Studio Launch III

Review — ready for a stranger 5 min

• A front door shows the name, how to play and how to begin.
• A reset puts back everything a game changes; every start calls it.
• A partner tests cold, and nothing personal goes in a project or a username.

Quick-fire

Your reset sets rally to 0. Should it set best to 0 too?

Today’s Topic 3 min

• Choosing four projects that show four different things
• Polish: a front door, a reset, a best score
• One menu project that opens all four, with keys 1–4
• An About me, and a paragraph per project on what it taught

Learning outcome

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

1. Choose work to show by what it proves, not by how new it is.
2. Keep a best score that the green flag does not clear.
3. Build a menu that opens several projects and always comes back.

Learnt — a portfolio 25 min

1 · Choosing four

A portfolio is not everything you made. It is four projects that each prove something different:

• One that draws — Sketch Pad or Geometry Art (the Pen).
• One that moves with maths — Brick Breaker or Kart Racer (vx, vy, sin and cos).
• One built on lists — Tile Maker, Quiz Engine or Snake.
• Your choice — the one you are proudest of. Your Studio Launch remix counts.

Choose your best, not your newest. Play each one again before you decide — a project you remember as finished sometimes is not.

2 · Polish each one

Every project in the portfolio gets Lesson 46’s front door and reset. A game also gets a best score — the variable the reset leaves alone:

if <(rally) > (best)> then
  set [best v] to (rally)
end
            

3 · One menu

Four projects as four files is four things to open. One menu project holds a small version of each, behind a tile and a number key. Each one broadcasts its own message, plays, then broadcasts menu to come back.

when [3 v] key pressed
broadcast [open 3 v]

when I receive [open 3 v]
stop [other scripts in sprite v]
show
switch costume to (car v)
go to x: (0) y: (-100)
repeat (36)
  move (17) steps
  turn left (10) degrees
end
hide
broadcast [menu v]
            

4 · About me — and nothing more

A portfolio says who made it. It does not say who you are. Lesson 46’s rule again: a made-up name, your games, what you like making — never your real name, age, school or town.

Basic — your portfolio 30 min

Step 1 — choose and polish

1. List every Level 4 project you have. Play each one again.
2. Choose four, one from each group above.
3. Give each a front door and a reset. Give each game a best score.

Step 2 — the menu

1. Start a new project. Save our tiles, or paint four of your own: tile-1, tile-2, tile-3, tile-4.
2. Add a small version of each project to one Player sprite, on open 1 … open 4.
3. Keys 1–4 broadcast them. Each ends with broadcast [menu v].
4. Keep a list, taught, with one line per project, and say it when that project opens.

B for back

A visitor who opened the wrong project should not have to watch it to the end.

• B stops whatever is playing, hides it, clears any pen, and goes back to the menu.

when [b v] key pressed
stop [other scripts in sprite v]
hide
erase all
broadcast [menu v]
            

The favourite

Which of your projects do visitors open most? Count, and name the winner each time the menu comes back.

• A plays list, four zeros; each key adds 1 to its own row.
• On menu, find the row with the biggest number and say its name.

when [2 v] key pressed
replace item (2) of [plays v] with ((item (2) of [plays v]) + (1))
broadcast [open 2 v]

when I receive [menu v]
set [top v] to (1)
set [k v] to (2)
repeat (3)
  if <(item (k) of [plays v]) > (item (top) of [plays v])> then
    set [top v] to (k)
  end
  change [k v] by (1)
end
say (join [Most played: ] (item (top) of [names v]))
            

Four paragraphs

For each project, write one short paragraph a visitor reads before they play. Four sentences:

1. What it is.
2. How to play it.
3. The Level 4 idea inside it (“a ball is two numbers, vx and vy”).
4. One thing you would add next.

Put them in the menu project’s Notes and Credits, and the third sentence of each in the taught list. Credit anybody you remixed, first names only.

A trailer

Before anybody presses a key, show them all four — one after another, on their own.

• Say each project’s name, then play it.
• Wait for one to finish before the next starts.

Summary 5 min

• A portfolio is your best four, each proving something different — not everything you made.
• Polish means a front door, a reset and, for a game, a best score that nothing clears.
• A menu opens each project with one message and gets it back with another.
• About me shows your games, never who or where you are.

Portfolio

A small, chosen set of your best work, for somebody else to see.

Best score

A score kept from game to game, which only goes up.

Menu

The screen a project starts on, where the player chooses what happens.

Hand in

Save your portfolio. Next lesson is showcase day: you present one project in two minutes — and Level 4 is done.