprite 3 + 4 are basically the little ovals that both Pokemon stand on.

Sprite 5 + 6

Sprite 5 + 6 are the Health box's. Inside these are the Variables of Mudkip's and Pikachu;s health.

Sprite 7

When the Green Flag is pressed, Sprite 7 hides and goes to the specified cords. When the key A is pressed it shows, and glides for 1 second to Mudkip. Then Mudkip's health decreases by 25 and the sprite goes back to where it started and hides again. This is the same for Sprite 9.

Sprite 8

When the Green Flag is pressed, Sprite 8 hides and goes to the specified cords. When the key F is pressed it shows, and glides for 1 second to Pikachu. Then Pikachu's health decreases by 25 and the sprite goes back to where it started and hides again. This is the same for Sprite 10.

End Result

Thank you for reading this tutorial and I do want to bring out more. I hope you appreciate my contribution to this society and how I wish to increase beginner Scratchers knowledge on how to create and share. More will be out soon!


Guessing Game Tutorial
Ask And Answer

This tutorial will teach you how to make a guessing game using the simple scripts of ask and answer. First, open the Guessing game by clicking, File, Open and then click EXAMPLES, the folder with the Scratch Cat on. Then click the first project, '1 Guessing Game'. Click on the only sprite, 'Baby' and I will split down the scripts.

How It Works

When the Green Flag (Execute) is pressed, the Sprite will switch into the costume named 'baby' and ask, 'Hi What's your name?'. A box will appear and you will type an answer into it. Then the Sprite will say, 'Well hello there (ANSWER)'. The block that says, say (ANSWER) for 2 secs, means it will say what you typed in when asked the first question.

Then it will ask, 'Ok, tell me what animal to turn into!'. Then you will answer the question along the lines of something like Dog. Then the sound 'Burbles' plays and the Sprite switches into the costume named Girrafe. Then it will say, 'Oops, I didn't turn into a (ANSWER)'. The part that says ANSWER is the animal you said, in this case Dog. Then the Sprite will say, 'I turned into a Girrafe!'.

I like this game because it is very simple and easy to script. It has a easily used
interface when used properly and is quick because it has few scripts.

PacMan Game Tutorial
Controls

This tutorial will teach you how to make a PacMan game by using simple colour cordination. First open the PacMan game by clicking File, Open and the click EXAMPLES, the folder with the Scratch Cat on it. Then click the project named '2 Pacman'. Click the stage and I will explain bit by bit.

The Stage Scripts

When the Green Flag (Execute) is pressed, forever long the game is playing for it will play the sound 'one1'. Now clik the sprite called pacman.

Pacman Scripts

When the Green Flag is pressed, the sprite will go to the specified cords and for how long the game plays for, it will change costume's every 1 tenth of a second, that will give it the pacman 'chomping' look.

Also, on the front of the costume is a small purple dot. If this dot is touching the green background then the sprite pacman will always move 2 pixels (2 steps).

When the left arrow is pressed it will point in the angle -90 and when the right arrow is pressed it will point in the angle 90. When the down arrow is pressed it will point in the angle 180 and when the up arrow is pressed it will point in the position it started in (0 degrees) facing skywards.

I like this game because it is a classic and world wide known. It will draw a large crowd if mentioned well in the Forums and simply because everyone loves PACMAN!

Ping Pong Game Tutorial

This tutorial will teach you how to make a Ping Pong game by using simple colour cordination. First open the Ping Pong game by clicking File, Open and the click EXAMPLES, the folder with the Scratch Cat on it. Then click the project named '4 Pong'. Click the ball and I will explain bit by bit.

Sprite 'ball'

When the green flag is clicked, the sprite will go to the specified cords and then when it touches the colour red (RED STRIP AT BOTTOM) the game will stop/end.

When the green flag is clicked, until the game ends, if it is touching the other sprite 'paddle' it will play the sound 'water_drop' and point in the direction 180 degrees minus the direction [eg; 100] would be 80. It would move 5 steps and then pick a random angle from -20 to 20 and it will turn that way.

Then, whenever it touches an edge, it will bounce and move 4 steps.

Sprite 'paddle'

When the green flag is pressed it will move along the x position of the mouse, that moves if you move to the left or right. To the right of the center the x position will always be plus and the left will be minus.

This is a good game because it is fun and easy to make but at the same time addictive to play! Thank you for reading.

Modding Scratch
Modification

You may have heard of Modding Scratch. It is when someone or a group change and edit Scratch. There are many ways to do this and I'm going to explain a few.

Changing the Logo

1.) Shift-Click the 'R' in the Scratch Logo
2.) Select 'Turn Screen Filling Off'
3.) Alt-Click the logo until a pen icon shows up near it.
4.) Click the pen icon and begin editing!

To save your new logo:
1.) Shift-Click the 'R' in the Scratch Logo
2.) Select 'Turn Screen Filling On'
3.) Shift-Click the 'R' in the Scratch Logo
4.) Select 'Save Image for End User'
5.) Select 'Yes'
6.) Reopen Scratch

Once done this, you will have a different logo. Remember the text tool DOSN'T SHOW up.

TBC

SPAMMING - What to do about CYBER BULLYING
Here are some helpful links

Spamming and Cyber Bullying are horrible. If someone is being mean to you, the following links can put an immediate stop to it. Remember, I you are a Cyber Bully, you can be CHARGED by the police!

Trolling Guide - Bopitman99
Spamming - EBROADCAST
Blog Spamming
Stop Cyber Bullies
Cyber Bullies for parents

Last edited by FlexiStudio (2010-09-05 14:22:10)