StarLogoTNG 101

Treasure Hunt Game UnitLesson 2: Keyboard Controls

Today’s Agenda

• Review• Mini-lesson on new programming blocks• Obstacle course programming challenge• Wrap-up

Review

• What do you predict will be the agent’s movement when it executes the following block?

• What about this stack of blocks?

Review

• File menu > Open project “movement review.sltng”

• File menu > Save next version• 5 minute programming challenge!• Create the tallest stack of movement blocks that

does not change the position or direction of the agent.

• Rule: You may not use the same pink argument block more than once.

• Hint: You may test your stack as many times as you want during the 5 minutes.

Programming Tip

Another way to delete a block is to

drag and drop it anywhere in the

palette

Player Controls

• Have you seen or played Nintendo Wii?• Why do people like it? What’s special about

it?• All computer games involve some kind of

player control. Besides the Wii remote, what are other devices used by players to control the character or action in a game?

• Today, we will implement keyboard controls to move an agent around spaceland.

New Block: If / then

• Found in the “Logic” drawer• First part (“test condition”) must evaluate to

true or false• If test condition is true, the blocks in the “then”

section is executed. If false, ignore the “then” section.

• Example: see first program

Exercise: If / then block

• What do you think these IF blocks will do when executed by an agent? Explain your thinking.

New Blocks: Keyboard detect

• Found in the “Controls” drawer.

• Question mark means that the blocks tests if that particular key is pressed – evaluates to true or false.

• Click on down arrow on the right side of the block to select a different keyboard key to test.

Obstacles

WATCH THE TEACHER DEMONSTRATE THE FOLLOWING STEPS FIRST.

• File menu > Open project “obstacles.sltng”.• File menu > Save next version• About obstacles project:

– Terrain: maze / obstacle course– Setup: creates 1 player agent that starts in a corner

of the board; also creates “treasure” blocks and other agents that are obstacles (you’ll find out)

– Run: nothing happens yet– Game ends when the player collects all the treasure.

Programming Activity 1

WATCH THE TEACHER DEMONSTRATE THE FOLLOWING STEPS FIRST.

• Program instructions to control the agent’s movement from the agent’s point of view:– Up arrow key = move forward– Left arrow key = turn left– Right arrow key = turn right– Down arrow key = move backward

• Click on Run in the Runtime window to test out the controls. What happens when the player agent walks on different kinds of terrain (dips, hills, platforms)?

• Try out different values for the arguments (# of steps and degrees) and see what happens.

Programming Activity 2

• Objective: collect all treasure in the obstacle course

• Program additional keyboard controls to get past obstacles.

• Consult the reference guide for descriptions of NEW blocks that could be useful.

Wrap Up

• What strategies and new blocks did you try to get past the obstacles?

• What worked? What didn’t work?• What challenges did you have?• What was fun?• What questions do you have?