October 2025
Beginner
288 pages
5h 58m
English
Content preview from Coding For Kids For Dummies, 3rd Edition
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Part 4
Getting Gamey with Key Controls and Variables
![A screenshot of a Scratch programming project titled “Space Gem.” The stage area on the right shows an astronaut, a gem, and a planet floating in a cosmic scene with a nebula background. A variable named “timeRemaining” with a value of 18 is displayed in the top right. The central code area contains several sets of code blocks: A main script that triggers when the green flag is clicked. It starts by making the sprite go to the “planet,” then enters a forever loop. Inside this loop, an if statement checks if gemCollected = true and touching planet ? then to display “YOU WON!!” for two seconds and then stop the program. Four separate code blocks, each starting with when [arrow] key pressed, control the astronaut's movement. They each point the sprite in a specific direction (up, left, right, or down) and then move it 10 steps. On the left side, the “Control” code palette is selected, showing various blocks like wait until, repeat until, and stop all. Below the stage area, the “astronaut” sprite is selected, showing its current coordinates, size, and direction. The other sprites, “planet,” “gem,” and “robot,” are also visible.](/api/v2/epubs/urn:orm:book:9781394359769/files/images/9781394359769-pp0401.png)
In this part you’ll …
- Declare, initialize, increment, and decrement number variables
- Code a timer-based reaction game
- Create a key-controlled paddle bounce game
- Produce a collection and avoidance game
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.