Introduction

The majority of gamers today recall playing games like Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, and many others.

Platformers are a subgenre of games. In reality, platformers dominated the early days of video game creation.

Today we’ll look at what goes into making platformers in Scratch, a block-based coding platform. 

The games in this category are referred to as platformers because they need the player to leap from one platform to another while avoiding a variety of foes and hazards or collecting a variety of collectibles along the route to the end objective.

Hurdles of creating a platformer on Scratch 

Scratch is a platform designed for beginners to learn to code, and it does its job well. However, it doesn’t provide you with all the tools necessary to develop a platformer game like a professional game development engine like Unity3D, Unreal Engine, etc would. 

It is also tough to create a scrolling level in Scratch because there are no moving cameras or scrolling backgrounds. 

But it is not necessarily a bad thing. Because often, limitation breeds creativity. When people are limited in resources, they come out with out-of-the-box ideas. 

This can be observed if you go searching for platformers in Scratch. You will find unique and distinct platform games that have their spin on them. 

What is A Generic Platformer on Scratch 

So what might be considered a generic platformer on scratch? 

Well, it simply means it will follow all the typical conventions of the platformer games from the past. 

1. Jumping: It is the old staple of most platformer games. This is the core mechanic of the game. 

2. Movement: The character, which the player will be controlling, must have tight controls, so it feels good to move around in the game. 

3. Levels: The game should have various levels with a good level design that makes sense while platforming. 

4. Obstacles and enemies: A platformer must face obstacles and challenges. It can have enemies, too with different characteristics. 

5. Collectibles: This is optional, but it helps if the player gets rewards as an incentive to keep playing through the levels. 

Jumping 

If you are getting familiar with the blocks and how to use them in Scratch, it is not intuitive to make a jump mechanic. Unlike game engines with Gravity built-in, In Scratch, you have to circumvent it. 

You may use simple techniques like gliding up a certain distance, waiting a while, and gliding back down. 

Or you may prefer to create your artificial gravity. You can do that by clever use of variables. You can call the variable “Gravity”. 

The only thing you check before jumping is whether you are touching the ground or the level you have made. Use a forever loop to check these conditions constantly. 

Once you press the up arrow, set “Gravity” as a positive number, inside the same forever loop, change the Y value of the sprite by “Gravity” and decrement “Gravity” by changing it.

These are a few common and popular methods of making the jumping mechanic work. 

Movement 

You don’t need to overcomplicate your character’s movement at all. However, the settings need to be adjusted in order to get the desired effect of making it feel pleasant.

When we push one of the directional keys, we want the character to travel in the direction that is specified by that key.

However, the rate at which the character should travel around its environment is an extremely important consideration.

Level design 

One of the most important aspects of creating a platformer is having a well-designed level that complements the player character’s abilities. 

Because of the lack of a scrolling background or moving camera, most scratch creators are limited to making single-screen levels. 

It’s also difficult to make levels because there isn’t a proper collision detection system.

But there is room for your creativity to fill the gaps. Come up with your concepts, and maybe you can make your game a puzzle platformer. 

You can make sprites and draw your levels as costumes. Also, add another sprite as a decoration layer.

Obstacles and Enemies 

The placement of hazards and adversaries is an integral aspect of the level design process. This is because you need to ensure that the level is both challenging and achievable for the player.

It can be done similarly to the levels you have made. You can create obstacles sprite and for each level, create a different costume. 

As for enemies, you might want to make them move in the same pattern, so the player can detect and avoid them. They might be one-hit kill enemies, or you can make them shoot out some projectiles.

Collectibles 

Collectibles can be made out of a wide variety of objects, such as stars, coins, and other things. You can put them in areas of your platformer that are difficult to access in order to present the player with an additional level of difficulty and to encourage them to continue playing.

Conclusion

That’s pretty much everything that you’d find in a generic platformer on Scratch, and you can make it yourself! You can jump right in and start making your own platformer game if that’s what you want to do.

You can even check the various platformers on Scratch just by searching for it, getting inspiration for your creation. Learn Scratch at BrightChamps with its specially designed curriculum that makes learning programming easy for students in Grade 1-12.

BrightChamps also teaches a variety of other programs that help kids build a foundation in computer programming through activities, interactive lessons, and other means.