Mythical Heroes — Challenge Work Sheets

For whoever is running the session. These work sheets go with the Mythical Hero’s Maze activity, and pick up where the Maze tutorial leaves off.

Printing this page gives you one sheet per challenge to hand out - this section is left off the print out.

Challenges 1, 2 and 3 make a good session. 4 and 5 are there for anyone who gets through those.
Challenge 5 adds a second level, and is the only one that runs to two sheets. It works well held back until someone asks for it.
Before they start, get everyone to click the Save button at the bottom of the MakeCode screen, so a closed tab doesn’t cost them their maze.
The challenges can be done in any order, but 4 and 5 both build on code from earlier ones.

Challenge 1 — Collect the Relics ⭐

Scatter treasure through the maze for your hero to find.

Make the relics

From Sprites, drag a set mySprite to sprite of kind Player block into on start. Put it underneath the set tilemap to block.
Click the dropdown that says mySprite and choose New variable… Call it relic.
Click the little grey square in the block to open the drawing editor. Draw your relic — a golden apple, a coin, a jewel. Or click Gallery to pick a ready-made one.
Click the dropdown that says Player and change it to Food.
From Scene, drag place relic on top of random tile underneath. Choose your floor tile from the dropdown so relics land on the floor, not inside walls.
From Loops, drag a repeat 4 times block into on start and drop both of your new blocks inside it. Now you get four relics instead of one!

Make them collectable

From Sprites, drag out on sprite of kind Player overlaps otherSprite of kind Player. This is a new block that sits on its own — don’t put it inside on start.
Change the second dropdown from Player to Food.
Inside it, put:
- destroy otherSprite (from Sprites)
- change score by 1 (from Info)

Test it! Your score appears in the top corner as soon as you grab your first relic.

💡 Running out of time? Click the number in the start countdown block in on start and make it bigger.

Challenge 2 — Sound and Music ⭐

Games feel twice as good with sound.

Click Music in the block menu.
Drag a play ... until done block out.
Click the picture inside it to choose or create a sound. The dropdown next to it lets you pick a sound effect, a melody, or a song.

Now put your sounds where you want them:

Background music: put a music block at the top of on start. Change until done to in background — otherwise the game waits for the music to finish before it starts!
Grabbing a relic: put a short sound inside your overlaps ... Food block from Challenge 1.
Winning: put a triumphant sound just above the game over WIN block.

Challenge 3 — Monsters and Lives ⭐⭐

Every hero needs something to run away from.

Give your hero lives

From Info, drag set life to 3 into on start.

Add the monsters

Make monster sprites exactly the same way you made the relics in Challenge 1 — but this time:
- name the variable monster
- set the kind to Enemy
- draw something scary (a Gorgon, a serpent, a cyclops)
- use repeat 3 times

Make them dangerous

From Sprites, drag out another on sprite of kind Player overlaps otherSprite of kind Player.
Change the second dropdown to Enemy.
Inside it, put:
- destroy otherSprite (from Sprites)
- change life by -1 (from Info)

Test it! Hearts appear in the corner. When they run out, the game ends by itself.

💡 Make your monsters look really different from your relics, or players won’t know what to avoid.

Challenge 4 — The Locked Gate ⭐⭐⭐

The exit won’t open until you’ve found the key. This one uses a variable — a box the computer keeps something in.

Make the variable

Click Variables, then Make a Variable… Call it hasKey.
Drag set hasKey to 0 into on start, near the top.
From Logic, drag a false block into the slot where the 0 is. It should now read set hasKey to false. This means: we haven’t found the key yet.

Make the key

Make a key sprite the same way as before — variable named key, and draw a key. Don’t use a repeat loop, you only want one!
In the kind dropdown, choose Add a new kind… and name it Key. (If it were Food, your relic code would eat it.)
Add place key on top of random tile underneath.

Pick it up

Drag out another on sprite of kind Player overlaps otherSprite of kind Player and set the second dropdown to Key.
Inside it, put:
- destroy otherSprite
- set hasKey to true (grab the true block from Logic)
- a sound, if you like

Lock the gate

Find your original block that says on sprite of kind Player overlaps ... at location with game over WIN inside it.
From Logic, drag an if ... then block into it, and move game over WIN inside the if.
From Variables, drag hasKey into the diamond-shaped slot in the if.

It should now read: if hasKey then game over WIN.

Test it! Run to the exit without the key — nothing happens. Grab the key first, and you win.

💡 Optional: click the + at the bottom of the if block to add an else, and put a splash "The gate is locked!" block (from Game) inside it, so players know why nothing happened.

Challenge 5: Level Two ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Reaching the exit doesn’t win the game any more — it takes your hero deeper into the labyrinth.

Step 1 — Draw a second maze

Click the Assets tab at the top of the screen.
Click + New Asset, then choose Tilemap.
Name it level2.
Draw your second maze. Make it harder than the first!
- Click the wall icon above the Gallery, then paint over the tiles your hero shouldn’t be able to walk through.
- Important: use the same exit tile you used in level 1, or the code won’t know when the player has reached the end.
Click Done.

Another way in: click the grey map picture inside your set tilemap to block, then look for My Tilemaps and create a new one there.

Step 2 — Keep track of which level you’re on

Make a new variable called level.
In on start, add set level to 1.

Step 3 — Change the ending

Find the block that says on sprite of kind Player overlaps ... at location.

Rebuild what’s inside it so it looks like this:

if  level = 1  then
    set level to 2
    set tilemap to level2
    place mySprite on top of random [floor tile]
    start countdown 30 (s)
else
    game over WIN

How to build it:

From Logic, drag an if ... then block in. Click the + at the bottom to add an else.
From Logic, drag a 0 = 0 comparison block into the diamond slot. Put level on the left and type 1 on the right.
Move your existing game over WIN block down into the else part.
Fill the then part with the four blocks above. set tilemap to is in Scene — click its grey picture and choose level2.

Step 4 — Test it

Reach the exit. The screen should switch to your new maze with your hero back at the start, and the timer should reset. Reach the exit a second time and you win.

Watch out for this

Any relics, monsters or keys you added in earlier challenges are still there when level 2 loads — floating in strange places, possibly inside walls.

To fix it, look in Sprites for a destroy all sprites of kind ... block. Add one for each kind you used at the start of your level-2 code, then place fresh ones afterwards using the same repeat blocks as before.

Going further

Add a level3 tilemap and another else if.
Give each level a different countdown time — shorter each time.
Show the level number on screen with set score to level, or use a splash block to announce “Level 2!” before the maze appears.

Back to the Mythical Hero’s Maze activity.

Mythical Hero's Maze - Work Sheet

Instructions for extending the MakeCode Arcade maze game beyond the first simple tutorial.