Learning Goals 3 min
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
- Turn a vague idea into one sentence that says what the project does.
- Fill in a planning sheet: sprites, jobs, stage sketch and a done-when line.
- Cut a big idea down to a first version you can actually finish.
Warm-Up 7 min
You have built eight or nine projects by now. Think about the last one. How much of your time went on building, and how much went on working out what you were building?
Quick-fire puzzle
Here are two descriptions of the same project. One of them can be built straight away. Which, and what is wrong with the other?
Reveal the answer
Idea B. It names what the player does, what the sprite does, and what counts as success. You could start building it in the next thirty seconds.
Idea A is not a bad idea — it is a bad first sentence. It describes a feeling rather than a behaviour, so there is no obvious first block.
New Concept — the planning sheet 15 min
A plan for a Level 1 project fits on half a page. It has four parts, and each one answers a question you would otherwise have to answer halfway through building.
Box 1 — the one sentence
The test is whether someone who has never seen your project could repeat it back. “A cat catches falling roti and scores a point each time” passes. “A fun cat game” does not.
If you cannot write the sentence, you do not yet have a project. You have a mood, and moods are hard to build.
Box 2 — sprites and jobs
List every sprite and write one job beside it. A sprite with no job should not be in your project; a sprite with four jobs is really four sprites, or a sprite you have not thought about properly.
This box is where you catch the missing character — the one that only turns up when you are halfway through building.
Box 3 — the stage sketch
Draw a rectangle. Put everybody in it where they start. Write the numbers you already know: (0, 0) in the middle, (240, 180) top right, (−240, −180) bottom left.
Ten seconds of sketching saves you from dragging a sprite around the Stage guessing coordinates.
Box 4 — done when
This is the box people skip, and it is the most useful one. Without it a project is never finished — there is always one more thing.
Write it as something you can watch happen: “a stranger plays a full round, sees their score, and starts again”.
The version-one rule
Your first idea is almost always too big. The rule is simple: what is the smallest version that is still recognisably your idea? Build that, then add.
A finished small project beats an unfinished big one every single time, and the small one usually grows into the big one anyway.
Why it matters
Planning is the difference between a project that ends and one that just stops. Everyone who builds things for a living does some version of this, on paper, before they touch a keyboard.
Worked Example — plan Balloon Pop 15 min
We plan a whole project on paper before opening Scratch, then build only the first part of it. Follow along on your own sheet.
Step 1 — Start with the messy idea
Here is the idea as it first arrives: “a balloon game where balloons go up and you pop them and there are different colours and maybe a timer and lives”.
That is normal. Ideas arrive messy. The job is to squeeze it into one sentence.
Step 2 — Box 1, the one sentence
“A balloon floats up the Stage, and the player clicks it before it escapes off the top.”
Notice what fell out: colours, the timer and the lives. They are not gone, they are queued. Version one does not need them.
Step 3 — Box 2, sprites and jobs
Step 4 — Box 3, the stage sketch
Draw the rectangle and place everything. Write the starting coordinates straight onto the sketch.
Step 5 — Box 4, done when
“A player clicks the flag, pops at least three balloons, and sees a score that matches what they popped.”
That is testable. You either see it happen or you do not, and there is no argument about whether the project is finished.
Step 6 — Apply the version-one rule
Look at the queue you set aside in step 2 and be honest about the order.
Step 7 — Now build it, and time yourself
Only now open Scratch. Build version one straight from the sheet.
when flag clicked
set [score v] to (0)
show variable [score v]
go to x: (40) y: (-120)
forever
change y by (2)
end
when this sprite clicked
change [score v] by (1)
go to x: (40) y: (-120)
What changed: you built something without stopping once to decide what you were building. That is what the sheet buys you.
Try It Yourself — three planning tasks 12 min
Goal: Write the one-sentence version of three projects you have already built.
Take Catch the Roti Canai, Cat Chase and your Hari Raya story. Write one sentence for each, from memory, without opening them.
Think: the ones that are hard to summarise are usually the ones that were hard to build. That is not a coincidence.
Goal: Fill in all four boxes for a project you have not built yet.
Think: box 4 is the hard one. If you cannot describe what finished looks like, box 1 is probably still too vague.
Mini-mission: cut it in half. Take your sheet from the medium task and remove half of it.
Cross out every sprite and every feature that version one can live without. Then write down what is left, and check it still matches your one sentence.
It works if: your version one has three sprites or fewer, no feature you have not built before, and a done-when line you could reach in a single lesson.
Think: did cutting make the idea worse, or just smaller? Those are not the same thing, and telling them apart is a real skill.
Mini-Challenge — build from someone else’s sheet 5 min
“Swap plans”
Trade planning sheets with a partner. Read theirs and start building it, without asking them a single question.
It works if:
- You build for three minutes from their sheet without speaking.
- You write down every question you wanted to ask.
- You hand the questions back with the sheet.
- You fix your own sheet using the questions you received.
Recap 2 min
A plan for a Level 1 project is four boxes: one sentence, sprites and jobs, a stage sketch, and a done-when line. The sentence has to be repeatable by a stranger, and every sprite needs exactly one job. The done-when line is the box people skip and the one that lets a project finish. And version one should be the smallest thing that is still your idea — everything else goes in a queue, not a bin.
- Planning sheet
- Four boxes on paper that answer the decisions a build would otherwise interrupt.
- One sentence
- What the project does, said so a stranger could repeat it.
- Done when
- A watchable description of what finished looks like.
- Version one
- The smallest build that is still recognisably the idea.
Homework 1 min
Plan something you will never build. Practise the method on an idea with no pressure attached.
- Choose a game or story you already like — a real one, from anywhere.
- Write its one sentence, as if you were the person who planned it.
- List its sprites and their jobs, keeping every job to six words.
- Write the done-when line its makers must have used.
Bring back next class:
- Your four boxes for that existing game.
- Your answer to: “What would its version one have been, and which parts came later?”
Heads up for next class: SCR-L01-47 is about the other half of finishing — sharing your project so other people can actually use it.