Aim to develop an awesome tutorial game in Catrobat visual programming language. Playable on both phone and smart TV via casting. The project showcases the immense abilities of Pocket Code for designing games. Interactive story depiction with easy-to-play UI.
Catrobat aspires to develop solutions which inspire teenagers and adults to learn coding, get creative and be prepared for the digital world of our future. We are doing this by bypassing traditional school pedagogy, instead using a constructionist approach focusing on game app development and fun. We believe in poverty alleviation through coding education for teens – girls in particular, refugees, and teens in developing countries, directly on their personal smartphones. This is especially important in less privileged regions, where teenagers have their own smartphones but do not have access to PCs, laptops, or tablets.
Treasure hunting has always been among the most-talked themes. Be it for movies, games, novels. It’s evergreen! The theme and characters are inspired by Spelunky with added remixes and touch-ups for more excitement. The game displays the effective use of Pocket code in creating a wide-span story game. The ability to induce interactive puzzles and mind-boggling features with simple blocks of code.
It all began from the treasure map! Yang the cave-explorer passed onto the scroll of secrets to Alex. Mesmerized with the impending hunt and challenges, our braveheart Alex marks onto the most adventurous treasure hunt ever! Explore fantastic places filled with all manner of monsters, traps, and treasure. We take you on an adventurous journey through scavenging mines, unforgivable forests, deadly oceans and the uncharted islands in search of the greatest treasure ever in the history of hunts! You'll have complete freedom while you navigate the environments and master their secrets. To stay or flee, to kill or spare, the choice is yours and so are the consequences!
● The game spans across four major levels of mines, forests, oceans and the final islands. Each with its own terrifying creatures, traps and challenges.
● Specific scripting of scenes and sprites in pocket code simplifies the process. Motion handlers, control statements and mathematical functions (random, ceiling, floor, abs etc) help to add descriptive movements for creatures.
● Effective variable handling facility (Internal and external storage) provides many weapon upgrades, exclusive boss fights and checkpoints.
● Interactive scripts (sliding boxes, solving puzzles, handling switches, opening treasure chests, etc) engages the user and keeps them on their toes throughout.
I chose Awesome Demo Game Project (175Hr) from the idea list. The project appealed to my skill set and my interest to design addictive storyline games. Pocket Code and Catrobat visual programming language provide clear-cut tools for the development of large gaming projects. These games have the power to encapsulate your attention throughout the story and make you smile after a tiresome day. Features like cloning, saving data, fetching requests, handling motion, and touch sensing! All are compressed in a single block. Even with a low coding experience, complex game features can be introduced which excited me. Hence, I chose this idea. It provided me a way to pour out my imagination and showcase the beauty of Pocket Code to the world, motivating enthusiastic developers to overcome the coding barrier and enter this field.
Getting an opportunity to learn and implement a whole new skill is always challenging and full of learning. Gaming has always been an integral part of a teenager's life. Hence, spending my summer transforming a creative idea into an actual technical game was a great experience. Visual coding languages have brought a revolution in the field of coding. Google and Catrobat allowed me to explore this beautiful field.
Apart from all the fun, the challenges must be acknowledged too.
● The initial flow, schedule setting, and documentation were new for me but the sessions from google and guidance from org admins and mentors made the boarding smooth and it became easy thereafter. Over the next few weeks, a consistent flow was set and the development went smoothly in sync with my college exams and studies.
● The second was the creation of visual assets from the scratch. Art is a field that cannot be rushed and the deeper you dive, the prettier it gets. I learned a lot of game art and photoshop skills with time.
● Implementing good real-life physics and logic is an integral part for any game developer. Thinking from different perspectives, technical testings, digging into the core functionalities of pocket code, and having discussions helped me to improve my game logic.
Steve Jobs said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do!” and along with the desire, the right guidance and support come in handy. Thank you mentors Katja Urak, Vesna Krnjic and Catrobat for the support. From the very first interaction during the initial phase to regular communication with my mentors, the experience has been smooth and friendly. I feel grateful to be part of this community.
The project files (.catrobat files) created during this summer are uploaded. All the assets are accordingly uploaded under :assets: folder. The(.catrobat) file can be imported into your Pocket Code app.
Download the desired project file and remix it as you want!
⭐ Catrobat community ⭐
