Let's Make: Mama Dino with Makecode Arcade!
Welcome!
Thanks for joining us for this self-guided work-from-home Bitlink workshop! This workshop is intended for children aged 9-12, with a bit of support from a parent, guardian or older sibling. On this page you will find videos and links that will guide you through the process of building your own simple video game using MakeCode Arcade. MakeCode Arcade is a free game building tool that runs in a web browser. You can sign up for an account, which makes it a bit easier to save your work or manage multiple projects, but you can work through this whole workshop without creating an account if you like.
To get started, watch the video below!
Using Skillmaps in MakeCode Arcade
Now that you have found your way to the MakeCode Arcade website, let’s take a moment to learn how skillmaps work, and how to navigate the MakeCode Arcade programming tools. Then, we’re going to dive right in and work through the first section of the tutorial together! After watching this video, it’s time to work through the rest of the skillmap on your own or with some help, then we will check in with you again in the next video!
Unpacking the Code
Hello again! After that break, you should have finished the Save the Dinos skillmap and you should have a game that is working pretty well. If you had trouble, or if your game doesn’t seem to be working properly, don’t worry! We have provided a link in this section to a completed project that you can use to move into the next step with us.
In this video, we walk through the code behind this game and how some of it works. Before we dive in and start modifying things, we want to understand how the game we have works and some of the places where we might make small changes to influence the gameplay.
Playtesting & Brainstorming
We’ve learned that we can modify our game, but just because we can change something doesn’t always mean that we should! In this video, James and Troy from Bitlink playtest the finished Save the Dinos game and brainstorm some changes that we could make to modify the game. We also point out some places in MakeCode Arcade that you can make changes to start customising your game right away. You can change your game as much or as little as you like, but make sure that you test your changes as you go. That way, if something doesn’t work properly, or if you don’t like how things turn out, you can remember how to put things back the way they were! This is all part of the game development process!
Testing Modified Games
We hope you have had a fantastic time modifying your game! The two of us have also been working on changing the Save the Dinos game into something a bit different. James has made a space-themed game with a new power-up, and Troy has made a rock-climbing-themed game that turns the whole game on its side so that the player is climbing upwards instead of walking to the right.
In this video, we will show you our games and also give you a peek at the code behind the scenes and how we made our changes. You can also use the links below to access your games yourself and, remember, you can always click the “Edit Code” button on a MakeCode Arcade game to look at the code and make your own changes. We have also provided another link to the completed Save the Dinos project below, in case you want to rewind and try making another version of it yourself!
Sharing Your Game
We’re almost done and we hope you are really proud of what you have achieved so far! Playtesting is a very important part of game development and this isn’t just about playing your own game, it’s also about getting feedback from other people. If you would like to share your game, you can do that by clicking the share link in the top right corner of the MakeCode Arcade screen (the icon is three dots connected by lines). From there, you can copy a sharing link, or access a QR code to get your game onto a phone or tablet computer. Your game will run there just as well as it does on a computer! You can use your link to share your game with friends or family members, and you can also use it to share your game with us if you like! We have provided a link to a form below which you can use to send us your game. We will look forward to seeing what you have created!