Ideas Anyone? - Harlem Satterfield

I’m a programmer at heart. I love making games and code for people to enjoy. Whenever I have free time, I’m usually on my laptop coding on Scratch. In case you’re wondering, Scratch is a free online coding tool for games and animations. I’ve made four games so far, and my friends enjoy them!

I first started coding in fifth grade. It was like any other day. I walked into computer class and sat at my desk, staring at the empty screen before me. That’s when my teacher asked us to log on to codecademy.com. We were doing something new today. He then instructed us to make an account and start the HTML course on the site. ‘What is HTML’ I thought. I remember it saying, “Write anything between the brackets and click Submit.” I reluctantly did what it said. When I clicked ‘Submit,’ my words appeared on the screen. I was blown away. TECHNOLOGY!!!! This was completely unheard of in my life! I was so excited that I went on to finish the entire course. Now, I’m coding in advanced languages like Javascript and Python. I later found Scratch when I was 13.

One of my games is called ‘Boulder Dash.’ It’s where you have a little character collecting coins while avoiding falling boulders. Each coin equals 100 points and the boulders will drop faster for every 5 coins you get. Sounds simple, right? Good. I like keeping things simple. ‘Boulder Dash’ has an easy concept that can become so difficult. In fact, no one has been able to get past 1700, the high score. I have reset it a few times, but only if I’m testing it for bugs or something. I want my games to be the best they can be.

An older game I made was called ‘Ship Brawl’ (I should give it a better name.) It’s a space-themed two-player game. Basically, there are two spaceships; a player controls each. The goal is to shoot your opponent’s ship five times. I put a lot of work into this game. It’s coolest feature is the speed mechanism, which allows players to have their ships travel in speeds ranging from -10 to 10. You have the power to go super fast and chase your opponent, or show off your skills by flying in reverse! However, I’m not writing to explain my accomplishments as a programmer. A few weeks ago, I went on Scratch, eager to create a new game. I got right to work, but something was wrong. I wasn’t feeling inspired about anything. I was drawing a blank. I tried to think of the things I liked, but nothing came up. My mind was deadlocked and it’s like I was in show hole or something.

For days, I was pacing around my room, desperately searching for an idea. A few came to mind, but I later decided that they’d be too hard or too bland. Among these bad ideas were a pizza-making game and Pong. There was so many things I wanted in a game- multiplayer modes, secret levels, power-ups, you name it. The thing was, I didn’t know what I could do to combine them all. I didn’t show it, but besides my school work, this was a serious situation.

Eventually, I decided to take a little break for game making and focus more on other things. I gave myself a few days to think, and of course, nothing came of it. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I don’t get it, I thought, why can’t I think of an idea? If I have no inspiration, my brain begins to hurt, and when my brain begins to hurt, I can’t focus on anything! To this day, I’m still waiting to be inspired, but I do keep myself alive by actually playing games. Hopefully it’ll help.

P.S. If you want to play my games, look up “UptownAxe” on Scratch. That’s where they are.