Consider how lollies fall in a grid-based game, how birds are catapulted, how characters require momentum to make jumps or how they float in underwater environments – the game needs to be designed taking into account the forces acting on an object. In terms of how things move and behave in space, this means it needs to be a world that takes physics into account.

For this to happen and for the on-screen world to make sense, it must follow predictable rules.

(Extension) What energy transformations occur when two objects collide? Is this represented accurately in the game?Įxplain to students that a key aspect of engagement in video games and apps is how immersive the ‘world’ of the game is – how real it feels to the player.What would happen if we added a representation of gravitational force to this game? How would the sprite move differently?.

How could we slow down the movement of the ‘ball’ sprite?.

Once students have a ‘ball’ sprite colliding with a ‘paddle’ sprite, pause their coding and explore the following questions as a class: In Scratch, students will have a sprite that bounces around the screen and another sprite it can bounce off. Completing the tutorial up to the step ‘Add Code to Bounce the Ball Off the Paddle’ will take no more than 15 to 20 minutes. No experience with Scratch is required for students to follow the tutorial. Alternatively, they can jump straight into Scratch and find a Pong Game tutorial under the Tutorials menu. Students can work independently to follow the Pong Game Scratch tutorial available here. Students begin by creating a simple a pong game in Scratch.

How to make crossy road on scratch