Save the Planet, One Toss at a Time!

Get ready for a fast-paced challenge in this MakeCode Arcade game! You’ll need quick reflexes to snatch the recyclable materials whizzing by and steer clear of the non-recyclable trash. It’s a fun and action-packed way to learn to identify what belongs in the recycling bin.

Prepare

You’ll need the following items to complete this project:

  • Chromebook, laptop, or desktop
  • Access to MakeCode Arcade
  • OPTIONAL: micro:bit (V2), CodeCTRL, and microUSB cable

Play

Use the joystick or the arrow keys on your keyboard to collect as many recyclable objects as you can while avoiding non-recyclables.

Want to play this game on CodeCTRL?

Learn how to download it now!

A young child plays Recycle Rush on a CodeCTRL device.

Code

Let’s take a closer look at the code we’ve used to make this game! You can click on the comments throughout the program to learn more about what each block does.

Understand

At a high-level, the program is doing three things:

  1. Setting Up the Game: This includes creating your player, deciding how many lives you start with, and making sure you can control your character on the screen.
  2. Making Things Fly: The program constantly creates new items (aka projectiles!) that move across the screen. It decides what these items look like, where they appear along the y-axis, how fast they are and in which direction they move!
  3. Checking for Collisions: The program triggers downstream actions when your player touches certain projectiles. Depending on what you bump into (something recyclable or non-recyclable), different things will happen, like getting points or losing a life.”

Improve

Want to make the game your own? Click the ‘Edit’ symbol in the top right corner of the code snippet above.

Edit button in MakeCode Arcade editor

How would you modify the sample code provided, or create your own code that includes the following features?

Try:

  • Customizing the visual and sound effects after a collision
  • Designing new sprites for the recyclable and non-recyclable projectiles
  • Assigning unique scores for each recyclable
  • Implementing high score tracking
  • Increasing game difficulty over time by:
    • Increasing the speed of projectiles
    • Increasing the frequency of projectiles
    • Introducing more types of non-recyclable items

Feeling Stuck? Explore the Knowledge Base for common questions and troubleshooting tips.

Knowledge Base