Video Game Programming with Scratch
Last week the Fort York Branch's Builders' Club, an after school club for builders, designers, creators and innovators who want to learn new skills and explore new technologies began their adventures into the land of video game design with Scratch.
Scratch is a free, web-based, visual programming platform created by MIT, and is perfect for introducing the concept of computer programming to children. Scratch allows children (and adults!) to create video games of various levels of difficulty. The 2D drag and drop environment is easy for kids to manipulate, but it can also include computer programming concepts like loops, events, and objects as well as mathematical concepts like values, decimals, and variables. As a result, games can be as simple as a maze, and as complex as a game of basketball between a monkey and a turtle!
Head over to the Scratch Website to play some of the games created by users all over the world. Or check out this sample game, Monkey Tag, by Wendy, our Lead Instructor for this program. Instructions for this two player game are available here.
Scratch is really easy to learn at home too, so try one of these print books to get you started:
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or one of these electronic resources available from the library:
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Fort York Library's Video Game Programming with Scratch program is full, and we're no longer taking any new participants, but we'll be offering this program again in the fall. In the meantime, check out some of the other Maker programs at the library.
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