Here is the Minions and Gru Despicable Me game made in ScratchJr walk through video:

This. is a really fun ScratchJr project, that allows children to learn to use lots of functions of the software. Coding the characters and also the Paint feature to create Gru and the Minions.

Here is the pdf guide that includes all of the ScratchJr code blocks needed for the full game describe in the full step by step, click by click tutorial below.

These ScratchJr quick tip videos are also useful as a quick reference guide:

How to create & code a basic joypad (up, down, left, right) in under 2 minutes

How to create & code an advanced joypad (jumping & shooting) in under 4 minutes

How to create and code a countdown timer in ScratchJr in under 1 minute

How to rename, save, share via email & airdrop a ScratchJr file in under 1min

Here is the ‘How to draw Stuart the Minion in ScratchJr’ video tutorial using the point feature in ScratchJr:

Here is the ‘How to draw Gru in ScratchJr’ video tutorial using the paint feature in ScratchJr:

Here is the full step by step, click by click tutorial.

Video transcript:

Intro

0:00[Music]

0:05[Applause] [Music]

0:12hello and welcome back in this video I’m going to take you step by step and click by click and show you everything you

0:18need to do to make your own Despicable Me game in scratch Jr with your own minions and grw the aim of the game is

0:25to help Gru to collect all the Escape minions and get them back into their holding pen in this video I’m going to

0:30show you how to make a custom background create your own minions and grw in scratch Jr create a scoreboard countdown

0:38timer and a game over and winner screen all you need to achieve any of this is the free scratch Junior app on either

0:44your phone or tablet to get the best results from this video follow along on either a TV tablet phone or any screen

0:51which you can access YouTube and puse after each step I highly recommend you go through this video first step by step

0:58and actually make the game yourself then watch the video again with the child you’re teaching this will make it easier for you to guide them because you’ll be

1:04familiar with the steps this video is 100% child friendly with no band language or inappropriateness I will be

1:10sharing this actual video with the parents carers and children in my class if you do need any extra help or have

1:16any questions please leave a comment below or via the contact details on my website email me and I will answer you

1:22as quickly as I can okay everyone let’s get started so let’s open up scratch let’s create a new project first

How to create a custom background

1:29things first let’s delete cap by using a long hold and pressing the x button um

1:35next we want to create a custom background so that we’re going to leave some area at the bottom of our screen for our joyad our scoreboard and our

1:41timer and we’re going to create a plain area at the top so go to the background button press the blank and then press on

1:48the paint button and there we have our paint area where we can customize the background we’re going to use the

1:55minions branded color so it’s going to be blue and yellow so first things first I’m select the blue color I’m then going

2:02to select the rectangle tool and then going to start in the top corner and go

2:07down I’ll need about three squares at the bottom for my joyad and um timer and

2:15scoreboard and what have you at the bottom I’m now going to fill this next I’m going to select yellow and again the

2:22rectangle tool start the top corner there come all the way across

2:30and fill that fantastic then I’m going do one more blue one just to Triple back the display boards all you teach out

2:37there will understand what that means so I’m going to start in the top corner all the way

2:44down and there we go let’s feel that pretty good if I want to move this

2:49around slightly I just press the arrow tool there and that allows me to select and just Center it slightly fantastic

2:56last thing we’re going to do again go to the rectangle tool and I’m going to create the plain area which is going to

3:02be in white so I create a white rectangle then fill it so there’s our

3:10plane area the last thing I want to do is to create the area where the captured

3:17um minions go to so that’s going to be a rectangle on the left hand side I’m going to make it black so I press black

3:24then I press the rectangle tool and I’m going to put it here I want this to be about three squares

3:31wide there we go and I’m going to feel that so then press the tick button and

3:37there is our custom background with our plane area with some space at the bottom for our joyad and also our scoreboard

3:42and timer and a fantastic white area there where we can play the game and catch the minions now what I want to do

How to create a Minion in ScratchJr

3:49is create my first minion so I’m going to go to my plus character button the blank option and press paint now I can

3:56create my minion in the paint feature here so I’m going to select Circle um

4:01tool and yellow and I’m going to create a yellow circle first of all I’m going to fill that so it’s a bit easier for

4:07you to see so that’s going to be the head then I want to create the body using the rectangle tool I’m going to

4:13try to line that up as close as I can and feel that that looks pretty good

4:21next what I want to do is create the shorts so I’m going to use the blue again the rectangle tool and see if I

4:28can make it almost the same same size fantastic close enough great now

4:35what I want to do is create the eyes so again to the circle tool um I’m going to

4:41select gray I’m going to select a thicker brush first of all because the first circle thing is almost like

4:47they’re glasses isn’t it I’m going to go back to my thinner tool um select white and do a smaller

4:56Circle and fill that and then I’m going to create a smaller um brown

5:07circle like that F that and then a tiny black

5:18circle oh press the circle buttons there we go so let’s put all that together oh select the arrow button

5:27to move that’s going to be the glasses this is going to be the

5:33eye this is going to be the brown pupil and then what I’m going to do is

5:40put the black p in

5:48there so I can move that a

5:54bit let’s try and move it again

6:03fantastic right now let’s zoom out a little bit put the shorts on um we now want

6:13some feet which are basically black circles so let’s F that I want to

6:18duplicate that using the duplicate

6:27button in line fantastic now let’s zoom in a little bit the free um draw line

6:33we’ve got our black selected let’s have a little smile okay

6:39press the tick button and there I’ll put it on full screen so you can see is our minion and that looks pretty

6:45good last thing we want to do is make the minion as small as we can for our

6:52screen and we’re going to put it over to here next I’m going to add the other minions um first I’m going to put the

6:59Grid on because I want to make sure when I line them up um this is going to be a bit important for later on there’s

7:04enough room between them so to add the rest of the minions I’m just going to go to the plus character button select the

7:10one we already created and press tick and there it is and all I need to do is just make it really

7:16small move it to here I’m going to do the same with the

7:22other minions I want to add we’re going to try to add eight I think so what I

7:28might do in the actual video is um speed this part

7:39up okay so there’s our eight minions all ready to go before we make our grw I

7:44just want to arrange these slightly differently so there’s a bit more space between

7:53them so they don’t bump on into each other because the we’re going to use the

7:59bump function or start on bump to put them back into this um holding

8:05pen once grw catches them great now we need to create our grw so I’m going to go to the plus character button again

How to create Gru in ScratchJr

8:12and I’m going to scroll down I want to find a character to customize into Gru

8:18now I would like one so grw normally has a black jacket on black trousers and a

8:25stripy gray and dark gray scarf so let me find see if there’s

8:32anybody with a long sleeve jacket on that we can oh not

8:48him I think this guy so let’s select him the person and then go to the paint

8:54option to customize so let’s oh so what I want to do is I want to do exactly

9:00what I just did then I’ve got the um paint fill option I’ve got black so let’s turn all their clothes black

9:07including their shoes and socks if I can get there great just want

9:13to zoom out a little bit now what we need to do is grw has a a very distinctive head doesn’t he it’s quite

9:20round so I’m going to select the circle button I think Gro is most probably that

9:25complexion there so let’s create a circle

9:31and now let fill that very cool now what I want to do is just change the color of the person’s

9:38hands so they’re the same right now I going to get a slightly darker pink and I’m going to just zoom into there and I

9:44want to create the nose so I’m going to get the free um drawing tool it’s got

9:49quite a big nose and it’s quite pointy so I’m going to do it like that and then

9:54what I’m going to do is I’m going to go back to my original Pink and fill into there the next thing he’s got uh black

10:03eyes so let’s do some white eyes white eyeballs

10:09first fill them in let me duplicate

10:17that there’s one duplicate

10:25that there we go eyes pretty cool now we need some some

10:34pupils let’s F

10:43that fantastic um some a mouth now he’s going to be sort of quite shocked

10:50dealing with all the Minions so let’s have an open

10:56mouth there we go and the last thing I think Gru’s got his some pretty cool eyebrows so let’s go slightly thicker on

11:05our free tool brilliant now he does have a scarf

11:12doesn’t he so let’s go to dark gray first of

11:21all I think it’s a bit thicker than that so let’s go maybe we can go to the thickest brush we’ve got

11:29yeah that’s the one fantastic now we’re going to use a slightly lighter gray with a thinner

11:36line and see if we can go across

11:52oh fantastic so let’s zoom out I think that looks pretty good so let’s press

11:58the tick button and there is our grw now he’s a bit big so we’re going to make him as small as we can and then go up

12:06some so that’s the smallest there but fantastic so let me just show you what those characters look

12:12like on full screen and I think they look pretty good let’s make it small again now we need to code them first

12:19things first let’s move Gru out the way and we’ll have him start in there I’ll just press that so he’s pointing the

12:26right way okay so that’s where gr is going to be so our first minion which is that one there notice

How to code the Minions

12:32when you select it it actually selects it there what we want them to do on the

12:38green flag is

12:43move across so we want them to move

12:48to the very end so they’re currently on 13 and we want them to get to 19 so

12:54that’s going to be six so let’s see where that ends them

13:01up ah it’s not six is it it’s 16 so let’s try

13:10again fantastic so they end up there that’s great so what we want them to do is we want them to

13:18disappear we want them to go across invisible to there and that’s their start point because when we press the

13:24green flag all of the minions are going to be causing chaos in the white area and G is going to catch them and put

13:29them back into the black area so once they’ve got to there and if the character is invisible then it won’t

13:36bump into anything and Trigger any other triggers that we’re going to use later on so once they’ve got to there what I

13:43want them to do is oh I want them to come back so we’re going to come back to

13:50from 19 to 12 so that’s going to be seven and then they’re going to go back

13:56seven so we want this min to basically go up and down uh left and

14:02right sorry in that area there but we want to avoid the other um minion that’s

14:07going to be coming out in a moment so we’re going to put a repeat block on

14:15that we’ll try to put them in a repeat block and we’re going to repeat that 20

14:24times and then we’re going to stop it so there the blocks that you’ll need

14:29for that let’s reset ah one more thing we want it to do we actually want it to

14:36appear when it gets to its start destination so this is its start Point that’s going to be important for when

14:42they get put back into the holding pen um they’re going to start there invisibly they’re going to move across

14:49the screen then appear then go backwards and forwards so let’s see what happens

14:54full screen so they should appear around here somewhere in a moment

15:02great that’s exactly what we want them to do fantastic so let’s reset that one

15:07fantastic so that’s the first one done the second one it’s going to be the same

15:13principle we want them to disappear but this time we only want

15:18them to move they’re currently on five we only want them to start at six so they’re going to move

15:25one and then they’re going to appear the other minion is going up to 12 so we

15:33want it to go up to 11 so from 6 to 11 is five so we’re going to get them to move to

15:38five and then back again and again it’s going to be we’re going to put that in a repeat block

15:45again try to and then we are going

15:51to put an end block there and that’s going to continue foreverone so that’s a very similar code to the first minion

15:59but just different numbers so let’s see what happens when we do this

16:09one great now ideally we want to make sure they do not

16:16bump they do not

16:22fantastic so we’re going to stop that and reset

16:29now what we could do is now copy this across to the different um minions so

16:35this one is this one here and that one was that one there so that’s going to be the same as the first

16:40one and this is going to be the same as the second one so let’s test those four

16:47together

17:03that’s great oh let’s reset that and then we can do

17:09the same with the next two so that is that one that oh so the next two here

17:14that is that one that is that one so let’s copy across this code to this one

17:20here and this code to this one here same

17:26again so this code goes to this one here and this code goes to this one here so

17:32now we should have all our minions coded that they are moving in the white

17:38area once we press the green

17:47flake fantastic now that’s great however they

17:52all look a little bit uniform don’t they so what we can do is let’s stagger the time they actually start so if we do go

18:00to the second two and what we’re going to do we can put a weight block

18:07there and to this one and then for the third pair we’ll do a weight block but

18:13we’re going to do it 20 that’s 20 um ten of a second so that’s 2

18:22seconds and then for the fourth pair let’s get them to go 30

18:29so that should now stagger the minions being released into or appearing in the

18:35white area let’s go

18:45again fantastic now that looks a lot more random the only thing we want to do now to our code or to our characters is

18:54make sure that they all start disappeared so what we’ll do is we’ll go to our um disappear block and we’ll just

19:01click it here so that means they

19:09start

19:21invisible okay full screen one more time green flag to start they’re all invisible one appears then a second one

19:28then then a third one then a fourth one Fantastic look at that and you can see why Gru looks so

19:34stressed there’s loads of minions everywhere it’s all chaotic and he needs to catch them so let’s code him to do

19:39that next so let’s stop go back to our small screen reset so to code gr to move

How to create a joypad in ScratchJr

19:47we need to create a joyad so I’m going to go to my plus character button blank character paint option those of you that

19:53have seen my videos before know that I create a square and then I duplicate

19:59that to be the buttons so they’re all uniform and the same so let’s create our first one select the square option blue

20:06let’s create our Square then going to fill it and press the tick button I’m we going to move

20:12that down to here then I’m going to go to the plus character button again select the blue

20:18square I created last time go to the paint option but just fill it with a different color this is going to be

20:27green and then the again this one’s going to be

20:35red one more time this one’s going to be

20:41purple there are our joyad buttons on the

20:49screen next what I need to do is code them so the purple button is going to be the left button so I’m going to use the

20:56start on touch and I’m going going to send a message when it’s pressed and that needs to be the purple

21:03one and we’re going to copy that code across onto the red button click on the

21:08red button and change that purple to a red and then going to copy that code

21:14across onto the green button click on the green button and change that red to

21:20a green and they going to copy across onto the blue button click on the blue and change that

21:27green to a blue and there are my buttons coded next we need to go to grew and

How to code Gru

21:34make sure that when those buttons are pressed he reacts appropriately so we’re going to use our receive

21:42message start on message block sorry and we’re going to create four of them I

21:48like to set them out as they are on the joyad so I don’t get confused so this is going to be the red one this is going to

21:55be the blue one this is going to be the green one and this is going to be the purple

22:02one so when the red um button is pressed a message is sent and what we want gr to

22:08do is to move right one when the purple button is pressed a purple message is

22:14sent and received and when it’s received we want Gru to move left and then with the blue one we want him to move up and

22:22the green one down so let’s make Go full screen and let’s see if that works so

22:28when I press the blue button he goes up purple button he goes left red button he

22:35goes right green button he goes down fantastic that’s exactly what we want

22:41him to do now we have to code the minions to react to grw touching them

How to code catching the Minions

22:47and what the reaction we want is that we want them once he touches them or catches them they move back into the

22:53black holding pen area so let’s code the minion so first minion what we want the minion to do when

22:59sorry gr touches them we want them to stop what they’re currently doing and

23:04then go back into the holding pen so we’re going to go to the green Sor the yellow category first of all start on

23:12bump then we’re going to go to the stop code block so that block there stops the current code that’s running so we don’t

23:18want them still to keep moving then we’re going to go to the blue category and we’re going to go to

23:25the this block here which is the go it goes to their start position wherever they started when the green flag was

23:32initially pressed that’s where they will go back and then what we want them to do is you want them to

23:38appear so let’s give that a go with this one here so we’ll start them let’s move

23:45grw a minute cuz he’s going to start over there let’s

23:51start that minion there so there they are right let’s get

23:58gr to to touch them and see what

24:03happens fantastic that’s exactly what we want to happen they go straight back

24:08into the holding pen let’s reset that

24:13great now let’s copy that code across to all of them

24:51okay that’s all of the minions have the code copied AC to the into their code I’m going to press the green flag to

24:57start okay let’s try and catch

25:10some fantastic we caught them all every time we touched a minion I went back into the holding then fantastic well

25:16that’s the basic version of the game done everyone well done congratulations and well done that’s the basic version

25:22of the game made now if you want to add a scoreboard and also a countdown timer

25:27plus a game game over and win a screen please continue to watch okay so before we create a scoreboard and a countdown

How to create the game over and winners end screens

25:34timer we need two end screens we need a game over screen when the time runs out and we haven’t caught all the minions

25:40and a winner screen when Gru has successfully um got all the Minions back

25:45into their holding pen so let’s go to the plus page button it’s long hold on cat to get rid of them

25:51there um and we’re going to do game over

25:59let’s do that really big there we go so what we’re going to

26:06now do is we are going to add loads of

26:26minions I think I four will be let’s do four four will be enough right four

26:33minions and what we’re going to do we’re going to do them circling around Gru so

26:39let’s put them there let’s add a

26:46GRU where is he it’s copying over for me I’m not sure where he’s gone on there

27:03gr might have his code so let’s get rid of his code and what we’re going to do this one

27:10here is and what we’re going to do is we’re going to make all of

27:25the all the Minions spinning round and round and

27:30round round

27:40grw okay and Gru is going to be trying to move up and down but he’s just going

27:45to be stuck

28:18there we go so that’s our poor old GW he’s stuck the minions

28:26are surrounded him so that’s the game over screen a little

28:35bit there we go um and now the winner

28:45screen it’s going to be just a big grw oh still gr isn’t there I don’t know why that

28:54is big going to make gr bigger

29:03we’re going to tr we’re going to slightly see if we

29:10can take away his shocked look on his face and we’re going to add a big smile

29:16so let’s get in there fantastic so

29:25now it’s a little bit of a dance from Gru cuz he’s won obviously feel free to adapt that as you

29:32see fits so there are two end screens ready for our scoreboard and our countdown timer okay now we’re going to

29:39create our scoreboard so we’re going to go to the plus character button blank paint option we’re going to create a

How to create and code the scoreboard in ScratchJr

29:44yellow Square try to make it same

29:50size as one of these fantastic then we’re going to duplicate that

29:58move it on to

30:06here so we’re going to do that four times we’re going to duplicate it one more time but this

30:13time we’re going to fill it blue what we’re going to do is we’re going to move

30:19it here duplicate that

30:31there we go so 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven eight we’ve got eight squares there we then press the tick button and bring that

30:39down to here you can see that that can act as our scoreboard and our

30:46Arrow can move across so let’s see if this is going to work so let’s go to our plus again let’s go to our blank paint

30:53option let’s create an arrow now so go to our rectangle

30:59then our triangle put them

31:08together fill that let’s make that a bit

31:14smaller now that should as we go

31:22across one 2 3 4 five six 7 7 eight

31:29fantastic so that will go across so we know when we get to the end we have all our minions now we need to code that to

31:36move so we’re going to go to our yellow category our receive message every time

31:42the arrow receives an orange message it’s going to move a one but we need to send them that orange message and how

31:48we’re going to do that is we’re going to go to our Min minions code sorry and when they appear back into the holding

31:55pen a a orange message will be sent to the arrow to move it across so let’s add

32:00that to all of the minions

32:25code fantastic so now we go full screen when

32:30the grw starts to collect the

32:36minions the arrow should move

32:43across there one more fantastic and it’s got to the end excellent stuff now what

32:48we now to need to do now is add a trigger to here so that when the arrow

32:53gets to here we go to the winner screen so what we could do is go to our plus

32:59character button again go to our blank character press the paint option if we

33:04create a white square or rectangle

33:11sorry we actually want that let’s start that again we select the white straight

33:17away then it won’t have a black outline there it is press the tick

33:24button bring that down now that’s a bit big at the moment so I’m just going to make that a bit

33:37smaller and move it to there so what we want to happen here when that

33:44white um rectangle is touched bumped we

33:52want to change to our winner screen so when the arrow touches that it’ll change

33:58this the page to the Winner’s page so let’s give that a Go full screen again

34:05green flag to start off we go let’s collect some minions

34:16fantastic now last one once we collect this one fantastic goes to the winner screen

34:26amazing go back to our original screen reset the last thing we need to do is create our countdown timer we’re going

How to create and code a countdown timer in ScratchJr

34:32to make it in this bottom right hand corner here so let’s go to our PL character button blank paint let’s

34:38create the actual clock face first of all let’s go to our Circle going to make it

34:45red there it is so we’ll put that down to there next what we want is

34:51maybe make that touch bigger

34:57there we go um next what we want is the actual Arrow or the clock hand that goes round I’m going to use the previous one

35:05we’ve made for the scoreboard so go to plus go to that one and press the tick

35:11button going to make it quite a lot

35:17smaller and make sure that your arrow goes in the center because it rotates at

35:22the center of its um of the character not on the top so there it is fantastic

35:27now we need to code this to countdown so what we wanted to do is to do one

35:33revolution and once that Revolution is over the game is ended so we want it to start on the green flag like everything

35:40else we want it to rotate but then we want to rotate a touch and then wait so

35:47we’re going to wait um one second I think between those and it takes 12

35:59it takes 12 revolutions to go round so we’ll put 12 there and then once that is

36:07complete we will ask it to go to the game over screen so let’s give that a

36:13test full screen green flag to start you can see that’s starting to move

36:20fantastic obviously you make the game harder or easier based on how many uh

36:25how long you let it run fantastic time run out and game is over

36:33amazing stuff reset start again reset all that

36:38brilliant okay so let’s give it a full run through here we go so full screen green flag to start let’s

36:51go all time might be a bit tight here we made it great job of I’m well

36:58done and of course if you go back to this screen here you can edit it make it harder you can make the minions quicker

37:03or slower make the time quicker or slower depending on how difficult you want the game to be great job everyone

37:09congratulations and well done for making your own Despicable Me game in scratch Jr on your mobile device please share

Congratulations, and where to go to get additional help and support

37:16with me via social media your version of the game I’m Keen to see what you’ve done and also learn from you guys as

37:22well if you do need any extra help or need to contact me please visit the link in the description below via this link

37:29you’ll get my contact details but also you’ll get some additional resources to make the game well done again and I look

37:34forward to seeing you next time bye

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