How to Make a Clicker Game in Scratch

In this Instructable, we will show you how to create a personalized clicker game from very simple Scratch blocks. Clicker games are a popular video game genre. You’ve probably heard of Cookie Clicker, one of the most popular clicker games out there. It's time to make your own!

Supplies

You will need a Scratch 3.0 account. You can create one for free on the Scratch website: https://scratch.mit.edu/.

Step 1: Setup

The first thing you'll need to do is open up a new project in the Scratch editor. After you open up the project, we will add a few sprites – these will be the characters in your game – and give each one logic commands reflecting the rules of the game. You'll also want to create some user interface elements such as a score counter, events that allow players to trigger certain actions, and other interactive elements like sound effects or images.

In more detail, to make your clicker game, you need to choose two sprites, one to represent your mouse/cursor as it moves and one for the object that you are trying to click (e.g., a cake or a ball). Then we will write code for each object so that you receive points when the cursor correctly clicks on the object.

We will use a cursor sprite and a cake sprite in our clicker game.

Step 2: Choose the Cursor Sprite

Let's make a cursor that follows our mouse in the game. We will choose the above cursor sprite for our game. Feel free to use your own by downloading one off the internet and importing it into Scratch.

Step 3: Write Code for the Cursor Sprite

The code can be seen in the below image. This program is simply a forever (infinite) loop that moves the sprite (x and y coordinates) to wherever the mouse goes (i.e., the mouse’s x and y coordinates).

Essentially, the above code sets the cursor position to always be at our mouse, achieving our goal!

Step 4: Setup the Cake Sprite

We will choose a cake sprite as shown below but you can choose any sprite you like! Choose a sprite that has two costumes that you can change between when the sprite is clicked. In Scratch, costumes are basically different versions of the sprite, and each costume has something different about the looks of the sprite.

Step 5: Create a Variable Called Points

Go to the variables tab and create a new variable for all sprites named “Points”. This variable will hold the score as points are awarded for successful clicking.

Step 6: Trigger an Event When the Cake Is Clicked

Now let's make an event that triggers when the cake is clicked by our cursor sprite. The code is as shown below. Whenever the cursor sprite is touching the cake we increase our Points variable by 1 and broadcast a message called “CLICKED!”

Basically if we click our mouse on the cursor (because our mouse is always on top of the cursor) and our cursor is touching our cake, then our Points (which is a variable) goes up by one and we broadcast the message “CLICKED!” which we will come back to later.

Step 7: Modify the Cake When It Is Clicked

Now let’s look at the cake’s code. When the cake receives the message broadcast earlier, its costume switches so it goes from a candle not lit state, to a candlelit state, and it decreases in size, to add a click effect. After a fraction of a second, the cake settings go back to normal. This gives feedback to the user that the cake has been successfully clicked.

Step 8: Write Code to Initialize the Game

Finally lets make code for the start of the game in the cake sprite. Essentially here we are restarting everything. The cake’s position, size, and costume are reverted to what we want it to be, and we set the Points to zero to restart the game. Note that we start with the cake-b costume.

Once you've coded all the necessary logic for your game, it's time to test it out! Make sure everything works as expected—if not, debug any errors until they're resolved. Once that's done, you're ready to share your clicker game with friends and family!

Step 9: You're Done!

Now you have learnt how to make your own clicker game! Making a clicker game may seem intimidating at first but once broken down into its various components it becomes quite manageable! With Scratch's intuitive interface and easy-to-understand code blocks anyone can make their own clicker game without prior coding experience. So what are you waiting for? Get started on your clicker adventure today!