Projects

Clone wars
Create a game in which you have to save the Earth
from space monsters

Step 1 Introduction

In this project you will learn how to create a game in which you have to save the Earth from space monsters.
What you will make
Score as many points as you can by shooting flying space-hippos. If you get hit by a hippo or by an orange
dropped by the bats, you lose a life.

What you will need

Hardware
A computer capable of running Scratch 3
Software
Scratch 3 (either online (https://rpf.io/scratchon) or offline (https://rpf.io/scratchoff))
Downloads
Find the downloads here (https://rpf.io/p/en/clone-wars-go).
 What you will learn
How to make sprites move using keyboard input
How to clone sprites to make copies of them
How to use ‘broadcast’ and ‘receive blocks’ to send messages

Additional notes for educators

You can find the completed project here (https://rpf.io/p/en/clone-wars-get).
Step 2 Make a spaceship

First make a spaceship that can defend the Earth!

Open the ‘Clone wars’ Scratch starter project.

Online: open the starter project at rpf.io/clone-wars-on (https://rpf.io/clone-wars-on).

If you have a Scratch account you can make a copy by clicking Remix.
Offline: download the starter project from rpf.io/p/en/clone-wars-go (https://rpf.io/p/en/clone-war
s-go), and then open it using the offline editor.
If you need to download and install the Scratch offline editor, you can find it at rpf.io/scratchoff (http
s://rpf.io/scratchoff).
Add this code to the spaceship sprite to make the spaceship move left if the left arrow is pressed:

when clicked

forever

if key left arrow pressed? then

change x by -4

The x-axis goes from the left side of the Stage to the right side. This means that the spaceship moves to
the left when you subtract from the value of the spaceship sprite’s x position. So this code block is the
part that makes your spaceship move left:

change x by -4

Add some more code inside the forever block to make your spaceship move to the right if the right
arrow key is pressed.

I need a hint
Here is the code you need to add below the other code inside the forever block:

if key right arrow pressed? then

change x by 4
Test your project by clicking the green flag. Can you press the arrow keys to make your spaceship move
left and right?
Step 3 Lightning bolts

Now you are going to give the spaceship the ability to fire lightning bolts!

Add the Lightning sprite from the Scratch library.

Add a sprite from the Sprite Library

Click on Choose a Sprite to open the Sprite Library:

You can search for a sprite, or browse for one by category. Click on a sprite to add it to your project.
 When the game starts, the Lightning sprite should be hidden until the spaceship fires its laser
cannons.
Add this code to the Lightning sprite:

when clicked

hide

At the moment, the lightning bolt is really big compared to the spaceship!

Below the code that the Lightning sprite already has, add some blocks to make the sprite smaller and
to turn it upside down.

set size to 25 %

point in direction -90

Now it looks like it fires pointy end–first out of the spaceship.

Add some new code to the Spaceship sprite to create a new clone of the lightning bolt if the space key
is pressed.

I need a hint

Here is what your new code should look like:

when clicked

forever

if key space pressed? then

create clone of Lightning

Whenever the game creates a Lightning sprite clone, the clone should appear and then move
upwards until it reaches the top of the Stage. Then the clone should disappear.
Add this code to the Lightning sprite so that clones of it move upwards until they touch the edge of
the Stage, and then they get deleted.

when I start as a clone

go to Spaceship

show

repeat until touching edge ?

change y by 10

delete this clone

Press the space key to test whether the lightning bolt moves correctly.
 Challenge!

Challenge: improve the lightning

What happens if you hold down the space key? Can you use a wait block to fix this?
Step 4 Space-hippos

Now you’re going to add lots of flying hippos that try to destroy your spaceship.

Create a new sprite with the ‘Hippo1’ image in the Scratch library. Use the shrink tool to make the Hippo
sprite a similar size to the Spaceship sprite.
Set the Hippo sprite’s rotation style to left-right.

Set sprite rotation style

You can set which way a sprite rotates.

Click on the sprite in the Sprites panel.

Click on the direction and select the rotation style you want.

The styles are:

All around — points the sprite in the direction it is facing
Left/Right — flips the sprite left or right only
Do not rotate — the sprite looks the same regardless of which direction it is facing

Add some code to hide the Hippo sprite when the game starts.

when clicked

hide
 Add some code to the Stage to create a new Hippo clone every few seconds.

I need a hint
This is what your code should look like:

when clicked

forever

wait pick random 2 to 4 seconds

create clone of Hippo1

Each new hippo clone should appear at a random x position, and every clone should have a random speed.
Create a new variable called speed that is for the Hippo sprite only.

Add a variable in Scratch

Click on Variables in the Code tab, then click on Make a Variable.

Type in the name of your variable. You can choose whether you would like your variable to be
available to all sprites, or to only this sprite. Press OK.

Once you have created the variable, it will be displayed on the Stage, or you can untick the
variable in the Scripts tab to hide it.

When you’ve done this correctly, the variable has the name of the sprite next to it, like this:
 When each Hippo clone starts, pick a random speed and starting place for it. Then show the clone on
the screen.

when I start as a clone

set speed to pick random 2 to 4

go to x: pick random -220 to 220 y: 150

show

Test your code. Does a new hippo appear every few seconds?

At the moment the hippos don’t move.

Each hippo should move around randomly until it gets hit by a lightning bolt. To make that happen,
attach this code below the blocks that are already in the Hippo sprite’s code script:

repeat until touching lightning ?

move speed steps

turn pick random -10 to 10 degrees

if on edge, bounce

delete this clone

Test your code again. You should see a new hippo clone appear every few seconds, and each clone
should move at a different speed.

Now test the spaceship’s laser cannon. If a lightning bolt hits a hippo, does the hippo vanish?
Step 5 Spaceship explosion

When a hippo touches your spaceship, the spaceship should explode!

Select the Spaceship sprite and rename its costume ‘normal’.

Draw another costume of an exploding spaceship, and call the new costume ‘hit’.

If you don’t want to draw the explosion, you can select the ‘Sun’ costume from the Scratch library, and
then use the Color a shape tool to change the costume’s colour and face.
Add some code to your Spaceship sprite so that it displays the ‘normal’ costume when the game
starts, and switches to the ‘hit’ costume when it touches a hippo:

when clicked

switch costume to normal

wait until touching Hippo1 ?

switch costume to hit

Test your code. Make the spaceship collide with a hippo. Does the spaceship change to the ‘hit’
costume?
Step 6 Hippos that disappear

When the spaceship explodes, all the hippos should disappear so that players of the game can recover.

Add code to the spaceship sprite to make it broadcast the message “hit” when the spaceship
touches a hippo.

when clicked

switch costume to normal

wait until touching Hippo1 ?

switch costume to hit

broadcast hit

All of the Hippo sprite clones will receive the “hit” message, and you can instruct them to disappear
when the spaceship is hit by adding this code to the Hippo sprite:

when I receive hit

delete this clone

 To check whether the new code works, click the green flag and make the spaceship collide with a hippo.

After the spaceship explodes, new Hippo clones appear, but the spaceship is still exploded! The spaceship needs
to reset itself after being hit.

Add a wait block at the end of the Spaceship sprite’s code to create a small pause before hippos
begin appearing again. Then add a forever block around all of your code to make the code run
repeatedly.

when clicked

forever

switch costume to normal

wait until touching Hippo1 ?

switch costume to hit

broadcast hit

wait 1 seconds
 Challenge!

Challenge: lives and score

At the moment, you can play the game forever, but it doesn’t count how many hippos you shoot or how many
times your spaceship explodes.

Can you add lives, a score, or even a highscore to your game?

Create a high score in Scratch

It’s fun to keep track of a high score in a game.
Let’s say you have a variable called score, which gets set to zero at the beginning of each game.

Add another variable called high score.

At the end of the game (or whenever you want to update the high score), you’ll need to check whether you
have a new high score.
Step 7 Space-bat

To make your game a bit harder, you are going to create a bat that throws oranges at the spaceship.

Add a Bat sprite and set its rotation style to left–right.

Make the Bat sprite move from left to right at the top of the Stage forever.

when clicked

set size to 50 %

forever

move 10 steps

if on edge, bounce

Remember to test your code.

If you look at the bat’s costumes, you can see that it has four different ones:
 Use the next costume block to make the bat flap its wings as it moves.

I need a hint
Your code should look like this:

when clicked

set size to 50 %

forever

move 10 steps

if on edge, bounce

next costume

wait 0.3 seconds

Now make the bat throw oranges!

Add an Orange sprite from the Scratch library.

Add code to your bat so that when the flag is clicked, the Bat sprite forever waits for a
random length of time between 5 to 10 seconds and then creates a clone of the Orange sprite.

when clicked

forever

wait pick random 5 to 10 seconds

create clone of Orange

Add code to the Orange to make each of its clone drop, starting from the Bat sprite and falling towards
the bottom of the Stage.

when clicked

hide

when I start as a clone

go to Bat

show

repeat until touching edge ?

change y by -4

delete this clone

Add some more code to the Orange sprite so that when an Orange clone hits the Spaceship sprite,
the clone also disappears to give the player a chance to reset:

when I receive hit

delete this clone

Modify the code of your Spaceship sprite so that the sprite is “hit” when it touches a Hippo sprite or an
Orange sprite:

wait until touching Hippo1 ? or touching Orange ?

Test your game. What happens if the spaceship gets hit by a falling orange?
Step 8 Game over

Next, you’re going to add a ‘game over’ message at the end of the game.

If you haven’t already, create a new variable called lives.

Your spaceship should start with three lives and lose a life whenever it touches a hippo or an orange.
Your game should stop when the lives run out.

Draw a new sprite called Game Over using the text tool.

On the Stage, broadcast a game over message just before the game ends.

broadcast game over and wait

Add this code to your Game Over sprite so that it shows at the end of the game:

when clicked

hide

when I receive game over

show

Because you’ve used a broadcast (game over) and wait block on your Stage, the Stage will wait
for the Game Over sprite to be displayed before ending the game.

Test your game. How many points can you score? If the game is too easy or too hard, can you think of
ways to improve it?
 Challenge!

Challenge: improve your game

What improvements can you make to your game?
Here are some ideas:

Add health packs that you can collect to gain extra lives.

Add floating rocks that your spaceship must avoid.

Make more enemies appear when your score gets to 100.

wait until score = 100

Step 9 What next?

Have a go at our Create your own world (https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/create-your-own-wor

ld?utm_source=pathway&utm_medium=whatnext&utm_campaign=projects) project, where you’ll create
your own adventure game!

You’ll use the arrow keys to move your character around in the world.

Published by Raspberry Pi Foundation (https://www.raspberrypi.org) under a Creative Commons

license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
View project & license on GitHub (https://github.com/RaspberryPiLearning/clone-wars)