How to make a clicker game on Scratch in 5 easy steps - Codingal (2024)

Discover the fun of making a clicker game in Scratch! Build your own cookie clicker game in just 5 steps! Let's start clicking!

Introduction

Are you ready to build a fun new game in Scratch programming?

In this tutorial, we will learn how to make a clicker Game on Scratch programming, a fun and interactive programming language.
With Scratch programming, you can create your own games and animations and even customize already existing games!
This guide will give you all the steps and ideas to make your very first clicker game. Let’s get started.

What is a Clicker Game?

A clicker game, also called an “Incremental" game or an “idle game“, is a game that requires minimal effort, and you only have to “click” to progress in the game. Some famous idle games are Adventure Capitalist, Cookie Clicker, Clicker Heroes, and Tap Titans.

You can add many variations to this game. Change the object you want to click, move the object around, add obstacles for increased difficulty and add various scoring scenarios.

In most of the clicker games, the player gets Clicker games in-game currency if they pass a level.

After clicking a certain number of times on cookies, the player can unlock another cookie type or another clicking item.
In this tutorial, we are going to guide you in making your Clicker Game!

Scratch Programming

Scratch programming is a visual programming language and an online community developed by the MIT Media Lab. It is designed to teach coding concepts to beginners, especially kids, in a fun and interactive way.

Scratch programming provides a graphical interface where users can drag and drop blocks of code to create animations, games, stories, and interactive projects. If you are new to scratch programming, read our A to Z Guide on Block Coding.

How to Make a Clicker Game on Scratch

To create this iconic game, we’ll use the Scratch editor. Before we jump into creating, let’s plan our game.

Think about the cookie-clicker game:

Do you want an infinite number of user clicks?

Do you want a cake or a cupcake at the next level?

For each click, how many points do you want to reward?

What happens if the player doesn’t click on the cookie?

Decide on the main theme and elements you want to include in your game.

Step 1: Backdrop

In Scratch, we can use the Stage as our canvas. Click on the “Stage” icon at the top to open the Stage editor. Choose a backdrop that matches your project’s theme. It could be a solid backdrop, a beautiful landscape, or anything that is related to your idea!

Step 2: Adding cookie

Now, let’s bring our cookie to life! You can create your sprites (characters) from scratch or choose from Scratch’s vast library of sprites.
Click here to download the cookie on your desktop.
Go to the “Choose a Sprite” button and click on “Upload a Sprite”. Now select the cookie image from your desktop.

This is what the console should look like.

Step 3: Sprite Code

Now, this is where the magic happens. We want points to increment whenever the player clicks on the sprite/cookie.
All you have to do is think of a sequence of code blocks that detects a click on the cookie and increments a variable called “Score”. This is what we are trying to achieve:

Let’s write the following code block for our cookie sprite:

Kudos for getting this far! You have just made a simple clicker game. It is all ready to play!
But we will teach you how to customize this game further.
What about adding different levels to the game?

Step 4: Adding Levels

Let’s add a condition that when the cookie has been clicked 50 times, level up! Maybe in the next level, you want to click on a cake rather than a cookie. Let’s implement that:

Go to the Sprite section and add a cake sprite. Write this code block sequence for the cake:

As simple as that, and you have added a level in your game on scratch programming, too!

Step 5: Time to Play

Yay! You have just created and customized your Clicker Game, and now you can enjoy it to the fullest! Make sure to challenge your friends and family members to play this game that you just created!

Conclusion

Congrats! You’ve learned how to make your first clicker game with your twist. You can add negative scoring, multiple objects, and added distractions to your game further.

Remember, have fun experimenting, be bold with your ideas, and let your creativity soar as you create more and more magical games for your fantastic Scratch projects!

Scratch programming is a powerful tool that allows you to unleash your creativity and learn the basics of coding in a fun and engaging way. Begin your journey in scratch programming with a free scratch coding class and explore the best scratch coding course for kids to unlock your full potential. Keep learning and keep building.