Game Arcade

Advanced

60 mins

Teacher/Student led

+240 XP

What you need:
Chromebook/Laptop/PC or iPad/Tablet

Galaxy Ghosts

Embark on an exciting journey to create your own space-themed game, 'Galaxy Ghosts', using MakeCode Arcade. Learn to create and control player and enemy sprites, program interactions, and add a scoring system. By the end, you'll have a fully functional game where you can shoot at enemy sprites and earn points. Ready to start your coding adventure?

Learning Goals Learning Outcomes Teacher Notes Lesson Files

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1 Introduction to Galaxy Ghosts
2 Start a New Project
3 Create your player
4 Move left and right
5 Create the targets
6 Random position at the top
7 Create a speed variable
8 Fire!
9 Hit the target
10 Add the 'status bar' extension
11 Take damage
12 Game over
13 Wrap Up
Challenge
Quiz

1 - Introduction to Galaxy Ghosts

Welcome to the Galaxy Ghosts lesson! In this lesson, we will be using MakeCode Arcade to create an exciting space-themed game. You will learn how to create and control a player sprite, generate enemy sprites, and program interactions between them. By the end of this lesson, you will have a fully functional game where your player sprite can shoot at the enemy sprites and earn points. Let's get started!

2 - Start a New Project

Open the MakeCode Arcade website using the link below and create a new project. You can call the project whatever you want.

https://arcade.makecode.com

Arcade: How to create a new project

Create a new Arcade project using the makecode.com website.

+5 XP

3 - Create your player

First let's create our player sprite.

Add the following code and choose the blue space ship sprite:

let mySprite: Sprite = null
mySprite = sprites.create(img`
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c b . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . f f . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c 6 . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . f f . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . 8 6 . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . 8 8 9 8 . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . 8 6 9 8 . . . . . . 
    . . . . . c c c 8 8 8 . . . . . 
    . . . . 8 8 6 6 6 9 8 8 . . . . 
    . . 8 f f f c c e e f f 8 8 . . 
    . 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 6 9 6 8 8 . 
    8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 9 6 6 8 8 
    8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 6 9 6 8 8 
    `, SpriteKind.Player)

Arcade: How to create a sprite in Arcade

Click on the gray box in the sprite block to open the Editor. You can choose a sprite from the Gallery or you can paint your own sprite using the Editor.

+10 XP

4 - Move left and right

We want to position the player sprite at the bottom of the screen and use the joystick (or arrow keys on your keyboard) to move it left and right.

Add the following new code:

let mySprite: Sprite = null
mySprite = sprites.create(img`
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c b . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . f f . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c 6 . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . f f . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . 8 6 . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . 8 8 9 8 . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . 8 6 9 8 . . . . . . 
    . . . . . c c c 8 8 8 . . . . . 
    . . . . 8 8 6 6 6 9 8 8 . . . . 
    . . 8 f f f c c e e f f 8 8 . . 
    . 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 6 9 6 8 8 . 
    8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 9 6 6 8 8 
    8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 6 9 6 8 8 
    `, SpriteKind.Player)
mySprite.y = 110
controller.moveSprite(mySprite, 100, 0)

Make sure you select y in the position block and put in a value of 110. This will make the sprite go to the bottom.

Click the + on the move block and have values of vx 100 and vy 0. This means we can move the sprite left and right (vx) but not up and down (vy).

Once you've added the code check to see that your space ship is at the bottom and you can move it left and right.

+20 XP

5 - Create the targets

Now we will create the target sprites that we will shoot at. We will create a new target (enemy) sprite every 2 seconds.

Add the following code and choose a sprite from the gallery. In this example we chose a ghost:

let mySprite2: Sprite = null
game.onUpdateInterval(1000, function () {
    mySprite2 = sprites.create(img`
        ........................
        ........................
        ........................
        ........................
        ..........ffff..........
        ........ff1111ff........
        .......fb111111bf.......
        .......f11111111f.......
        ......fd11111111df......
        ......fd11111111df......
        ......fddd1111dddf......
        ......fbdbfddfbdbf......
        ......fcdcf11fcdcf......
        .......fb111111bf.......
        ......fffcdb1bdffff.....
        ....fc111cbfbfc111cf....
        ....f1b1b1ffff1b1b1f....
        ....fbfbffffffbfbfbf....
        .........ffffff.........
        ...........fff..........
        ........................
        ........................
        ........................
        ........................
        `, SpriteKind.Enemy)
})

Make sure you select Enemy as the type for your target sprite.

Once you've added the code you should see your target sprite in the middle of the screen. A new enemy sprite is being created every 2 seconds but as they're getting created on top of each other, you can only see one.