COURSE CURRICULUM
Boss Battle Design
WHEN:
- Thursdays
- 3/19, 3/26, 4/16, 4/23, 4/30, 5/7, 5/14, 5/21, 5/28, 6/11, 6/18
- 5 pm- 6 pm ( Grades 3-5)
( Please specify grade when registering)
WHERE:
274 Garfield Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Scratch Level 3: Boss Battle Design
Turn your young coder into a logic engineer. In this 10-lesson online course, students (ages 9+) go beyond simple animations and build a full “Boss Battle” video game in Scratch, step by step. Each week introduces one advanced mechanic used in real games: physics, enemy AI, data, and polish.
Who This Course Is For
-
Ages: 9 and up
-
Experience: Comfortable with Scratch basics, loops (Forever/Repeat), and If-Then statements.
-
Perfect for: Kids who already “play around” in Scratch and are ready to design real games.
Requirements
-
Laptop or desktop computer (Scratch is difficult on tablets).
-
Free Scratch (MIT) account to save and share projects.
-
Growth mindset: Students will use trial and error; encouragement and patience are key.
Course Structure: 10 Lessons
Phase 1 – Advanced Game Physics (Lessons 1–3)
Lesson 1 – Smooth Movement & Velocity
Students stop using “change x by 10” and instead build smooth motion with Speed X and Speed Y variables, creating momentum-based movement.
Lesson 2 – Gravity & Jumping Logic
Students implement a Gravity variable and learn the “if touching color/ground” loop to make realistic jumps and landings.
Lesson 3 – Hitboxes & Collision
Students design a Player sprite and a separate Hitbox sprite so the character collides cleanly with platforms and doesn’t get stuck in walls.
Phase 2 – Intelligence & Cloning (Lessons 4–6)
Lesson 4 – Enemy AI (Patrolling)
Students use Broadcast messages to control enemy movement, turning, and simple patrol behaviors.
Lesson 5 – The Clone Army Effect
Students use “create clone of myself” to spawn projectiles or falling obstacles without filling the sprite list with duplicates.
Lesson 6 – Tracking & Homing Enemies
Students program enemies to read the player’s X/Y position and “chase” them, introducing basic homing behavior.
Phase 3 – Data & Player Experience (Lessons 7–9)
Lesson 7 – Health Bars & Damage
Students build a visual health bar using variables, and the player’s health decreases when the player touches enemies or hazards.
Lesson 8 – Inventory & Power-Ups
Students create a List in Scratch to track power-ups and items the player collects and then use those items in gameplay.
Lesson 9 – Multi-Level Scrolling Worlds
Students use backdrops and Scroll X logic to build levels larger than the screen, creating side-scrolling environments.
Phase 4 – The Finale (Lesson 10)
Lesson 10 – Bug Hunting & Polishing
Students practice “Rubber Duck Debugging” by explaining their code out loud to find bugs, then add sound effects and Game Over/Win screens to finish their Boss Battle game.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will:
-
Use variables to control speed, gravity, health, and more (a foundation for algebra and data science).
-
Use cloning to efficiently manage large numbers of enemies and projectiles.
-
Use broadcasting so different parts of their game communicate like a real system.
-
Design and debug a complete Boss Battle game that they can share with friends and family.
