It’s official, my first Scratch project is live 😊
The first CS50 assignment is intended to practice using algorithmic logic. There are a bunch of requirements but they are pretty broad stroke. I set out without worrying too much about them and figured I could add details later if need be. Little did I know…
Tbh, I wasn’t really sure were to start and had no idea what sort of program I wanted to run. Together with the wonderfully supportive women I am working on the course with I explored the different Scratch elements.
I found some cute sprites (think: characters) and added them in. My first choice was a penguin and a trampoline, but the scenario didn’t really spark my creativity. Once I found a frog and discovered the backdrops, I wanted the frog’s tongue to extend with the click of the space bar. That naturally led to my first foray into the actual logic composition. With a few costume changes and some drag and drop, I had my first win. Moving the frog around by arrow keys was the next great step. The real struggle came from getting the characters to interact. With some trial and error, and a lot of help and support from a kind new friend, I managed to get the responsive functionality in.
I really enjoyed the creative process – since it was an organic build, without any pre-design, I was able to follow the natural “feel”. Each achievement inspired me to the next one.
As I created, I discovered lots of little details and fixes that needed to be addressed. For instance, once the game was finished, how did I get it to reset? and then what about at the start of a play, shouldn’t all the characters be in their designated places? This led me to test logic and consider the problems. I even came across one instance where I had a “spelling error” – lesson learned: my custom blocks need clearer defined names.
The last bit of fun came with adding instructions so players would know how to engage with the program. I’m pretty sure I didn’t use the prettiest code but I achieved the end result.
All together it was a great hands-on learning experience. It’s not the most finessed project but I successfully created my first Scratch program…
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/792309822
And bonus, it passed all the requirements for the assignment!