Alien Attack is a game I created using Scatch, block coding software. The game has a simple storyline, graphics, sounds, and motion. I'll walk you through the elements of the game, feel free to use the files provided (just remember to provide attribution) or create your own graphics and game.
**The inspiration for the game is the movie: Gravity
Tools I used:
- Canva to create backgrounds and sprite graphics
- Audacity to edit and convert audio to mp3
- Astronaut Voice app to create the space audio for the gam
- Scratch to build the game
- Htmlifier to convert my scratch file to an html viewable and playable file
Every game starts with an idea. I started by creating a game journal for Alien Attack. In the journal out wrote out the description of the game.
After I wrote out my game journal, I created a storyboard using Mural
Once I had a storyboard it was time to create graphics. I decided I wanted to use Pixel graphics. I used Canva and stock graphics. I started by creating the backdrops for the game, I created a canvas that is 490 x 360 px the backdrops consisted of a the title screen and blank backdrops screen using a space theme. You can access the graphics here
Then I create a handful of grpahics I would use a Sprites for the game. Sprites are just characters create a new canvas sized to 250 x 250 px. I then searched for the graphics I needed, putting one graphic per page. Then I downloaded the graphics as transparent background PNG files. You can access the graphics here
I wanted to add some audio to the game to provide a storyline and create a scene where the initial conflict begins. I used the Astronaut Voice app which coast $2.99 on iOS. I grabs some IMDB quotes from the movie Gravity and used that the create a script for the recording.
"Matt Kowalski: Explorer's been hit. Explorer do you read? Explorer, over, Explorer? Astronaut is off structure. Dr Stone is off structure. Dr. Stone detach! You must detach!
Ryan Stone: [Still attached] No! No!
Matt Kowalski: If you don't detach that arm's gonna carry you too far! Listen to my voice! You need to focus! I'm losing visual of you. In a few seconds I won't be able to track you. You need to detach. I can't see you any more. Do it now!"
I recorded the audio and then shared it directly from the app, it creates an m4v file which I can't use in Scratch. I had to edit the audio using Audacity (a free audio editing tool) to convert the audio and export as an mp3.
As I planned out the game, I needed to keep the game mechanics simple - use the arrow keys to move the characters and don't touch an alien. There is a fule level tracker, when you touch an alien you lose fuel. however, I need to spend a little more time being intentional aboutd the fuel level as there is no penalty for going negative on the fuel level (I'll have to change that soon). I rate the game E for everyone of the platformers game genre. Platformer games deal with jumping from platform to platform, having the player avoid obstacles.
Building the actual game was a bit easier because I did a lot of the prep work upfront. I began with a clean workspace, then uploaded all of the backdrops I created. The I added sprites one by one an programmed each as I uploaded them based on the actions they should take.
Here's a link to the Alien Attack Scratch project . You can take a look inside and view the code blocks as they have been programmed. You can also remix this game to make it better. If you do make improvements be sure to share. Some suggested improveents include:
- adding more levels
- adding complexity
- addiing additional sound
- extending the storyline
- adding level completion screens
- adding consequence to the gas levels - if levels fall to zero, end game (?)
- adding boundaries
- simplify the code