Al Sweigart - Scratch Programming Playground

LEARN TO PROGRAM BY MAKING COOL GAMES

AL SWEIGART

San Francisco

SCRATCH PROGRAMMING PLAYGROUND. Copyright 2016 by Al Sweigart.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

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ISBN-10: 1-59327-762-8

ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-762-8

Publisher: William Pollock

Production Editor: Laurel Chun

Cover Illustration: Josh Ellingson

Illustrator: Miran Lipovaa

Interior Design: Beth Middleworth

Developmental Editor: Tyler Ortman

Technical Reviewer: Martin Tan

Copyeditor: Anne Marie Walker

Compositor: Laurel Chun

Proofreader: Lisa Devoto-Farrell

For information on distribution, translations, or bulk sales, please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly:

No Starch Press, Inc.

245 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

phone: 415.863.9900;

www.nostarch.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sweigart, Al, author.

Title: Scratch programming playground : learn to program by making cool games
/ Al Sweigart.

Description: San Francisco : No Starch Press, [2016] | Audience: Ages 8+. |
Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016022304 (print) | LCCN 2016024406 (ebook) | ISBN
9781593277628 | ISBN 1593277628 | ISBN 9781593277963 (epub) | ISBN
1593277962 (epub) | ISBN 9781593277970 ( mobi) | ISBN 1593277970 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: Scratch (Computer program language)--Juvenile literature. |
Computer games--Programming--Juvenile literature. | Computer
programming--Juvenile literature. | Microcomputers--Programming--Juvenile
literature.

Classification: LCC QA76.73.S345 S94 2016 (print) | LCC QA76.73.S345 (ebook)
| DDC 005.13/3--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016022304

No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it.

For Seymour Papert, So long and thanks for all the turtles (February 29, 1928 July 31, 2016)

Al Sweigart is a software developer, tech book author, and hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is. He has written several programming books for beginners, including Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, also from No Starch Press. His books are freely available under a Creative Commons license at his website http://www.inventwithpython.com/.

Martin Tan helps run a Code Club in Australia, and he wrote the space-themed Scratch and Python projects for Moonhack 2016 that brought over 9,000 kids together to break the world record for children coding simultaneously. Martin also works as a penetration tester, contributing to various open source projects and research.

GETTING STARTED WITH SCRATCH

RAINBOW LINES IN SPACE!

MAZE RUNNER

SHOOTING HOOPS WITH GRAVITY

A POLISHED BRICK BREAKER GAME

SNAAAAAAKE!

FRUIT SLICER

ASTEROID BREAKER... IN SPACE!

MAKING AN ADVANCED PLATFORMER

Its misleading to have just my name on the cover. This book wouldnt exist without the efforts of many people. Id like to thank my publisher, Bill Pollock; my editors, Laurel Chun and Tyler Ortman; my technical reviewer, Martin Tan; my copyeditor, Anne Marie Walker; and all of the staff at No Starch Press.

Thanks to the MIT Media Labs Lifelong Kindergarten group for their development of Scratch, which has a long chain of influential thinkers: Mitchel Resnick, Seymour Papert, Marvin Minsky, and Jean Piaget. While we give the younger generation a ride on our shoulders, lets never forget where we ourselves stand.

Special thanks to the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in Oakland, California. A video game museum is as fun to be involved with as it sounds, and volunteering with MADEs weekend Scratch class has been thoroughly rewarding. If Alex Handy, Mike Pavone, and William Morgan hadnt started the Scratch class, I never wouldve come up with the idea for this book. Ill see yall next Saturday.

Playing video games is fun, but programming your own video games is a creative, challenging skill that will let you make your own fun. The free Scratch programming environment gives everyone an easy way to learn programming skills. While Scratch is primarily designed for 8- to 16-year-olds, its used by people of all ages, including younger children with their parents and college students learning their first programming language.

Theres so much that you can do with Scratch, its hard to know where to start. Thats where this book comes in. This book guides you through creating several video games in Scratch. By building the projects in this book, youll get a good idea of which blocks are commonly used to create video games in Scratch. These projects provide a solid foundation for you to build upon when creating your own original programs.

No previous programming experience is necessary to read this book. The only mathematics skills required are basic arithmetic: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Dont let math phobia prevent you from learning to program. And dont forget that the computer will perform calculations for you!

Each program in the book is easy to make by following the step-by-step instructions. Youll learn about the code blocks and programming concepts as you make games that use them. No matter your skill level, theres no reason you cant start reading this book now!

Kids can follow along with the activities on their own, but this book is also for parents, teachers, and volunteers who want to introduce their children or students to the world of programming. The projects are ideal for a weekend activity or afterschool computer club. Adults dont have to be software engineers to use this book to help others learn.