Making Games With Hopscotch

Introduction
Hi, I'm Lars Klint and this is, Making Games with Hopscotch, Module 1, which is an introduction. Welcome to making games with Hopscotch. You are in for an exciting hour of learning how to talk to computers. The first thing we will do is just quickly talk about what computer science is. We need to know why we are learning to talk to computers and we also need to learn how to talk to computers. Next, we will look at exactly what is we are building on our iPad and I will give you a quick look at the game we are going to make together, but let's get started.

Getting Started
Hi, I'm Lars Klint with Pluralsight and we are looking at making games with Hopscotch and this module is getting you started. In this module we will start to get our hands dirty in the world of Hopscotch. First we will make sure that you know where to get Hopscotch and install it on your iPad. Then we'll get familiar with the app on your iPad so you know where everything is and how to get to it. Hopscotch is not hard to start using, but knowing the basics are important for when you start building your own programs on it. Once we know where everything is, we will take a look at the various characters we need to build our game and then talk about how we want the game to start coming to life. We'll also take a look at the basic control elements used in Hopscotch to get a grasp on the starting point of building a program. You'll start to get a sense of what is possible and hopefully you'll be as excited as I am to start building our game. If you find any of the lessons in this course are too fast or you miss something, remember that you can pause and rewind at any time when you need to. If you don't understand a particular part of the course, go back over it. It is better to spend a little time to understand the concepts rather than just powering ahead. Alright. Let's get started. The first step is to get Hopscotch.

Events Make it All Come to Life
Hi, I'm Lars Klint and in this module we are going to look at events and how they make it all come to life. In this module we are going to talk about events. Events are very important if you want to learn how to talk to computers. First off, we learn what are events? Why are they so important and what do they mean when talking to computers? We then look specifically at our game and how events will improve our game, and what do they add in particular? And then we will of course use them in our game in Hopscotch. Are you ready? Here we go.

Control Your Project Flow
Hi, I'm Lars Klint and this is the module on controlling your project. Now we know what events are, let us look at another important part of programming, controlling flow. How can we control the flow of the game with the building blocks that computer science provides us? We will in particular look at loops and wait instructions and how they are some of the most powerful features of the programming language. Then finally, we will use the constructs to control the flow of our Frogger Lite game. We will make the monsters in our game become a little more dangerous to our hero, monkey.

Looks Can Change - Animation
Hi, I'm Lars Klint with Pluralsight and this module is on animation and how looks can change. We are now halfway in the course and we are well into building our Frogger Lite game. We now have characters moving across the screen. The user can control Monkey and there is interaction between the characters when they collide. In this module we are looking at animation and changing the look of your characters. We will look at the different types of animation and what the difference is. We'll discuss how animation can add interaction and user engagement in your project. Then we'll look at the different usages for animation before finally adding some action through animation to our game characters.

Drawing With Lines
Hi, I'm Lars Klint with Pluralsight and this module is on drawing with lines. We have just looked at animation in the previous module and a natural extension of that is drawing on the screen. In particular, we will understand how drawing on the screen with lines is awesome. We will look at how it can help guide your users in your project and how easy it is to implement. Drawing lines can add graphics that are relative to what the interaction of the screen is, rather than having to define it up front. We will look at a really cool finished example in Hopscotch that is only using line drawing and finally, we will, of course, add some drawing with lines to our own game.

Variables and Code Reuse
Hi, I'm Lars Klint with Pluralsight and this module is on Variables and Reusing Code. We are now nearing the end of the course, but this does not mean that we are not learning anything new. This module will take a look at a very important part of talking to computers, variables and reusing code. First we'll learn about variables, which are reusable values that can change. Variables are one of the fundamental building blocks of modern programming and computer science. Next, we'll take a look at reusing code. Why write the same thing twice if you don't have to? It doesn't only save time up front when you are writing the initial code, but also after the project is complete, when you have to maintain it. Lastly, we will rewrite parts of our Frogger Lite game to take advantage of both variables and code reuse.

What's Next?
Hi, I'm Lars Klint with Pluralsight and this is the module on What is Next? This last module will see us finish off our Frogger Lite game. We are now pretty much done with our small game, but there are a couple of little things we need to add. We need something to happen when we win the game. We'll also look at the random feature, which is a way to add a more natural feel to your project. The project we have created to make our game is relatively simple, so we will just have a look at what Hopscotch can allow you to do if you spend the time and effort. Where do we then go from here? You can talk to teachers and get them on board or how about getting involved in one of the many organizations that can teach you programming and you can also share your newfound knowledge?