Archive | March 2020

Scratch Game Design Project

Mar31

Today, I tried playing a maze game on scratch created by Sarah Luo. I really like how she added “minions” and a background story to the game. In order to complete the level, which I’m still trying to do, you have to collect all the “minions” to save the kingdom. I also tried a few other maze games, and none of them, including mine, had something you had to collect and then reach the end of the maze. Maybe there are, but I just didn’t play them yet. Looking at her game, maybe in my next game I’ll include something the sprite has to collect. Overall, I think her game is really fun and interesting, though it’s also really challenging at the same time, which makes it even better!

I added a link to the game in Scratch (below) created by Sarah Luo, so you guys can go check it out if you want!

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/379524623/

Learn to Code 1 (Swift Playgrounds) #2

Mar19

After finishing all of the lessons that were assigned for “Learn to Code 1”, I think that this was a good way to learn a little about programming because it taught me all different kinds of codes. I enjoyed all the lessons a lot, even though there were some that were very challenging, and some that I understood instantly after reading the introduction.

I liked the Loops and Conditional Code sections the best because they were slightly challenging, but also very fun to code. I think that these two sections are also very important and I will definitely make use of them in th future. Loops made coding much easier for me, because instead of writing repeated codes over and over again, you can use a loop to shorten your code. Conditional Code taught me how to plan for the unexpected. It taught me that in case your original plan didn’t work, you should always know that it might happen and be prepared for it.

A more challenging section for me was the Logical Operators section. While doing it, I found that it was challenging because sometimes I didn’t know how to use the “NOT” operator, or the “AND” operator, or the “OR” operator. I don’t know exactly what part had me stuck, but I just couldn’t seem to understand how to complete it. I tried and tried, but every time I got it wrong. I decided to take a break from it, and come back to the lesson later. And I did. But when I came back, nothing magical had happened, and I still didn’t know how to it. So I sat there, waiting for the answer to hit me. It never did. Then, I re-read the introduction and tried to do exactly what it said, and realized that I was getting closer to the correct solution because Byte was close to finishing the task! Determined to complete it, I tried using the operators again, and it worked! Finally, after a long process, I completed the “NOT” operator lesson. After completing that one, I had not much trouble completing the rest of them.

Overall, I really enjoyed these activities and recommend people who are trying to learn a little bit about programming to try out “Learn to Code 1” on swift playgrounds. It was an exciting and fun, yet challenging and tough experience, but in the end, I realized that challenges allows me to make mistakes, which allow me to learn.

Learn to Code 1 (Swift Playgrounds) #1

Mar18

I chose the “Checking for Switches” lesson because it helped me learn how to plan for the unexpected. This lesson taught me how to plan for different circumstances using an “if” statement. In this case, I saw that there are three switches, and every time there is a different amount of switches that need to be toggled. So I had to use an “if” statement in order to complete it. I realized that if a switch was closed, then it would need to be toggled, and if a switch was already on, then Byte would just walk forward and I would use the same “if” statements for the next switch.

At first, I was completely confused out of my mind. I was like, “is this even possible?” I tried reading the introduction over and over again, hoping a realization would hit me and I would know how to do it. But after going through the introduction three times, I still didn’t get it. And so I read the directions over and over again, and tried something I thought was correct. Unfortunately, it wasn’t correct. After a few trial and errors, the correct solution finally came to me. I realized what I had to do and did it, and completed the lesson!

I still have a few more lessons I have to complete, but without this lesson, I would have never learned how to plan for the unexpected. Overall, “Learn to Code 1” has been a great experience so far and I’m sure I will always need to use an “if” statement in the future.