How to Make a Snake Game on Scratch 3.0? – A Step-by-Step Tutorial on Scratch Games

Step 3: Make the snake move in the Scratch game

• Let’s control the snake using the up/down/left/right arrow keys in this game. The steps to do this are explained below:

• Change the sprite name and name it “snake”. 

Let’s add a backdrop to the game.

• Click on the “Choose a Backdrop” icon as shown in the image given below.

• Click on “Blue Sky 2”.

• Backdrop added.

• Set the starting position of the snake. 
• Drag & drop “when green flag clicked” & “go to x y”
• Set the start position as (0, 0).

• Create a variable to store directions. 
• Click on “Variables” and click on “Make a Variable”.

• Name your variable and click on “OK”.

• Drag & drop “set direction to” block and write value “right”.

• Drag & drop the “when space key pressed” block as shown below.
• Click on the dropdown and select “right arrow”.

• Similarly assign the direction for the left, up, and down. 
• Drag & drop “when key pressed” and “set direction to” blocks as shown below.

• Set the direction of the snake when the game starts. 
• Drag & drop “set direction to” and set the direction right. 

• Add a conditional statement to check whether the right arrow key is pressed.
• Drag & drop “if-then”.

• Drag & drop the “equal to” operator as shown below. 

• Drag & drop the “direction” variable to the “equal to” operator as shown below.
• Write the “right” to “equal to” operator.

• Change the snake’s x position to a positive value so that the snake can move in the right direction when you press the right arrow key.
• Drag & drop the “change x by” block as shown below.

• Put the conditional statement in a “forever” loop, checking it each time.

• Click on the “green flag”.
• The snake can move in the right direction by pressing the right arrow key.

• Similarly, add another conditional statement for the “left” arrow key.
• Drag & drop “if-then”, “equal to” and “direction” variables as shown below.
• To move the snake in the left direction change the snake x position value with a negative number.
• Drag & drop the “change x by -5” block as shown below.

• Similarly, add another conditional statement for the “up” arrow key.
• Drag & drop “if-then”, “equal to” and “direction” variables as shown below.
• To move the snake in the up direction change the snake y position value with a positive number.
• Drag & drop the “change y by 5” block as shown below.

• Similarly, add another conditional statement for the “down” arrow key.
• Drag & drop “if-then”, “equal to” and “direction” variables as shown below.
• To move the snake in the up direction change the snake y negative value with a positive number.
• Drag & drop the “change y by -5” block as shown below.

• Click on the “green flag”.
• Snake can move in left/right/up/down direction using left/right/up/down keys. 

Let’s add some effects so that the snake sprite mimics a snake. 

• Drag & drop the “create clone of myself” block as shown below.

• Click on the “green flag”.
• Snake can move in left/right/up/down direction using left/right/up/down keys and its length is increasing but we do not want to increase length automatically.

• Let’s program the clone of the snake.
• Drag & drop the “when I start as a clone”, and “wait seconds” blocks as shown below.
• Set the wait time at 0.1, you can choose any; please note this wait time will decide the length of the snake.
• Drag & drop the “delete this clone” block as shown below.

• Click on the “green flag”.
• Snake can move in left/right/up/down direction using left/right/up/down keys and its length is not increasing automatically.

Step 4: Draw the food sprite and set the position and function

• Click on “Paint”

• Click on “Fill” and select your color.

• Click on the “Circle” icon of the scratch paint tool.

• Drag the mouse pointer over the paint area and create a circle.

• Add outline to food sprite.
• Click on “Outline”

• Select your outline color.

• Click on “Reshape” to select it then click on the “red circle”.

• Set the outline thickness to five.

• Change the design of the “red circle” so that it looks like foody stuff by dragging the outline.

• Click on fill and select color, then click on “circle”
• Drag the mouse pointer over the “red circle” and draw a small circle within the “red circle”

• Let’s code the food sprite and set its position and functions.
• Click on “Code”

• Change the food sprite name and size. 

• Set the start position of the food sprite. 
• Drag & drop “when green flag clicked” and “go to x y” blocks as shown below.

• X, Y value of scratch stage. 
• X value range is from -240 (left) to 240 (right).
• Y value range is from 180 (up) to -180 (down).

• Make the position random by using the “pick random to” block.
• Drag & drop “pick random to” block to x and y and set its value,
• And set the x value from -240 to 240 & y value from 180 to -180 as shown below. 

• Write a conditional statement to check whether the food sprite touches the snake sprite. 
• Drag & drop “if-then” and “touching” blocks as shown below, click on “dropdown” and select “snake”.

• If the snake touches (eat) the food then change its position to a random position. 
• Drag & drop the “go to x y” and “pick random” blocks as shown below. 
• And set the x value from -240 to 240 & y value from 180 to -180 as shown below. 

• Put the above conditional statement into the “forever” loop.

• Click on the “green flag”.
• The snake can eat the food, and then the food changes its position to a random place.

• Now, let’s increase the snake length when the snake touches the food sprite. 
• Create a variable, click on “Variables” and, then click on “Make a Variable”.

• Name the variable then click on “OK”.

• Click on the “snake” sprite.

• Drag & drop the “length” variable to the “wait seconds” block as shown below.

• Change the “length” variable when the snake touches the food. 
• So, first, click on the “food” sprite.

• Drag & drop the “change direction by” block as shown below.
• Click on the “length” 

• Change the “change length by” value by 0.1 when “snake” touches the “food” sprite. 

• Click on the “green flag”.
• Now, snake length increase by 0.1 when it touches the food.

Step 5: Add score to the snake game

Let’s add a score in the game when the snake touches the food.

• To keep track of scores create a variable. 
• Click on “Variables” and, then click on “Make a Variable”

• Name the variable then click on “OK”.

• Drag & drop the “change direction by” block as shown below. 
• Click on the dropdown and select “score”.

• Change the score variable value by 10.

• Click on the “green flag”.
• Now, the score increase by 10 when the snake touches the food. 

• Let’s set the snake length & the score to zero when the game starts.  
• Click on the “snake” sprite.

• Drag & drop “set the score to” and “set length to” blocks as shown below.

• Click on the “green flag”.
• Now, length and score start with zero when the game starts.

Step 6: Add a game-over message

Let’s add game-over features to the game; if the snake touches the edge of the scratch stage, the game will be over. 

• Add a conditional statement to check whether the snake touches the edge of the scratch stage.

• Drag & drop “say for seconds” block and set the game over message.

• Drag & drop the “stop all” block as shown below.

• Put the conditional statement into the “forever” loop.
• Drag & drop the “when green flag clicked” block on top as shown below.

• Click on the “green flag”.
• Now, if the snake touches the scratch stage edge then the game stops and displays the game-over message. 

Snake game code in Scratch?

The scratch game code for both snake and the food sprite are explained below:

Snake game code for snake sprite

Snake game code for food sprite