Scratch is a wonderful platform to dive into the world of programming, even as a beginner! One of the coolest things you can create with Scratch is a game. Scratch provides the tools you need to quickly and easily create a fully-functional game, no matter how simple or complex you want it to be. Plus, it provides the means to easily publish and share your game with the world. There are tons of Scratch games just waiting to be played. Let's explore some awesome popular games from stretchy slime to asteroids!
To get live expert guidance while making Scratch games, join our fun Scratch Ninja class designed by experts from Google, Stanford, and MIT, or our game building club.
Discover popular Scratch games
Now that you’ve learned how to create a game in Scratch, today we’ll share some popular Scratch games to provide inspiration about what to make next.
1. Stickman’s Quest
First up is a classic platformer style game. Stickman’s Quest gives you control of a stickman on an adventure to save his family from the red stickmen. It also features a very well-designed tutorial section teaching the player all of the mechanics of the game.
2. Portal Scratch Edition 2
Portal, a popular game by Valve, features the player using dimension-bending portals to navigate through puzzles. Portal Scratch Edition takes that concept and implements it in Scratch! Players use a pair of portals to work their way through a series 24 of increasingly challenging puzzles.
3. Space Fighter
Space Fighter is a game which makes use of beautiful pixel art graphics and a simple mouse-based control scheme. Players get to choose their ship, then fight their way through challenging levels while they upgrade their ship. Players can even try to beat the high scores of other players around the world!
4. Neon Dash
Neon Dash is a game designed to work well on mobile devices. It takes its inspiration from another popular game called Geometry Dash. With just a single control making the player’s character jump as it runs automatically to the right, this game is a great example of a simple concept going a long way.
5. Tilt
Tilt is a physics puzzle game. In this game, the player can tilt the platform left and right. This allows the objects on the platform to move with gravity. The goal is simple: collect as many coins as possible with the white ball without falling off the platform or getting squashed by falling blocks!
6. cursors.io Scratch game
In cursors.io, the player controls their mouse cursor through a series of mazes to reach the green goal. This game is unique in that other people currently playing the game around the world are also visible! Although it’s a simple concept, it does a good job showcasing the multiplayer capabilities of Scratch.
7. Autumn Heights
Autumn Heights is a fairly difficult platformer. It offers some unique features, such as different player skins and a health bar. It also features some beautiful artwork to create the Autumn atmosphere!
8. Wanted Cursor
In Wanted Cursor, the player must avoid increasingly difficult dangers for as long as they can. It features a simple control scheme, allowing players to jump right in without any need for a tutorial. It also features different difficulty levels, so more advanced players can start out at the harder stages!
9. Mini Golf Scratch game
Like its real-world counterpart, Mini Golf sees the player attempting to sink their putt on increasingly difficult courses. Using the mouse to drag a trajectory for their ball, the player can choose to lightly tap the ball, or swing as hard as they can for distance! Mini Golf features impressive physics, making the movement of the ball feel natural and predictable.
10. Stretchy Slime
Stretchy Slime is a survival game with a twist. The player can leave the slime on the ground, or stretch it up to the ceiling. Players must help the slime dodge the spikes and saws for as long as possible to try to beat the global high score!
Explore trending Scratch games online
Curious what creative games are on their way to becoming hits right now? Let's check out a few fun currently trending games.
11. Minecraft Clicker
Minecraft Clicker falls into the popular category of idle clicker games, themed around Minecraft. The player starts out mining stone with a basic wooden pickaxe, and they can upgrade their pickaxe as the game progresses to mine more valuable materials. The game plays well on mobile, too!
12. Giant
Giant is an appropriately-named platformer in which the player must navigate obstacles as a giant block. Like other platformer games,the player faces increasingly difficult challenges as they progress through the game. This game also features parkour-style wall jumping to help get around the obstacles.
13. Minecraft Run!
Another Minecraft-themed game, Minecraft Run! is an infinite runner game. The player must guide Minecraft Steve around the oncoming obstacles, jumping from the floor to the ceiling and back. With a simple control scheme, it’s also mobile-friendly!
14. Space
In Space, the player guides their character through tight jumps and gaps. The space theme provides a bit of a spooky atmosphere as the player works their way through very difficult puzzles. It’s the third in a series of similar games by the same creator!
15. Swingers
Swingers is a fantastic physics-based game in which the player swings by a rope through five very challenging levels. The player must avoid touching the walls, which is far easier said than done! It’s also a one-button game, meaning it players very easily on mobile.
16. Water Scratch game
Water is a puzzle game in which the player must move through areas while being careful not to touch the hazards. It’s a live multiplayer game, meaning if others are online playing it at the same time you are, you can see their progress! As the name suggests, the physics of the game have an underwater feel to them, forcing the player to think ahead with each move.
17. Radiant game
Radiant is another platform puzzle game, with lots of features such as a health bar and the ability to parkour off the walls! It also features beautiful visuals, with attention to both level design and background elements. The levels grow increasingly demanding as the player progresses through the carefully-designed world.
18. Flappy Bird
Ah yes, good ‘ol Flappy Bird, the mildly frustrating survival game. This is a faithful reaction of the original mobile game in Scratch, with the player guiding their bird through the pipe obstacles for as long as possible, featuring a global high score against which the player can compete! Just like the original, it’s easily played on any platform, including mobile.
19. 3D Engine in 1 Day
While this entry isn’t actually much of a game, it’s worth including on this list due to how technically impressive it is! In just one day, the creator built a 3D rendering engine in Scratch capable of running smoothly. It’s a great example of just how powerful Scratch can be!
20. Lemonoids
Lemonoids is a clone of the arcade vector-art classic, Asteroids. In Lemonoids, the player navigates their ship around the screen, destroying the giant lemons coming at them from all sides! Players can compete against a global high score, doing their best to outlast players from around the world.
Check out Scratch games by Create & Learn students
Create & Learn students learn how to create games in Scratch, too! You can see some of their cool kids coding projects here.
21. Fruit Toucher
Avoid the broccoli and eat tasty treats! In Fruit Toucher, your goal is to click on everything except the broccoli. The game also features a shop to spend the points you earn, and 12 rounds to complete.
22. Tower Defense
The tower defense genre is very popular, pitting the player’s strategic decisions against increasingly difficult waves of enemies. This TD game by a Create & Learn student features three different types of towers, and a good difficult scale. Players can add more towers with a pull-out menu from the right side of the screen. Survive as long as you can!
23. Don’t Let the Baseball Touch the Lava!
Don’t Let the Baseball Touch the Lava is a perfectly descriptive title for this game. Your goal is to help keep the baseball in the air, and don’t let it fall into the lava below! Be careful, because the longer you keep it airborne, the faster it goes!
24. Dino Dance
What could be more fun than a dance party with a friendly dinosaur? In Dino Dance, players can click on the different instruments on stage to add to the music however they want. This game makes great use of many different features in Scratch!
25. Asteroids
Modeled after the classic arcade game of the same name, Asteroids is all about destroying the asteroids before they destroy you! The player controls a ship which they can point in any direction, then fire at the incoming asteroids to destroy them. Survive as long as you can and try to beat the high score.
Show off your own Scratch games
If you’ve made a Scratch game of your own, why not share it with the world? You can upload your Scratch projects to your Create & Learn account portfolio page. Plus, you can submit them to our kids coding projects page, so everyone can try your game out.
Making games is already fun, but it’s even more fun when other people can play and enjoy your game. Be sure to share your creations to get the most out of all that time you spent creating your unique project!
Enjoy Scratch Games
With all the games we’ve seen in this blog post, we’ve learned that Scratch is a powerful tool for quickly and easily creating all sorts of games. Now that you’ve seen some of the cool games people have created with Scratch, hopefully you’re inspired to try to create a game of your own! If you need more inspiration, be sure to check out some of the best Scratch games.
If you want a little help getting started with Scratch, be sure to check out Create & Learn’s live online Scratch course, Scratch Ninja! And once you’ve got the fundamentals down, you can move on to the Game Building Club to learn even more about making games with Scratch!
You might also enjoy making Pokemon games in our Pokemon Game Building class.
Written by Create & Learn instructor Josh Abbott Salazar. Josh is a teacher, coder, audio engineer, and musician. After graduating with a Master's in Music from Belmont University in Nashville, TN, Josh turned his attention to the technology side of things, and has been working in various aspects of coding and engineering ever since. He runs a small music studio in Nashville called Tango Sound Studios, and develops video games in his spare time.