Middle School course

Game Design 201

  • GRADES 6-8
  • BEGINNER
  • WEB
  • 25 LESSONS

Answer Key

Module 5: Stack the Blocks

Module 6: Stack 'em up

Module 8: Make a Structure

Module 9: Quiz

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Lesson 10: The Physics Engine

Course: | Web

  • Introduction
  • Play the Game
  • Concepts
  • Stack the Blocks Example
  • Stack the Blocks
  • Stack 'em up
  • Make a Structure Example
  • Make a Structure
  • Quiz

Description

A fast-paced introduction to programming for students in grades 6-8. Introduce programming fundamentals to your class as they build two arcade-inspired games from start to finish. In Cannon Crasher, a physics game, they harness the power of the physics engine to program realistic jumps, projectiles, and bouncing balls. The Adventure Game features a knight who has to defeat enemies to reach treasure. Students program arrow keys, fluid motion, hero and enemy behavior, and winning conditions.

Topics Covered: Events, keyboard and mouse interaction, conditional loops, nested loops, functions, and sending and receiving messages. Basic physics programming such as gravity, bounding boxes, bouncing, projectiles, impulses, and collisions.

What Students Learn

  • Build complex multi-level games
  • Use variables to keep score
  • Use cloning to create actors programmatically
  • Build algorithms using complex conditional logic
  • Build physics projects using gravity, impulse, and velocity
  • Understand parallelism with multiple scripts
  • Program different behaviors for different actors
  • Publish projects to the Web
  • Troubleshoot and debug programs

Technical Requirements

* Online courses require a modern desktop computer, laptop computer, Chromebook, or Netbook with Internet access and a Chrome (29+), Firefox (30+), Safari (7+), or Edge (20+) browser. No downloads required.

Lesson 10 : The Physics EngineTime: 60+ mins

Time: 60+ minutes

Introduction

Code Blocks

Vocabulary

Objectives

Materials

Warm-Up (15 minutes)

Activities (45 minutes)

Facilitate as students complete all The Physics EngineTime: 60+ mins modules on their own:

1. Introduction (Video)
2. Play the Game (Example)
3. Concepts (Video)
4. Stack the Blocks Example (Example)
5. Stack the Blocks (DIY)
6. Stack ’em Up (Puzzle)
7. Make a Structure Example (Example)
8. Make a Structure (DIY)
9. Quiz (Multiple-choice)

Extended Activities (10 minutes)

Extended Activities (10 minutes)