How to Make Your Own Flappy Bird Game in Scratch: A Fun Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

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If you’ve ever played Flappy Bird, you know how addictive (and tricky!) it can be. That tiny bird flapping its wings, trying to dodge pipes — it’s simple but surprisingly fun. Now, what if I told you that you could build your very own Flappy Bird game, right inside Scratch, without writing a single line of complicated code?

Scratch is this amazing, super-friendly platform that lets you create games and animations by snapping blocks together like puzzle pieces. Perfect for beginners or anyone who wants to bring their game ideas to life quickly.

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through how to make Flappy Bird on Scratch — step by step, with clear explanations, so you can learn and create at the same time.

Ready? Let’s flap our way to game-making greatness!

Why Make Flappy Bird in Scratch?

Before we dive in, here’s why Flappy Bird is a great beginner project:

• Simple mechanics: Just tap to flap and avoid obstacles.

• Teaches core programming concepts: You’ll learn about variables, loops, conditionals, and events without getting overwhelmed.

• Visual and interactive: You see your game come to life immediately, making learning fun.

• Easy to customize: Once you get the basics, you can add your own twist — new characters, sounds, or challenges!

What You’ll Need

• A Scratch account (free) — create one here.

• A computer or tablet with internet access.

• Some creativity and patience — don’t worry, I’ll guide you through everything!

Step 1: Starting Your Scratch Project

1. Head over to scratch.mit.edu and click Create to start a new project.

2. You’ll see a default cat sprite on the screen. We won’t need it for this game, so right-click the cat and hit delete.

3. Now, let’s add our bird sprite. You can:

   • Click the Choose a Sprite button and search for “bird” or a similar character.

   • Or, click Paint to draw your own bird — a simple circle with eyes works just fine!

4. Next, create the pipes:

   • Click Paint again to draw a tall green rectangle for a pipe.

   • Duplicate it later and flip it vertically for the top pipe.

5. Finally, choose or create a background that looks like the sky or something fun.

Step 2: Make Your Bird Flap!

The heart of Flappy Bird is the bird itself — it needs to fall naturally because of gravity but jump up when you press a key.

Let’s teach our bird to flap!

Add Gravity and Flap Controls

• Select your bird sprite.

• Click Variables and make a new variable called yVelocity. This will track how fast your bird moves vertically.

Now, add these blocks to the bird’s script:

• When the green flag is clicked (this starts the game):

  • Set yVelocity to 0.

  • Place the bird at the starting position, say x: -100, y: 0.

• Forever loop:

  • Change yVelocity by -1 (this simulates gravity pulling the bird down).

  • Change the bird’s y-position by yVelocity.

  • If the player presses the spacebar or clicks, set yVelocity to 10 (this makes the bird flap up).

  • Add a tiny wait (like 0.02 seconds) to keep the game running smoothly.

Why does this work?
Gravity constantly pulls the bird down by decreasing yVelocity. Pressing space boosts yVelocity up, making the bird jump. The bird’s y-position updates every moment to reflect its movement.

Step 3: Create Moving Pipes

The pipes are the obstacles! They’ll continuously slide from right to left across the screen.

Building Pipe Movement

• Select your pipe sprite.

• When the green flag is clicked, position the pipe off the right side of the screen (x: 240).

• Pick a random y-position so the gap’s location changes each time — use Scratch’s pick random block between, say, -100 and 100.

Now, add a forever loop:

• Move the pipe left by changing its x-position by -5 each frame.

• When the pipe goes off-screen (x less than -240), reset it back to the right side with a new random y-position.

Pro tip: Duplicate your pipe sprite and flip one vertically for the top pipe — position it above the bottom pipe with a gap in between.

Step 4: Detect Collisions (When the Game Ends)

We want the game to end if the bird hits a pipe or falls off the screen.

In the bird sprite, add this forever loop:

• If the bird is touching a pipe OR if its y-position goes below the screen’s bottom (say y < -140), broadcast a message like Game Over.

• Stop the game or stop all scripts when this happens.

Step 5: Keep Score

You earn points every time you successfully fly past a pipe.

• Create a new variable called Score.

• When the green flag is clicked, set Score to 0.

• In your pipe sprite’s script, when the pipe passes the bird’s x-position (say x = -100), increase Score by 1.

This way, every time a pipe passes the bird, you get a point!

Step 6: Add a Game Over Screen (Optional but Cool!)

Make a new sprite with “Game Over” text — hide it at the start.

When the Game Over message is broadcast:

• Show the “Game Over” sprite.

• Stop all other scripts.

You can even add a “Play Again” button that restarts the game by resetting variables and hiding the game over screen.

Extra Ideas to Make Your Flappy Bird Stand Out

• Add sound effects: Play a flap sound when the bird jumps or a crash sound on game over.

• Animate the bird’s wings: Use costumes to make the bird flap visually.

• Add a background that scrolls: Make the world feel alive by moving the background slowly.

• Make the pipes more challenging: Change the gap size or speed as the score increases.

• Add a start screen: Let players press a button to start instead of starting immediately.

Your Flappy Bird Adventure Begins!

And there you have it — your very own Flappy Bird game in Scratch! 🎉

Building games like this teaches you so much about how programming works — you’re not just typing code, you’re making something interactive and fun. Plus, Scratch makes it easy to experiment, so feel free to tweak the game, add your own features, and personalize it.

Once you’re happy with your game, share it with friends or on the Scratch community and see how others like your creation!

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