All About Frogger Susan Miller Scalable Game Design University of Colorado

Why Game Design?  Motivates students  Enables students to see themselves as ‘programmers’  Produces Computational Thinking Skills  Enables students to understand and create simulations  Creates Problem Solvers

Frogger – How does the game work?   What’s happening in the game?  What are the rules?

Rules of Frogger  You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks who come out of (and go back into) tunnels, until you get to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs.  What are the NOUNS of this description?

NOUNS = AGENTS  You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks who come out of (and go back into) tunnels, until you get to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs.

Let’s Jump In  Open Agent Sheets  Click on FILE>>NEW PROJECT  Save your file as FROGGER

Let’s make a frog…

Change the depiction to a FROG

Press Clear to get an empty screen

Picture Tools Select Draw Erase Fill Pick Color Filled Rectangle Empty Rectangle Filled Circle Empty Circle

Nouns = AGENTS  Create the following agents:  Frog  Truck  Road  Ground  Tunnel

Create your agents 10 minutes End

Put your agents on your worksheet

Fill in just this much

It’s time to SAVE THE WORLD!

Does your game do anything???

Rules of Frogger- What are the VERBS?  You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks who come out of (and go back into) tunnels, until you get to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs.

VERBS are ACTIONS ACTIONS are CTPs  You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks who come out of (and go back into) tunnels, until you get to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs.

How do we make the frog move?

 CTP#1: USER Control

Make the frog move

 Add the rest of the rules to make your frog move in other directions. TEST your game – does it work???

What makes the trucks move?

 TEST your game – does it work???

Make the trucks appear  The creation of New AGENTS is called GENERATION  We GENERATE new agents  Under what circumstances:  WHEN  HOW OFTEN CTP #2: GENERATE

Make the trucks appear  TEST your game – does it work???

Make the trucks disappear  The elimination of AGENTS is called ABSORBTION  We ABSORB new agents  Under what circumstances:  WHEN  HOW OFTEN CTP #3: ABSORB

Make the trucks disappear

TEST your game – does it work???

What happens when the truck hits a frog?

Create a NEW depiction for your FROG

Talk to your neighbor: How can we program the frog to be squished by the truck

Program the frog to be squished by the truck

Frogger Part II: The River Scene  What do we need to complete the river scene?  Remember the story:  You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks who come out of (and go back into) tunnels, until you get to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs.

What agents do we need? (Think NOUNS) You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks who come out of (and go back into) tunnels, until you get to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs.

What agents do we need? (Think NOUNS) You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks who come out of (and go back into) tunnels, until you get to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs.

What actions do we need? (Think VERBS) You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks who come out of (and go back into) tunnels, until you get to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs. Hint: New CTP: CTP #5 TRANSPORT

Frogger: Student Handout 4  Finish your Frogger game…  If you finish early, try a challenge sheet!!