Posts

Ask qucchia #2

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  Za-chary asked: From what I see, I'm the first user you have followed. I also feel like you once stated I am your favorite Scratcher. This (along with your hacked block adventures) is how you stand out in my mind. If these are true, I find it really interesting because it seems like you and I use Scratch in very different ways. My question is, was there something I did that particularly inspired you? How did I influence your Scratch journey, if at all? Ever since I first knew about you, since your project Global Warning 2 was featured, I have admired the way you can make such enjoyable games only with Scratch. I have attempted several times to make large games, but every time, I have stopped due to lost motivation. Now, I have considered leaving Scratch several times, as you may remember. I have thought some times, 'is it really worth staying on Scratch, when I can make better and bigger things elsewhere?' But when I saw your projects I saw that it was perfectly alright t...
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Ask qucchia #1

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I asked some Scratchers to ask me some questions about Scratch ─ here are some of them. If I didn't answer your question, it's because I'll be answering it in the future. Stay tuned! mlcreater asked: How does Scratch know when someone clicks the heart or the star under a project? In other words, how do the love and favorite count update for everyone, and not just the person who clicked the button? The update is sent to the Scratch servers ─ just as commenting, editing projects, and basically anything else would. AnayVihan asked: How can we make a my block that is just an input or boolean not the real block? Unfortunately, that's not possible ─ there is no setting in the project.json that determines the type of block a custom block is, and so it cannot be converted into a reporter. h0rnet15 asked: Is there a way to convert scratch projects to executable files without using turbowarp or forkphorus? Some of my games that run fine in scratch don't work in turbowarp. I...
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What are shadowed blocks?

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Yesterday I introduced you to hacking Scratch. I asked what you'd like me to explain next, and I received two requests: BusterBrown1218 asked: Can you tell us how to put blocks inside of a define block? Raihan142857 asked: How do you hack a custom block to make it have dropdown inputs? Funnily enough, these two are both related to a block's  shadow property, and so that is what I will talk about today. Begin by t hinking of a block with a round dropdown, such as the key pressed?  block (it must have a round dropdown, not a square dropdown, like a set variable to  block). The Scratch editor counts this as a single block, but actually the dropdown is counted as its own block. If you download the project and open the project.json, as I showed you last time, you'll see two different blocks: one has the opcode sensing_keypressed , and the other, sensing_keyoptions . The last one is the dropdown where you can select what key to use. If you look at the properties of ...
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An Introduction to Hacking Scratch

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Scratch projects are saved in a file format known as SB3, standing for Scratch Blocks 3. Don't let the name fool you, though; this file stores not only the blocks in the project, but also the sprites, costumes, sounds, comments, variables, lists... basically everything, except the instructions and notes & credits. The main way of editing such files is through the official Scratch 3.0 editor, but these SB3 files can be edited externally ─ and can be manipulated to a degree where the creators of Scratch did not intend. This process is generally known as 'hacking' ─ when you have edited a project using an external program, you've 'hacked' it. Today I will show you how to hack a Scratch project: we'll create a red hat block. Let's get to it! Step 1: Download a new project Click the Create  button on the top of the Scratch page or go to  https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/ . Add any block you like to the scripts area: we will transform this into a re...
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Behind the Screens

DD-8861 recently released a game called Among Them , based on the popular game Among Us, but with an interesting twist: instead of the player taking part, they only spectate AI's in a hotel, and has to to figure out who is the ghost or employee among them. This game really inspired me and I started to see all the potential this idea could have. And so, I am now working on a similar game to Among Them, called Behind the Screens (a play on words on "behind the scenes"). I am absolutely bursting with ideas: new characters, maps, variations of cameras, online games, tournaments, and possibly even a level editor! During the development of this game, I plan to share my ideas and progress on it. I would appreciate if you could give feedback and positive criticism on my profile . One of the main ideas is to make the game tile-based: in other words, there are a bunch of squares or tiles that are put together to make the screens. This will allow for some interesting game mechanics...
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