Creating scratch game on Flash

Development work covered during lesson
Today we created a scratch game for our IMP. We created this on Flash as with all of the other features of my IMP as it was the most suitable to create the game on. A scratch game is a game in which the user moves the mouse across the screen to reveal a picture underneath and this will be one of the features in my IMP that will make it a lot more interactive and enjoyable. I used a template that I found on www.iliketoflash.com in order to help me with the main steps of creating the scratch game on Flash, however for most of it I had to experiment and use my own initiative to decide what looked the most suitable for my scratch game and how to do certain things in flash. First of all, I opened a new Flash AS3 file and set the file an appropriate stage size, which I did as 400 x 200 as I thought this looked the most suitable. I then selected the rectangle tool and the colour purple and dragged a rectangle shape over the entire stage so that everything was covered. It was really important to make sure that the entire stage was covered otherwise the picture underneath would have shown through and the scratch game would have looked very unprofessional. After this I typed the message 'Have a scratch' on top of the rectangle shape so that the user is aware of what they have to do. I made this writing very big to ensure that it was extremely visible to the user, however I made sure that it looked an appropriate size for the rectangle box. 


Next I went to the timeline lock 'layer 1' and inserted a new layer by right clicking and then selecting 'insert new layer'. Following this, I then imported the picture that I wanted to appear under the purple rectangular box by selecting file, import, import to stage and then opening the correct image. Once the picture had been imported I used the free transform tool to make the picture the size that I wanted it to be. I used the free transform tool instead of changing the size by going to properties because I wasn't sure exactly what size would look best and therefore I wanted to use my own initiative in order to make the scratch game look as good as possible. In the end I made the picture slightly bigger than the box as I wanted to make sure that the picture covered the whole canvas and therefore looked professional. The next step I did was I selected the image on the stage and coverted it to a symbol by pressing F8. I then named the image 'Eblocksign', checked the movie clip box and clicked ok. It was important that I left no gaps in the name because otherwise the file wouldn't have worked. After I selected the movie clip and named it I also gave it an appropriate instance name in order to ensure that the file would work correctly. I then inserted another layer, named it 'actions', right clicked the first frame and selected actions. This then brought up a large box with a blank space and I inserted the code that was on the template. This is one of the most important steps when creating my scratch game as it ensures that the game works as it is supposed to and therefore without the code the game wouldn't work. Lastly I tested my scratch card by holding down CTRL and clicking enter and used my mouse to click and drag which slowly revealed the image underneath the box.


How the development work fitted into the client brief
The development work fitted into my client brief because it added another interactive feature into my IMP. Below is the section that my client brief fitted in to:


As well as that my front end must also be interactive in order get the user involved and make the IMP a lot more enjoyable.  I am going to add buttons to each page so that the user can navigate them around the front end a lot easier and I will also make the videos more interactive by adding a skin which includes various different buttons they can click depending on what they want the video to do. I will also make my front end interactive by including a drag and drop puzzle as well as a scratch game which are related to the theme that my IMP is about. The scratch that I will include is a game in which the user moves the mouse across the screen to reveal different pictures, which will also make the IMP a lot more interesting.

New skills table reference number
6