In the previous post, I introduced Retro Arcade by Elecfreks. In this post, I would like to show you, how my four-year-old daughter and I made our first game. It is necessary to say, that my daughter is not old enough to code, so this part is (for the moment) done by me.
STEP 1 – Designing the game
We approached the challenge with old school way. Firstly, we defined what is game about. In this case, there is the “Mom” who is catching fish and they are put into the basket. Secondly, we draw a background of the game. Then, we draw the main character. And finally other elements of the game (fish, bucket, etc.).
STEP 2 – Transforming the drawing to Make Code
Initially, I tried to draw the game parts in Photoshop, etc. However, the import tools (external) are not very well designed and for this purpose unusable. So, I draw it again in the integral drawing tool of Make Code, which turned out fine.
STEP 3 – Coding
Make Code platform provides two ways how to code a game – using blocks or actual code (JavaScript or Python). For simple games like ours, the blocks are completely fine. I just had a few problems with the declaration of variables, but the solution was to declare them in the “on start” procedure. You can find many good tutorials at the Make Code website, or the website of Elecfreaks.
STEP 4 – Downloading the game to a console
If you are using Chrome, you can download your game to a console directly from the Make Code site. Just be sure that the console is at sync mode and you chose F4 Board.
STEP 5 – Voila
