First Impressions
Starting with Scratch was like walking into a playground before diving into a classroom. At first, I wasn’t sure how visual programming could teach “real” programming concepts, but I was surprised at how quickly I found myself thinking like a programmer—without writing a single line of code just yet. Dragging and snapping colorful blocks felt more like solving puzzles than coding, which made it less intimidating. In some ways, it was easier than expected, but it also forced me to think logically in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Professor David Malan teaches the class. I find his lecture to be straightforward, and I like how he engages with students.

What I Built
For my project, I decided to keep things simple but classic—I built an interactive Ping-Pong game using Scratch. The concept was straightforward: one paddle, one ball, and the goal was to keep the ball from falling off the bottom of the screen. I designed it so the player could control the paddle by moving the mouse cursor left and right, positioning it to “catch” the ball each time it bounced down. As the score increased, so did the speed of the game. It was inspired by old-school arcade games, and I wanted to replicate that fast-paced, reflex-based gameplay in a visual programming environment.

One of the biggest challenges was getting the ball to bounce correctly at different angles depending on where it hit the paddle. I also had to figure out how to reset the game when the ball hit the bottom of the screen, and how to keep track of the score using variables. While the mechanics were simple, it took some experimenting to get the timing and motion just right. I was able to finish the project in a week. In the end, I had a fun, functional game that felt satisfying to play—and it taught me a ton about how logic and interaction work in programming. (Enjoy the game below, click green flag to start and the red to stop)

Lessons Learned

Building a Ping-Pong game in Scratch taught me more than I expected. Even though I didn’t write a single line of code, I still had to think like a programmer. I used loops to keep the ball moving continuously, and conditional statements to check if the ball hit the paddle or touched the edge of the screen. One key moment was learning how to use variables to keep track of the player’s score—it made the game feel more real and goal-oriented.

Another important concept was event-driven programming. I had to make sure that when the ball missed the paddle, it would trigger a “game over” broadcast that stopped the game and reset everything. Timing was everything, and I had to test and tweak a lot to make the paddle and ball movement feel responsive. The visual interface helped me connect these abstract ideas with something I could see and control.

What I realized is that Scratch is more than just a beginner’s toy—it’s a bridge into real programming. By removing the barrier of syntax, it lets you focus on logic, flow, and problem-solving. That’s incredibly important for beginners.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you start learning to code—every missed semicolon or typo can break your program. But with Scratch, you’re free to explore and make mistakes without getting stuck on formatting. You’re learning how to think like a developer, which is the foundation of everything else. Once you understand loops, conditions, and variables conceptually, learning languages like Python or JavaScript becomes way more intuitive.

Conclusion / What’s Next

  • This project gave me confidence. I built something functional, fun, and interactive—and I understood why it worked. That feeling of making something from scratch (no pun intended) is addictive.
  • I learned that simplicity doesn’t mean it’s easy. Even a basic game like Ping-Pong involved a lot of debugging, design thinking, and creative problem-solving. Every tweak to the ball’s behavior taught me something new about logic and flow.
  • Next, I will dive into week 2 with C. Now it’s the real deal, I get to play with real syntax. It will be fun, catch you next time.