Scratch For Kids For Dummies

CHAPTER 14

Attacking the Clones

While Pong was the first videogame I ever played, my videogame addiction really began with Space Invaders. The stand-up arcade version appeared in 1978, just a year after the first Star Wars movie (Episode IV, that is, which I saw in the theater — THAT’S how old I am).

I could not imagine designing a game like this in earlier versions of Scratch, which did not provide a way to clone sprites. While the cheese clones in Chapter 13 just sit in place waiting to be eaten, these clones march across the screen and fire deadly watermelon bombs! Fortunately, you can fire back with your own laser clones!

Create a New Project

As always, you can name your project any way you like. I’m going to avoid the title Space Invaders because I have to (by law) and because my game is going to look much cooler!

1. Go to scratch.mit.edu or open the Scratch 2 Offline Editor.
2. If you are online, click Create. If offline, select File ⇒ New.
3. Name your project. (If online, select the title and type Space Attack. If using the offline version of Scratch, select File ⇒ Save As and type Space Attack.)
4. Blast that cat out of existence with the Scissors (or Shift-click the cat and choose Delete).

Choose a Game Background

Although you can import a drawing or photograph or design your own backdrop on the Paint Editor canvas, let’s take the easy route for a quick start: choosing ...