What’s up, squad! We will be making an arcade game and machine that your friends will actually play. This project will turn you into junior engineers and designers who work together to finish developing a game by a set deadline. This is how some of your favorite games are made!
LEVEL 1: The Beginning - Brainstorm & Basics
Example made by Miles
Mission: We’re starting by brainstorming themes and ideas for our arcade game.
- Think of your favorite games: Mario, Minecraft, Among Us—what makes them fun?
- As a class, we’ll come up with 3 game ideas that sound fun and doable.
- Let's take a look at Mr. Mike’s game idea. This game will help you learn some basics that Scratch can do.
LEVEL 2: Groups by teacher, but what team are you?
Mission: Now it’s time to form teams! Your teacher will divide the class into smaller groups. In each group, you’ll need to choose your role:
- Engineering Team: You’ll focus on coding the game using Scratch, and later constructing the arcade machine.
- Design Team: You’ll design characters, backgrounds, and the look of the arcade machine using tools like Canva, Piskel, TinkerCad.
LEVEL 3: First Sprint: Get 3 things done
Mission: Your goal for this sprint is to complete 3 key tasks.
Engineering
- Make a character move
- Interact with an object on the screen
- When a character interacts with the object, then an object's costume changes.
- Introduce variables
Design (worksheets)
- Explore different game layouts and decide.
- What is the theme of the game
- What’s the goal of the game, and how is that measured
- Take note of inspiration: Cartoons, games, books?
LEVEL 4: Second Sprint: Brainstorm, research, sketch
Mission:
Engineering
- 10 minutes to find one ☝️ scratch game, that has a feature you would like
- Record names of games and links
- Put this feature into your game
- Phrase these as when ____, then_____.
- What are 3 other features your game needs?
Design
- Based on worksheets, find temporary backgrounds for game, give to Engineering team
- Record where items were found
- Based on worksheets, find temporary characters for game, give to Engineering team
- Record where items were found
- Other members begin sketching original characters and background
LEVEL 5 & 6: Feedback is Your Friend - Demo Time!
Mission:
- Mission: Share your progress with your teammates. Let them test your game, and don’t worry—it’s all about getting better!
- Remember, iteration (fancy word for making changes based on feedback) is what makes great games even better.
- Debug your demo version—find and fix those tricky bugs!
- Mini-Game: Playtest another team’s game and record two cool things about it. How would you make it even better?
- Design Challenge: Create a storyboard—a visual plan of how your game will look and feel. Think of it like planning your favorite movie scenes but for a game!
LEVEL 7 & 8: Final Tweaks - Ready, Set, Build!
- Mission: Let’s polish our games with the final feedback from your classmates and teachers.
- We’ll split the work: some of you will finish designing characters and backgrounds, while others will focus on game mechanics.
- Incorporate last-minute improvements and get ready for the final showdown—your game needs to impress!
- Bonus Challenge: Who can create the most creative character design? Maybe give them superpowers like Goku from Dragon Ball Z or make them as mysterious as a Among Us crewmate.
Endgame: Get Ready to Build the Arcade Machine!
Once we finish the game, it’s time to turn those designs into real arcade machines. We’ll be using cardboard, monitors, and joysticks to build something epic!
Let’s get creative, have fun, and remember, every great game had to start somewhere—yours starts today!