Hey there! I’m Zoë from the Scratch team, and today I’m going to show you how to make a super fun catch game using Scratch. In this game, objects fall from the sky, and you have to catch them to score points. You can choose any object to catch and any character to do the catching. We’ll go through five easy steps: moving the catcher, making the object go to the top, making it fall, catching it, and keeping score. Let’s get started!
First, let’s choose the character or object that will catch the falling items. Click “Choose a Sprite” and pick anything you like. I’ll choose a bowl. Don’t forget to add a cool backdrop! I’ll use the boardwalk.
We want the bowl to move left and right using the arrow keys. To do this, use the block “change X by 10” to move the bowl to the right when the right arrow key is pressed. To make this happen, use an “if then” block. This block makes the sprite do something only if a certain condition is true.
Now, let’s make sure the bowl moves whenever the right arrow key is pressed. Put the “if then” block inside a forever loop. This way, the game always checks if the right arrow key is pressed. To move the bowl left, change X by -10 when the left arrow key is pressed. Put this in the forever loop too. Now you can move the catcher with the arrow keys!
Next, let’s choose the object that will fall from the sky. I’ll pick an apple. At the start of the game, we want the apple to appear at a random spot at the top of the screen. Use the block “go to random position” and “set Y” to 180 to make the apple start at the top.
Now, let’s make the apple fall down the screen. Change Y by -10 to make it move down. Put this inside a forever loop so it keeps falling. But wait, we need the apple to go back to the top when it reaches the bottom. Use an “if then” block to check if the apple’s Y position is less than -170. If it is, send the apple back to the top using the same code from before.
Let’s make it so you can catch the apples with the bowl. If the apple touches the bowl, it should go back to the top and start falling again. Use an “if then” block with the “touching” block to check if the apple is touching the bowl. If it is, send the apple back to the top and play a fun sound when you catch it!
Finally, let’s add a score to the game. Create a variable called Score to keep track of points. Use the “change score by one” block to increase the score each time you catch an apple. Make sure to set the score to zero at the start of the game so it resets.
And there you have it! You’ve made a catch game in Scratch. You can customize it by choosing different objects to catch and different characters to do the catching. Maybe you’ll catch trash to clean the ocean or treats for a pet. The possibilities are endless! Have fun creating, and Scratch on!
Design Your Own Catch Game: Use your imagination to create a new version of the catch game. Choose different objects to catch and a unique character to do the catching. Draw your ideas on paper first. What will your character look like? What will you catch? Share your design with a friend or family member and explain why you chose those objects and characters.
Real-Life Catch Game: Play a real-life version of the catch game. Use a soft ball or a bean bag and try to catch it in a container, like a bowl or a basket. Take turns with a friend or family member to see who can catch the most in one minute. Think about how this game is similar to the Scratch game you created. What makes it different?
Observation and Reflection: Watch how objects fall in real life. Drop different items, like a feather and a small ball, from the same height. Observe how they fall and discuss why some objects fall faster than others. How does this relate to the way objects fall in your Scratch game? Write down your observations and share them with the class.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the YouTube transcript:
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Hi everyone, it’s Zoë from the Scratch team, also known as Zinnea. Today I wanted to show you how to make a catch game in Scratch. This is a game where objects are falling from the sky, and you catch them to score points. It could be any object that’s falling, and it can be any character or object that’s catching it. We’ll break this into five steps: move the catcher, make your object go to the top, fall down, catch it, and keep score. Let’s get started.
First, let’s pick the character or object that you want to be catching things, and we’re going to make it move with the arrow keys. You can click the button that says “Choose a Sprite,” and you can pick anything you want. I’ll use a bowl, and let’s add a backdrop too. I’ll use the boardwalk.
We want the bowl to be able to move side to side with the arrow keys, so that it can catch whatever’s going to be falling. We can use the block “change X by 10” to make the bowl move to the right. Let’s make it do this if the right arrow key is pressed. There’s a helpful block for this, which is an “if then” block. If you haven’t seen an “if then” block before, here’s how they work: they make a sprite do the code inside only if the condition is true.
In our game, if the right arrow key is pressed, we can make the bowl change X by 10. Let’s try it out and make it start when I click the green flag. I’m pressing the right arrow key, but nothing is happening. That’s because this “if then” block is only checked once. When I click the green flag, it’s asking if the right arrow is being pressed right now, but then it stops checking.
What we want is for it to always check if the right arrow key is pressed at any moment. So, we can put this inside a forever loop. Now, this is what we want: it’s always checking if the right arrow key is being pressed. To make the bowl go to the left, instead of changing X by 10, we can change X by -10. Let’s make it do this if the left arrow key is pressed, and let’s put this in the forever loop too. There we go, now we have a catcher that we can move with the arrow keys.
Next, let’s pick the object that we want to be falling and make it go to the top of the screen. You can use any object you want. I’ll use an apple. At the beginning of the game, we want the apple to start at a random place at the top. The block “go to random position” will make it go to a random place. The block “set Y” can set how high up a sprite is. In Scratch, Y represents how far a sprite is from the bottom of the screen to the top.
If we set Y to 0, the apple goes to about the middle. If we set Y to 20, it goes up a little higher, and 180 makes it go all the way to the top. Now, if we make the apple go to a random position and then set Y to 180, it goes to a random place but then Y is always set to be at the top. That’s just what we want. When the game starts, it starts at a random place at the top of the screen.
Now, let’s make our apple fall down. If we change Y by 10, the apple goes upwards. To make it go down, we can put in a negative number. If we put this inside a forever loop, it’ll keep falling until it hits the bottom. But now it’s stuck. Right now, we have an apple that can fall one time. What we would like it to do is, if it’s at the bottom, go back to the top. This is another good time to use an “if then” block.
Let’s drag one out. In here, we need to put some code that checks if the apple is at the bottom. Remember how I said that Y represents how high up a sprite is? Let’s look at the apple’s Y while it’s falling. Its Y position starts at 180, then it goes to 170, 160, it gets to 0, then it goes to -10, -20, and down here, it’s like -170. We can check if the Y position of the apple is less than -170. If the apple’s Y position is that low, then we know it must be at the bottom.
To test that, we can drag out the round blue block that says Y position and the green “less than” block from the operators category. We want to check if Y is less than -170. Now, if the apple is at the bottom, what do we want it to do? We want it to go back up to the top, and we already have the code for that. Let’s just put a copy of that same code in here and put this code inside our forever loop. Now we have an apple that can fall, and when it gets to the bottom, it goes back up to the top.
Next, let’s make it so that we can actually catch the apples instead of them just falling through the bowl. If the apple touches the bowl, then the player caught it, so it should stop falling and go back to the top somewhere else to start falling again. This is another good time for an “if then” block. There’s a helpful block that says “touching mouse-pointer,” and instead of mouse-pointer, I can choose bowl. Now this block will test if the apple is touching the bowl. If the apple is touching the bowl, we want it to go back to the top, and again, that’s just our same code from before that makes it go to the top. Let’s put this inside a forever loop and make it play a sound when we catch it.
Lastly, let’s add a score so that you get points for every apple you catch. To make a score, we can add a variable. A variable lets you keep track of a certain number in your project. We can make a variable called Score and use it to keep track of how many points we’ve scored. We can use the “change score by one” block to make the score increase, and we can put this block here so every time we catch the apple, the score increases by one. When the game starts, let’s set the score to zero so it resets.
There we go. That’s a catch game! I love catch games because they can be any type of game based on the objects that are falling and the character or object that’s catching them, and the backdrop you choose. You could be catching pieces of trash to keep an ocean clean, or a pet could be catching treats, or just really anything. I’m excited to see all the things you make. Well, I’ll see you next time, and Scratch on!
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