Welcome

Are you looking for last year's stuff? Go here.

So glad you are here! We've got a fun packed week of learning about computer science and how to make a game using Scratch.

Course Content

Check out the course notes and other great resources!

Games!

• Pacman!
• Evil Squirrel
• Blackmail
• Count-A-Thingy
• Mr Meow's Ball Game
• Klabster the Unicorn!
• The Maze
• Driving in the City
• Bibble's Adventure
• BobAndJoe
• Save Puffy the Cupcake!
• Pacman(Remix 3)
• Fail Makeover!
• project #2

Friday

Today we will finish our games and have a pizza party!

We will attempt to have everyone upload their games to the Scratch website gallery so I can link to them from this page.

Thursday

CS Unplugged: Artificial Intelligence

• The Turing Test
• Finite State Automata

In the lab

• Work on your game! :)
• Remember to check out the example games that come with Scratch.

Projects to Check Out

• Ghost 3 - Sidescrolling platformer game
• Bounce: Jungle - Platform game without side scrolling
• Radar Block Madness - Tetris game
• Bouncy Ball - Simple but clever use of basic graphics
• keyboard khaos - Typing game
• House Hunt - I spy game with hints
• Colour Jump - Puzzle game

Videos

• Video Games and the Uncanny Valley
• Dance Evolution
• Big Buck Bunny
• Other movies made in Blender
• Augmented Reality Magic

Other Software to Try

• Game Maker
• Alice
• Blender (tutorials)

Wednesday

CS Unplugged: Usability and Images

• Human Interface Design Activity
• Image Representation Activity

Tutorials

• Redware Research Limited
  • Moving and Sensing
  • Broadcast and Receive
  • Make a Game
• Game Studio Tutorials
  • Cat and Mouse

Videos

• Making of Avatar

Tuesday

Tutorials

• Learn Scratch: Unit 3 - Games

Videos

• Video Games and Storytelling
• Video Games and the Female Audience
• Video Games and Moral Choices

Monday

We're using a free piece of software called Scratch to make games.

There's a big community of other people your age using it to make games and other fun stuff - check out their featured projects.

You can safely download Scratch and use it at home.

CS Unplugged: Programming Languages

By the time you read this, we'll have completed the CS Unplugged activity about programming languages. You can click here to see the whole activity if you want to. When we make our games in Scratch, we have to be careful to use the right instructions in the right order so the game we make works the way we want it to. But don't worry, it's not as hard as it sounds!

Scratch Tutorial

1. Open Scratch from Start > Programs > Programming > Scratch.
    
2. Open this Getting Started Guide and work through it.
    
3. Open and work through these lessons. At the top of the page, you can download the "starting project"onto your USB stick.
   1. Scratch Lesson 4: Sprite Interaction via Variables
   2. Scratch Lesson 5: Work With the Stage
   3. Scratch Lesson 7: The Pong Game
       
4. Starting with any of the projects you worked on in Steps 1-3, play around! Try new blocks and draw new sprites. Don't be afraid to break something.
   

Places to Learn More

There are plenty of other resources available online. If you feel stuck or need inspiration, look through a few of these:

• Scratch Cards
  A few quick reference cards that explain how to do basic tasks.
   
• Scratch Reference Guide
  This has lots more information about the Scratch interface and the types of blocks you can use.
   
• Scratch Forums
  Ask questions, share projects, and discuss issues with other Scratch users.
   
• Video Lessons from redware research limited
  A range of additional video lessons ranging from basic to advanced.
   
• Scratch Lessons from Shall We Learn
  The rest of the lessons from Step 3 in our tutorial can be found here.