Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Engage thrusters
Let's start with the beneits, because these by far outweigh any shortcomings menioned
later. The announcement of the cloning feature got me excited about Scratch 2.0 instantly.
As a game designer, it has been my favorite new tool. It just opens up so many opportuniies
to create beter games with Scratch. I hope the example games will demonstrate this.
The
More Blocks
and
Backpack
features are also nice addiions. I haven't used them a
lot as yet, but I can see their beneit if you're an acive Scratcher who creates projects
on a regular basis.
Drawing in
Vector Mode
is a nice addiion. It ofers more variaion in the way you can
draw your sprites. The only downside is that it can slow down your project if there are many
complex vector graphics on stage at the same ime. It's a balancing act between drawing
enough detail and not slowing the game down when it's running. Unfortunately, there is no
clear way to see how the graphics will impact your game unil you have made them and are
running the program.
The one major drawback I found is that the enire Scratch environment is now online.
This means that you always need to be connected to the Internet while working. Many
places have Internet access, but you could be in trouble if you wanted to use Scratch while
traveling. I can imagine that schools with protected web environments might have some
trouble too. Personally, I found that the program can respond a bit slow someimes if there
are more web pages open, or if another program is also using bandwidth.
An oline version of Scratch 2.0 is being worked on, but at the ime of wriing, this is sill
in a beta stage. The downloadable 1.4 version of Scratch is also sill available. To ofer the
complete Scratch 2.0 experience, I have only been working in the online environment for
this topic.
Objective complete - mini debriefing
As you can see Scratch 2.0 ofers many interesing features that make it easier to create
games. The games that can be made are also a litle bit more spectacular. The only drawback
I see is its dependence on the Internet, but that issue should be resolved in the future.
I hope you enjoy the projects ofered in this topic and I'm looking forward to see how
you will take them further.
