If you are signed in: click your username (top-right) → "My Stuff" → open "Week 1 — My Pet".
If you saved to your computer: click File → Load from your computer and find your file.
If neither works: click Create and add a cat sprite to start fresh — it only takes a moment.
⚠️ Watch out!
If you open your old project and it still has last week's "move + say" script, that is fine — you can keep it or delete it by right-clicking the script and choosing "Delete Block".
Starting a new project from scratch? Make sure you add a sprite first (click the blue cat icon in the Sprite Pane).
2
Understand the coordinate system
Scratch uses x (left/right) and y (up/down) to describe positions
The Scratch stage has an invisible grid. Every point has two numbers: x (left/right) and y (up/down).
The centre of the stage is x: 0, y: 0.
Moving right increases x. Moving left decreases x.
Moving up increases y. Moving down decreases y.
👀 Try this
Click and drag your sprite on the stage. Watch the x and y numbers update in the Sprite Pane at the bottom. You can see the exact position of your sprite at all times.
3
Add the up arrow control
One "when key pressed" event block per direction
Make sure your player sprite is selected in the Sprite Pane.
In the Block Palette, click the orange "Events" section.
Find when [space] key pressed. Drag it to the Scripts Area.
Click the dropdown on that block (it shows "space") and change it to "up arrow".
Now go to the blue "Motion" section. Find change y by 10. Snap it below the event block.
Press the up arrow key on your keyboard. The sprite should move up!
👀 What you should see
Pressing the up arrow key moves the sprite upwards on the stage. The y value in the Sprite Pane increases by 10 each press.
⚠️ Watch out!
If pressing up moves the sprite sideways, you accidentally used change x by 10 instead of change y by 10. The x and y blocks look similar — read them carefully!
If nothing happens when you press up, check the dropdown still says "up arrow" — it might have reset to "space".
You do not need to click the green flag for key-press events to work. They respond the moment you press the key.
🔍 Check Your Progress — After Step 3
Before adding the other three directions, make sure:
Pressing the up arrow key moves the sprite up on the stage
The Scripts Area has one 2-block script (event + motion)
The y value in the Sprite Pane changes when you press up
🆘 Something looks wrong?
Sprite moves in the wrong direction: Right-click the "change" block and delete it. Re-add the correct one: change y by 10 for up (positive = up).
Sprite moves but then stops responding: Click somewhere on the stage first to make sure the stage has "focus" (is accepting keyboard input).
The dropdown shows "space" not "up arrow": Click the dropdown triangle on the event block and choose "up arrow" from the list.
4
Add the other three directions
Repeat the same pattern for down, left, and right
Add three more separate scripts — one for each remaining direction:
Down arrow:when [down arrow] key pressed → change y by -10 (note the minus sign!)
Left arrow:when [left arrow] key pressed → change x by -10
Right arrow:when [right arrow] key pressed → change x by 10
Test all four directions. Your sprite should move freely around the stage.
👀 What you should see
The Scripts Area now has four separate scripts, one per direction. Pressing any arrow key moves the sprite in the correct direction.
⚠️ Watch out!
For down and left, the number in the "change" block must be negative. Click the number "10" in the block and type -10.
Each direction is its own separate script — they must NOT be connected to each other. Four scripts floating side by side in the Scripts Area is correct.
If left/right work but up/down don't (or vice versa), you may have swapped x and y. x = left/right, y = up/down.
5
Add a second sprite
Every game needs more than one character
Look at the Sprite Pane at the bottom-left.
Click the blue "Choose a Sprite" button (the cat icon with a +).
Pick any sprite from the library — a different animal, a person, a ball — anything.
You should now see two sprites in the Sprite Pane.
Click on your original player sprite (not the new one) to re-select it.
👀 What you should see
Both sprites appear on the stage. The one you just added is selected (blue border). Make sure you re-click your original player sprite before the next step.
⚠️ Watch out!
When you add a new sprite, Scratch automatically selects it. This means any code you write next will go to the NEW sprite — unless you click back to your original player sprite first.
You can move the new sprite to a different position by dragging it on the stage.
6
Add a broadcast from your player
Broadcasts let sprites send a signal to other sprites
Click your player sprite in the Sprite Pane to select it.
In the Events section, find when 🚩 clicked. Add it to the Scripts Area.
Find broadcast [message1]. Snap it below the flag block.
Click the dropdown on "message1" → choose "New message…" → type game-start → click OK.
Click the green flag. You have just sent a broadcast, but no one is listening yet — that is the next step!
⚠️ Watch out!
The message name matters. Type it exactly: game-start (lowercase, with a hyphen). If you type "Game Start" or "gamestart" it won't connect to the receiver you add next.
There are two broadcast blocks — broadcast and broadcast and wait. Use the regular one (without "and wait") for now.
🔍 Check Your Progress — Before Step 7
Check that your player sprite's Scripts Area now has:
Four key-press scripts (one per arrow direction)
A fifth script: flag clicked → broadcast [game-start]
🆘 Something looks wrong?
I accidentally put the broadcast script on the wrong sprite: Click the wrong sprite in the Sprite Pane, find the broadcast script, right-click it, and choose "Delete Block". Then click your player sprite and re-add it.
The message is named wrong: Click the dropdown on the broadcast block → "New message" → retype it carefully as game-start. The old message stays in the list — you can ignore it.
I can't find the broadcast block: It is in the orange "Events" section of the palette. Scroll down past the key-press blocks.
7
Make the second sprite react
Add a "when I receive" block to the second sprite
Click on your second sprite in the Sprite Pane.
In Events, find when I receive [message1]. Drag it to its Scripts Area.
Click its dropdown and choose "game-start" — the message your player sprite sends.
Add a reaction block below it. Try say [The game started!] for 2 seconds or move 50 steps.
Click the green flag. Does your second sprite react?
👀 What you should see
When you press the green flag, your second sprite says something or moves. The player sprite's broadcast is being received. You now have two sprites communicating!
⚠️ Watch out!
If the second sprite does nothing, the most likely cause is a message name mismatch. Check both dropdowns show exactly the same text: "game-start".
Make sure you are adding the when I receive block to the second sprite's Scripts Area — not the player's.
If the second sprite is hidden behind the first, drag it to a different part of the stage so you can see both at the same time.
⚡
Excellent — Week 2 complete!
You have built a keyboard-controlled sprite, added a second character, and made them communicate using broadcasts. Next week you will add loops and collision detection.