Game designers rarely finish a game in one go — they build a piece, test it, find what breaks and fix it. Today you become the finishers: you'll complete Galaxy Ghosts, run it the way real programmers do, and check it against the plan you made at the start. Open the project you saved earlier and watch the board as we model each new piece, then try it on your own device.

Welcome to the Galaxy Ghosts lesson! In this lesson, we will be using MakeCode Arcade to create an exciting space-themed game. You will learn how to create and control a player sprite, generate enemy sprites, and program interactions between them. By the end of this lesson, you will have a fully functional game where your player sprite can shoot at the enemy sprites and earn points. Let's get started!

Open the MakeCode Arcade website using the link below and create a new project. You can call the project whatever you want.

https://arcade.makecode.com

Arcade: How to create a new project

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Create a new Arcade project using the makecode.com website.

First let's create our player sprite.

Add the following code and choose the blue space ship sprite:

let mySprite: Sprite = null
mySprite = sprites.create(img`
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c b . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . f f . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c 6 . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . f f . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . 8 6 . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . 8 8 9 8 . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . 8 6 9 8 . . . . . . 
    . . . . . c c c 8 8 8 . . . . . 
    . . . . 8 8 6 6 6 9 8 8 . . . . 
    . . 8 f f f c c e e f f 8 8 . . 
    . 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 6 9 6 8 8 . 
    8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 9 6 6 8 8 
    8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 6 9 6 8 8 
    `, SpriteKind.Player)

Arcade: How to create a sprite in Arcade

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Click on the gray box in the sprite block to open the Editor. You can choose a sprite from the Gallery or you can paint your own sprite using the Editor.

We want to position the player sprite at the bottom of the screen and use the joystick (or arrow keys on your keyboard) to move it left and right.

Add the following new code:

let mySprite: Sprite = null
mySprite = sprites.create(img`
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c d . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c b . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . f f . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . c 6 . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . f f . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . . 8 6 . . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . 8 8 9 8 . . . . . . 
    . . . . . . 8 6 9 8 . . . . . . 
    . . . . . c c c 8 8 8 . . . . . 
    . . . . 8 8 6 6 6 9 8 8 . . . . 
    . . 8 f f f c c e e f f 8 8 . . 
    . 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 6 9 6 8 8 . 
    8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 9 6 6 8 8 
    8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 6 9 6 8 8 
    `, SpriteKind.Player)
mySprite.y = 110
controller.moveSprite(mySprite, 100, 0)