Step 1 – Explore what you are going to create and see how it works
Try out this online emulation of the classic arcade version to see how the game plays:
1. Play Q*Bert
To play:
- Click the big yellow Q*Bert logo (if an ad opens, just close it and try clicking Q*Bert logo if game hasn’t loaded)
- Click the right hand Shift key (this simulates putting in a coin in arcade machine)
- Press Enter key to start
- Use arrow keys to move around
- Turn sound down low or use headphones
2. See a version of Q*Bert made with SCRATCH by Aidan.
3. Watch a video of a full game so that you can explore how parts of the game work:
Step 2 – Plan your approach to making your version Q*Bert
Are you going to to try and make it close to the original arcade version?
Or are you going to put your own twist on it?
Figure out first steps to get started.
Step 3 – Get Started
The core of the game is the structure of cubes and our player character, Q*Bert, hopping on the cubes and changing the colours. Each cube needs to be able to change colour when Q*Bert hops on it. Note that there can be more than 2 colours in later rounds (intermediate colour as well as initial colour and final colour). How are you going to keep track of the state of each cube?
Your first goal: Create the pyramid of cubes and set up the player sprite (Q*Bert) so that it can move from cube to cube changing the colour of each cube. Using cloning works well for this. It might help to think of the arrangement of cubes as an X,Y grid, e.g.:
[0,0][1,0][2,0][3,0][4,0][5,0][6,0] [0,1][1,1][2,1][3,1][4,1][5,1] [0,2][1,2][2,2][3,2][4,4] [0,3][1,3][2,3][3,3] [0,4][1,4][2,4] [0,5][1,5] [0,6]
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