Building a Touch-Controlled Snake Game with App Inventor

Tutorial plan

1- Presentation of Snake game

2- Objective of our mobile application

3- Description of Designer Interface

4- Description of Blocks part

Presentation of Snake game

The Snake Game is a classic arcade game in which the player controls a snake that moves around the screen, eating food and growing longer. The objective is to collect as much food as possible without hitting the walls or the snake's own body.

The main goal of the Snake game is to control a moving snake that continuously moves across the screen. The player must guide the snake to eat pieces of food, which appear randomly on the screen. Each time the snake eats food:

The snake grows longer.

The player's score increases.

The game continues until the snake crashes into a wall or runs into its own body, resulting in game over.

Objective of our mobile application

In this version of the game, developed using MIT App Inventor, the player uses on-screen buttons or swipe gestures to change the direction of the snake.

The game features:

- a graphical interface created with App Inventor's Designer.

- a moving snake represented by small colored elements.

- a randomly placed food object that appears each time the snake eats.

- a score system that increases each time food is eaten.

This project demonstrates how to apply programming logic, event handling, and UI design using block-based coding in MIT App Inventor. It helps students learn fundamental concepts like loops, conditions, variables, and timers in a fun and interactive way.

Description of Designer Interface

The Designer Interface in MIT App Inventor allows you to visually create the layout of your Snake game by dragging and dropping components onto the screen.

For the Snake game, the interface typically includes the following key elements:

1. Screen

Screen1: The main container that holds all components of the game.

Properties:

Title: "Snake Game"

Scrollable: unchecked

AlignHorizontal and AlignVertical: Centered

BackgroundColor: Optional (e.g., black or green to simulate a classic game look)

2. Canvas

Canvas1: A drawing area where the snake and food will appear.

Used to draw and animate game elements (snake segments, food).

Properties:

Width: Fill parent or fixed (e.g., 300 pixels)

Height: Fixed (e.g., 300 pixels)

BackgroundColor: Dark gray or black

PaintColor: Used for drawing snake or food elements.

3. Sprites

ImageSprite (SnakeHead):

Represents the head of the snake.

Can use a small green square or custom image.

Moves using the MoveTo block or Heading/Speed.

ImageSprite (Food):

Represents the food the snake will eat.

Randomly placed on the canvas.

4. Control Buttons

If you're not using swipe gestures or tilt sensors:

ButtonUp, ButtonDown, ButtonLeft, ButtonRight:

Positioned in a grid layout or using HorizontalArrangement/VerticalArrangement.

Used to control snake direction.

Labeled with arrows (↑ ↓ ← →) or images.

5. Labels

ScoreLabel:

Displays the current score.

Example text: "Score: 0"

Positioned above or below the canvas.

FontSize and TextColor can be customized.

Description of Blocks part

The Blocks editor is where the logic of the game is created using visual programming blocks.

In the Snake game, you use blocks to control movement, detect collisions, update the score, generate food, and handle game over.