So what grade are you in? Second. Tenth grade. First grade. I was in eighth grade when I
learned to program. I got my first computer when I was in sixth grade. What gets me excited
is being able to fix people's problems. You can express yourself, you can build things
from an idea. Computer science is the basis for a lot of the things that college students
and professionals will do for the next twenty or thirty years. I like programming because
I like helping people. I get the opportunity to build something that's gonna make people's
lives easier. I think it's the closest thing we have to a superpower. Getting started is
the most important part. I'm a beginner myself and I want you to learn with me. I'm John
Vechey, I'm one of the co-founders of PopCap Games. We make games like Plants vs. Zombies,
Bejeweled, and Peggle. A lot about games isn't how perfect your code is, it's not how perfect
your art is, it's about how does it feel and how much fun it is. You can only get that
sense by trying it, by doing it, by learning and adapting and iterating your own skills
of making games. Do you have a favorite video game? Well, we're going to take one step towards
creating games just like that using Play Lab. Good games have a story and every story has
actors. Actors do things like speak, move, and interact with each other. Maybe even score
points based on the rules of the game. Today we'll be learning how to do all these things,
one by one, with Disney's characters like Anna, Elsa, Hiro, Baymax, and Rapunzel. We'll
build a game from scratch that can be shared and played on a phone. Your screen is split
into three main parts. On the left is the gamespace, where your program will run. The
instructions for each level are written below. This middle area is the toolbox, and each
of these blocks is a piece of code. The white space on the right is called the workspace,
and this is where we'll build our program. To start off, you'll need to link your blocks
to the orange "when run" block. You can link multiple blocks together by dragging them
out until you see the yellow outline, and then they'll snap together. In this first
puzzle, Hiro is Actor 1 and Baymax is Actor 2. We need to move Hiro to get to Baymax by
dragging the "move right" block out and linking it to the "when run" block. Once you have
your blocks in place, hit the "Run" button to see what you've programmed. Get started
and by the end you'll be able to create your own game with these amazing actors that can
interact, score points, throw microbots, cherries, saucepans, sparkles, and ice.. and vanish
each other. It's all up to you!