Escape the Maze

Racing games, football games, adventure games, learning games and

puzzles. There are all sorts of different computer games to play. What
sort of computer games do you like to play?

Have you ever wondered what

it would be like to be a
computer game designer?
What sort of exciting games
would you make?

Here’s your chance to

use your computer coding
skills to make a maze game
using ScratchJr.
 Escape the Maze

Have you ever tried to work

your way through a maze?

There are lots of

twists and turns.

Mazes come in all

shapes and sizes.

Before you start making your own maze game, why not
have a go at the Escape the Maze Unplugged Activity
Sheet and try to escape from some yourself?
 Escape the Maze
Can you make a maze game using ScratchJr?
Complete these challenges and see your code come to life.

Challenge 1: Draw a maze.

Challenge 2: Add and resize a character to travel through the maze.

Challenge 3: Draw new characters to make arrows to control the game.

Challenge 4: Make the arrows send messages to the character.

Challenge 5: Make the character move when it receives a message.

Challenge 6: Make the character return to the start if it

bumps another character.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 1: To delete the Cat character:

Keep your finger on the Cat character until a red cross appears.
Then tap the red cross to remove the Cat.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 1: Draw a maze.

To draw a maze, we will need to start by adding a new character.

Click on the plus sign to

add a new character.

Open the Paint Editor to

draw your maze.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 1: Draw a maze.

Choose the line tool. Choose a thick line.

line tool

thick line
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 1: Draw a maze.

Draw a maze on the drawing area.

Draw a square shape.

Draw lines up from the
You will need to make sure you
bottom and down from the
leave a gap for your character to
top to create a maze.
escape the maze.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 1: Draw a maze.

Give your new character a name.

Type ‘maze’ into the text box at the top of the drawing area.

maze

Save your maze.

 Escape the Maze
Challenge 1: Draw a maze.

You may need to make the maze larger.

Choose the Grow block from the Looks

Block category. Drag the Grow block into the
Programming Area. Click on it as many
times as you need, to make the maze the right
size to fit on the Stage.

Top Tip:

Make sure that you leave room at the

side of the maze so that you can add
arrows to control the game.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 2: Add and resize a character to travel through the maze.

Click on the plus sign to

add a new character.

Select a character to travel

through the maze.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 2: Add and resize a character to travel through the maze.

You may need to make the character smaller to fit into your maze.

Choose the Shrink block from the Looks

Block category. Drag the Shrink block into the
Programming Area. Click on it as many times
as you need, to make the character the right
size for your maze.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 2: Add and resize a character to travel through the maze.

When the character is the correct size,

position it at the beginning of your maze.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 3: Draw new characters to make arrows to control the game.

Click on the plus sign to

add a new character.

Open the Paint Editor

to draw a new character.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 3: Draw new characters to make arrows to control the game.

Choose the line tool. Choose a thick line. Choose a red colour.

line tool

thick line

red colour
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 3: Draw new characters to make arrows to control the game.

In the drawing area, draw a red arrow pointing upwards.

red

Give your new character a name.

Type ‘red’ into the text box at the top
of the drawing area.

Save your red arrow.

 Escape the Maze
Challenge 3: Draw new characters to make arrows to control the game.

Can you remember how you drew the red arrow?

Repeat the same steps to draw these arrows. Don’t forget to give each
new character a name so that they are easy to find.

Draw a green arrow

pointing right.

Draw a blue arrow

pointing downwards.

Draw a purple arrow

pointing left.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 3: Draw new characters to make arrows to control the game.

Position the arrows on the Stage next to the maze.

Top Tip:

Remember that if you need to

make the arrows smaller, you can
use the Shrink block.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 4: Make the arrows send messages to the character.

You will need to instruct each coloured arrow

to send a message to the character when the
coloured arrow is clicked.
chicken

red arrow Click on the red arrow in the Characters area.

green arrow Drag these blocks into the Programming Area. The
Send Message block tells the red arrow to send a
message when it is clicked.
blue arrow
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 4: Make the arrows send messages to the character.

At the bottom of the Send Message block is a little

arrow. Click on the arrow to open up a menu. You
can choose different coloured messages here.

Choose the red message to match the red arrow on

your maze game.

The script should now look like this.

 Escape the Maze
Challenge 4: Make the arrows send messages to the character.

Can you follow the same steps for the green arrow, the
blue arrow and the purple arrow?
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 4: Make the arrows send messages to the character.

Try playing your maze game.

Click on the arrows on screen to
make the character move.

What happens?

If your arrows didn’t

make the character move -
don’t worry!

Your arrows are sending messages but you still need to tell the
character how to move when it receives a message from each
different coloured arrow.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 5: Make the character move when it receives a message.

chicken

red arrow Click on the character in the Characters area.

green arrow
Drag these blocks into the Programming
Area to tell the character how to move when it
blue arrow receives a message from the red arrow. Make
sure you choose the up arrow because this
matches the direction of the red arrow on the
Stage.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 5: Make the character move when it receives a message.

At the bottom of the Start on Message

block is a little arrow. Click on the arrow to
open up a menu. You can choose different
coloured messages here.

Choose the red message to match the

red arrow on your maze game.

The script should now look like this. The

Start on Message block tells the
character that it should move one step up
when the red arrow is clicked.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 5: Make the character move when it receives a message.

Can you follow the same steps to tell the character how to move when it
receives a message from the green arrow, the blue arrow and the purple
arrow?

Remember to choose the correct direction from the Motion Blocks.

The direction should match the direction of each coloured arrow on the
Stage.

There will now be four different scripts for the character

who will be trying to escape the maze.
 Escape the Maze
Challenge 6: Make the character return to the start if
it bumps another character.

Almost finished! Just one more step to go. To make the maze game
trickier, you can program the character to return to its starting
position if it bumps into the walls of the maze.

Click on the character in the Characters area.

Top Tip:
Drag these blocks into the Programming Area.
The Go Home block tells the character to return to its
Make sure the character is in the right
starting position if it bumps into another character.
position at the start of the maze.
 Escape the Maze
Congratulations! Your maze game is ready to play.

Click on the yellow Project Information tab in the top

right-hand corner and give your game a name. You
could call it Escape the Maze, Maze Madness or any
other name that you think sounds good.
 Escape the Maze
Congratulations! Your maze game is ready to play.

Click on Presentation Mode to make your game full

screen. Click on the coloured arrows to move your
character through the maze to the exit.

Give your game to a friend.

How quickly can they
escape the maze?