Chapter 3: Characters, Worlds, and Sounds

Characters, Worlds, and Sounds 🎨

If players can’t see it, it isn’t there.

In Chapter 2 you wrote your one-sentence idea and drew your game on paper. Now it is time to make the things players will actually see and hear: your hero, the world your hero lives in, and the sounds that tell players what just happened.

Here is a secret that game artists know. A game does not have to be fancy to be fun. It has to be clear. When a player looks at the screen, they should know in one second where the hero is, where the danger is, and where to go. That is why game makers say, “If players can’t see it, it isn’t there.” A tiny hero lost in a busy picture might as well be invisible.

In this chapter you will design a hero that pops off the screen, build a backdrop that shows the path to the goal, make your sprite walk and bounce with costumes, and add sound effects and music. You will use the Scratch paint editor, the Costumes tab, and the Sounds tab. Grab your paper sketch from Chapter 2 and let’s build.

3.1 — Designing a Hero 🦸

Your hero is the sprite the player controls. It is the most important picture in your whole game, because the player’s eyes will follow it every second. So it needs to be easy to see, easy to draw, and easy to draw again. (You will find out why in section 3.3.)

Start with a Simple Shape

Look at famous game heroes. Pac-Man is a circle with a mouth. The Scratch cat is a few round shapes and two pointy ears. Simple shapes work because they are quick to draw, easy to recognize when they are small, and easy to change into new poses.

Try building your hero from two or three basic shapes: a circle head, an oval body, maybe two dots for eyes. In the Scratch paint editor, the circle and rectangle tools make this easy. Then add one special feature that makes the hero yours: a hat, a tail, a cape, a big nose. One feature is memorable. Ten features are a mess.

Pick a Color That Pops

Now choose colors. The most important rule is contrast. Contrast is how different your hero looks from the background behind it. A bright orange hero on a dark blue night sky has strong contrast. A light green hero on light green grass has almost none, and the player will lose it the moment things get busy.

Pick one main color for your hero that is bright, and make sure it is not the same color as your backdrop. Then add a dark outline. Outlines are a game artist’s best friend. Even when a sprite shrinks or the backdrop gets busy, that outline keeps the edges sharp.

The Squint Test

Here is a trick that real game artists use. Look at your hero, then squint until everything gets blurry. Can you still tell where the hero is? Can you tell which way it is facing? If the answer is yes, you have a strong silhouette. A silhouette is the outline shape, as if the hero were colored solid black. A great hero can be recognized from its silhouette alone. That is why so many game characters have big ears, big hats, or big hair.

If your hero fails the squint test, do not panic. Make it bigger, make the color brighter, or make the outline thicker. Small changes fix most problems.

3.2 — Backdrops and Levels 🗺️

Your hero needs somewhere to be. In Scratch, the picture behind all the sprites is the backdrop, and it fills the whole stage, which is 480 steps wide and 360 steps tall. The backdrop is where your game happens: a forest, a spaceship, a kitchen, the bottom of the ocean. It answers the question every player asks first: “Where am I?”

The World Behind Your Hero

Your Chapter 2 sketch already shows the screen. Now you get to build it. Scratch gives you three ways to make a backdrop: pick one from the backdrop library, paint your own, or upload a picture. A library backdrop is fast. Painting your own takes longer, but you can make sure it fits your game.

Whichever way you choose, remember contrast. The backdrop should be calmer and quieter than your hero. Soft colors, big simple areas, not too many details. Think of the backdrop as the floor of the stage in a school play. The floor matters, but nobody should be staring at it instead of the actors.

Safe Spots, Dangers, and the Path

A good level is more than a pretty picture. It is a map of choices. Every level should show the player three things:

Safe places where nothing bad can happen. A starting spot, a platform, a patch of grass.
Dangers that cost a life or points. Lava, spikes, a river, a patrolling enemy. Dangers should look dangerous. Red, orange, spiky, and sharp are colors and shapes that people already read as “careful!”
The path to the goal. The player should be able to look at the level and guess where to go. A door on the far side, a glowing star, a flag at the top of a hill. Arrows, brighter colors, and open space all say “this way.”

In Scratch, the safe places and the goal are often part of the backdrop picture, while dangers that move are their own sprites. A danger that never moves can be painted right onto the backdrop. We will teach the hero to notice it with the touching color block in Chapter 4.

One Backdrop per Level

A level is one part of a game with its own map, its own dangers, and its own goal. When your first version works, a second level is one of the easiest ways to grow it. In Scratch, the stage can hold several backdrops, and a block called switch backdrop to jumps between them. Level 1 might be a sunny meadow. Level 2 might be the same meadow at night, with more dangers.

Start with one level. Draw it on paper first. Mark the safe spots with an S, the dangers with an X, and the goal with a star. Then paint it.

3.3 — Making Things Move 🏃

A hero that slides across the screen frozen stiff looks a little strange. Real characters bounce, lean, and swing their legs. In games, that motion comes from a trick that is older than computers.

Flip-Book Magic

Have you ever drawn a stick figure in the corner of every page of a notebook, each one a little different, then flipped the pages fast? The figure seems to move. That is animation: showing slightly different pictures one after another so fast that your brain sees movement.

In Scratch, each of those pictures is called a costume. Click the Costumes tab and you will see that the Scratch cat already has two: costume1 with its legs apart, and costume2 with its legs together. Your sprite can have as many costumes as you like. Each one is a page of your flip book.

The Two-Costume Walk

A walk cycle is a short set of costumes that repeat to make a character look like it is walking. Professional games might use eight or more pictures for one step. You only need two.

Here is how. In the Costumes tab, right-click your hero’s costume and choose duplicate. Now change the copy just a little: move one leg forward, tilt the body, or lift an arm. That is it. In the Code tab, snap next costume and wait 0.1 seconds together inside a loop, and your hero walks. Two pictures switching back and forth make your brain fill in all the steps in between.

Keep both costumes the same size, and keep the hero in the same spot on each one. If costume2 is drawn a little higher than costume1, your hero will look like it is hiccupping. The little cross in the middle of the paint editor helps you line them up.

Wiggle and Bounce

You do not always need new costumes to add life. Two tiny moves work wonders:

Wiggle: turn right 5 degrees, wait, turn left 5 degrees, wait. Put that in a loop, and a coin or a flower seems to sway.
Bounce: change y by 10, wait, change y by -10, wait. Repeat it, and your hero hops in place while waiting for the player.

These little movements tell the player, “This thing matters. Pay attention to it.” Use them on the things that count: the hero, the goal, the danger. Do not use them on everything, or the whole screen will wiggle at once and nothing will stand out. Remember the motto. Movement is one more way to make sure players see what they need to see.

3.4 — Sounds and Music 🔊

Close your eyes and imagine a game with the sound turned off. You jump, but you hear nothing. You grab a coin. Silence. You lose a life. Nothing. You would not even be sure any of it happened. Sound is not decoration. It is part of how a game talks to the player.

Sounds Tell the Player What Happened

Remember from Chapter 1 that every game gives feedback. A sound effect is a short sound that plays when something happens: a boing for a jump, a ding for a coin, a crash for a bump. Sound effects are feedback the player can hear even while their eyes are busy somewhere else.

Good sound effects match the thing they belong to. Happy things get bright, high sounds. Bad things get low, crunchy sounds. In Scratch, click the Sounds tab, then the speaker button in the bottom corner to open the sound library. It has hundreds of sounds sorted into groups like Animals, Effects, and Space. Pick one sound for each important moment in your first version: reaching the goal, touching a danger, and maybe jumping. Three sounds are plenty.

Music Sets the Mood

Sound effects say what happened. Music says how to feel. The same level feels totally different with a cheerful tune or a spooky one. That feeling is the mood. Slow, low music makes players creep along carefully. Fast, bouncy music makes them hurry.

The Scratch library has a Loops group with short pieces of music made to repeat. Add one to the stage, and in the Code tab put play sound until done inside a forever loop so it keeps going. Choose music that fits your one-sentence idea. If your hero is a sneaky cat in a haunted house, a happy circus tune sends the wrong message.

Record Your Own, and Keep It Kind to Ears

Here is the most fun part. You can make sound effects with your own voice. In the Sounds tab, click the microphone button and Scratch will record. Say “boing!” for a jump. Clap for a hit. Hum a tiny tune for the goal. Then use the sound editor’s buttons, like Faster, Slower, Robot, and Reverse, to turn your voice into something new. Many real games use recorded everyday sounds. A crunching apple can become a monster’s footstep.

One more rule that players will thank you for. Keep the volume under control. Volume is how loud a sound is, and in Scratch the set volume to block sets it anywhere from 0 to 100. A sound effect that blasts at full volume over and over is not exciting. It is annoying, and it can hurt ears. Set the music quieter than the sound effects, and test with headphones at a comfortable level. If a sound makes you wince, turn it down.

Chapter 3 Activity: Build Your Hero’s World 🎨

Your Mission: Take the paper plan from Chapter 2 and turn it into real pictures and sounds. By the end, your hero will stand on its own backdrop, take two steps, and make one sound.

Part 1: Design the Hero

On paper, draw your hero from two or three simple shapes. Add one special feature. Color it with one bright main color and a dark outline. Now do the squint test: hold the paper at arm’s length and squint. Can you still see the hero? Can you tell which way it faces? Fix it if not. Then open Scratch, click Paint under Choose a Sprite, and draw the same hero with the shape tools.

Part 2: Map the Level

Draw your level on paper. Mark safe spots with an S, dangers with an X, and the goal with a star. Draw an arrow showing the path the player should take. Then in Scratch, click Paint under Choose a Backdrop and paint the level using big, soft areas of color. Put your hero on the stage. Squint again. If the hero disappears into the backdrop, change one color until it pops.

Part 3: Two Steps and a Sound

In the Costumes tab, duplicate your hero’s costume and change one leg or arm. Build the forever loop with next costume and wait from section 3.3 and watch your hero walk. Then open the Sounds tab and add one sound for reaching the goal, either from the library or recorded with your own voice. Set the volume so it is clear but not loud. Show a partner and ask, “What does that sound mean?”

Key Concepts Checklist

I can draw a hero from simple shapes with one special feature
I can explain contrast and why my hero should not match the backdrop
I can use the squint test to check a hero’s silhouette
I can plan a level with safe places, dangers, and a clear path to the goal
I know that costumes are the pages of an animation flip book
I can make a two-costume walk cycle in Scratch
I know sound effects are feedback and music sets the mood
I can record my own sound and keep the volume at a safe level