Best Scratch Games From Every Move Matters Jam

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Hello fellow scratchers. What kind of game comes to mind when I say every move matters? Well, that was this month's game jam theme in the Griffpatch Academy and you guys didn't disappoint with your submissions. Now we're going to have a lot of fun exploring what you created and deciding on the winners.

[00:00:19]And we'll begin with the arcade games.

[00:00:21]This category was as popular as ever, loads of entries. I've left a comment under each and every submitted project, but before I reveal the finalists, I want to give a special mention to Spew for creating a cool level selection world map. Thank you are for clever use of scene hitboxes.

[00:00:38]Then the gamer boy for their well-balanced level progression and King Puff for their excellent art style and super fun difficult gameplay. Love that.

[00:00:46]Okay guys, let's see our finalists beginning with three returning champions. Air type by Adrian Sud 22.

[00:00:54]Type the letter to fly. If you fall off the screen, you die. A very well-presented game that goes a long way to helping you improve your keyboard knowledge. So I would have filed this under casual games if it wasn't so infuriatingly fast-paced. Wow, you really have to be good finding those keys. I love the minimalist art and smooth UI and those little wiggling legs. Excellent. [laughter] It's the little details, right?

[00:01:18]Next up, Pyromaniac by not a school account. You leave a trail of fire behind you. Don't run into it. These handcrafted sprite costumes are simply amazing, so colorful, adorable, and delightfully animated. Each enemy has two stages of development. For example, the wood catches fire and the corn pops.

[00:01:36]It's so clever. I can't help but admire how tastefully that fire trail looks and then gracefully peters out. Beautiful camera shake, too. Graphics aside, the gameplay is tricky as it's quite zoomed in, but super fun and easy to pick up and play.

[00:01:53]Zone Alone by Cat Weasel 1972.

[00:01:57]This intro, oh man, it made me laugh.

[00:02:00]Look at that little guy fixing the ship.

[00:02:03]Sadly, he gets left behind and now it is your job to get them safely home without suffocating, burning up in a star, or floating off into space.

[00:02:14]I very much enjoyed the use of gravity maps to slingshot the player around the screen. But man, it's really not at all easy with all the gravity fields being so close together a lot of the time. All of the same, a great effort and a game to be mastered. So, out of these three previous jam winners, which one will be crowned returning champion?

[00:02:35]Yes, it has to be Not a School Account with their awesome game Pyromaniac.

[00:02:41]Great job. You really are a master at creating amazing game costumes.

[00:02:46]Okay, but still in the arcade games, our previous winners have demonstrated their skill, but what about our rising challenges?

[00:02:53]Anthronus by Ninja 8371.

[00:02:56]You need to kill reds while dodging them. A bit of strategy is needed to play this game as the enemy AI is rather good. We can move two grid squares in any direction, at least in the current game mode, but so can the AI and whoever lands on top of the other wins. Sounds simple, but you also have to factor in the next enemy ship that will come into play as soon as the previous one is defeated. I really love these clever game ideas you guys come up with. So inspirational.

[00:03:26]Crazy Fighters by Clumsy Hamster. In this atmospheric shooter, the green slimes are out to get us. Luckily, we have a very large magic blast that cuts through them with ease. If only it didn't take so long to recharge. So, we do a lot of running away. I mean, stealthy dodging. I really enjoyed the gurgling sounds emitted by the slimes.

[00:03:48]It's so cool. What I would like to see is an indicator of magic spell recharge and maybe a gradual increase in difficulty.

[00:03:57]Every move can be your last by Elvin 2015.

[00:04:01]Killer bats and what is that? A giant rotating light vomiting toad? Whatever it is, it spells bad news if it catches you in its gaze. So, we dash behind a bush to hide our bright red t-shirt.

[00:04:14]Now, that is cool. But those pesky bats, they won't leave us alone. So, we dance on. I love this simple game idea, well executed and tricky to master.

[00:04:25]Well, well, the competition is fierce. I really love the toad and bats, but Ninja Ace 8371 picks up the win with Antronis really capturing the theme. Every move matters with their turn-based battle against a cleverly coded AI.

[00:04:43]Now, we move on to casual games.

[00:04:46]>> [music] >> Which means we can let down our guard, at least touch. Again, many submissions featuring some really outstanding efforts. A few highlights were Violet 2's colorful cat trail effects and Tennis Pro 123's delightful functioning piano and Wishaw 177's polished wall jumper. But now, the top four.

[00:05:06]Floppy Birdie by Dimmipoly. On easy mode, it's a flap in the park. On hard, well, things start to get serious and yet it stays enjoyable without that throw your device out of the window feeling, which is a nice change for a flappy burb clone.

[00:05:23]Circumference by HGO. Every move really does matter when you're trying to trace a perfect circle, not the easiest with a computer mouse, but I really appreciate the coding skills and math involved in detecting and drawing our circulatory efforts. You can see it changing hue as you move away from the current radius, I guess.

[00:05:43]And those celebratory fireworks are the icing on the cake.

[00:05:47]Motion Movie by Build a Books is a rhythm-based game taking cues from Friday Night Funkin'. It's got a nice track selection page and then you're off. The graphics are simple, but what matters here is the game is solid and fun. Having the incoming notes drawn as arrows really helps get players engaged quickly as we tend to already have muscle memory for [music] where they sit under our fingers. Good job and bang on theme.

[00:06:12]Finally, Where Is the Mummy? by Scraptrap 133.

[00:06:16]Where's the mummy?

[00:06:18]Love it. But how does it fit the every move matters? Well, you have to watch very carefully because one of these sarcophaguses will twitch. Is something inside? Yes, it's your mummy. Excellent idea and excellent game. What a clever idea.

[00:06:34]Right, time to pick a winner. None of these have won a game jam before, so it's all up for grabs and the winner is HGO with Circumference. Congratulations to you for great pen work and keen coding skills. I love this kind of project. It's the kind of thing everyone should take a stab at coding at some point in their coding journey.

[00:06:56]>> [music] >> Now, often with less coding but bursting with creativity, best animation is next.

[00:07:05]Box by Handstand Ninja.

[00:07:08]Why do some products take so much effort to open them?

[00:07:12]Oh, come on. Time to get the big guns out.

[00:07:18]Well, maybe this is a little overkill.

[00:07:20]Yeah, I really love these sense of humor and that you put in the effort to voice act it, too. Great job. That really lifts the whole presentation.

[00:07:29]Drapt That Clock part two by Justavibe Bar. We continue from where we left off in the previous jam and this might not be the most detailed looking animation, but hold on, do we have any chess fans here? Yes, we get to watch a full game of chess unfold. How cool is that? And the end is really entertaining.

[00:07:49]>> Now I'm back to square one.

[00:07:51]Max versus Bob by The Leader of the Map.

[00:07:54]Well, it never rains but it pours.

[00:07:57]Another game of chess, but this time we get to see the action from different angles. Wow, I love the detail. Each piece is placed perfectly from the top.

[00:08:05]Dude, are you like trying to lose? And from the side view. How clever. I really appreciate that. But unlike the previous game of chess, this one is over in no time at all. Wow, is this the fastest checkmate in history?

[00:08:19]The Forgotten Scientist by Balak Vasanet. This project puts our awesome text dialogue box tutorial to excellent use to tell a long and twisted detective story. I was impressed with the writing and how the tale unfolded. Witty and surprisingly long. I had my suspicion who was the culprit, but it kept me guessing right till the end.

[00:08:40]And finally, Unbeatable Every Move Matters episode four by Binky Beaver.

[00:08:46]Now this guy, he's topped the animation category for the last three jams and with good reason. The animations are top-notch. This Unbeatable Beetroot has only gotten stronger after their encounter with the microwave and now every move matters as our protagonist tries to make their escape. I really love how Binky Beaver likes to experiment with the different camera angles. So cool.

[00:09:06]Yes, five fabulous animations. All of them worth watching if you have a moment to spare, but now we need to pick the winners. Yes, we're going to have two.

[00:09:15]We have a returning champion and that has to go to Yes, Binky Beaver. It seems this man is simply unbeatable. Sorry about that. But we also can award a rising challenger and that is The Leader of the Map with Max versus Bob. I was super impressed with their eye for detail with the multi-angled chess game board in particular.

[00:09:39]Okay, time for something completely different. Best platformer.

[00:09:46]Arc Bow hard mode by Gab the Gamer 2024.

[00:09:51]And they really embraced the theme.

[00:09:53]Every move matters right from the off.

[00:09:55]This game is packed with really difficult moves. Hence the name, I guess. So, if you fancy a challenge, then here it is, guys. At least for the first four scenes. After that, it's a bit of a walk in the park. Echoes of you final by Tech Tornado 9. This is a very enjoyable blend of graphical styles and great use of the scrolling Mario tutorial. But, you didn't stop there.

[00:10:18]You added some excellent concepts of your very own. The clever rewind action is magic and we need to use it to complete each level. So, we can [music] literally be in two places at once. An excellent mechanic and I was left wishing we could see more of that throughout the game.

[00:10:34]Supernatural events by Wintermelonboss.

[00:10:37]We've seen this game many times in many jams and it continues to boast an amazing arsenal of wonderful element bending graphical effects. But, oh my gosh, can they even get me through scene two? I seriously tried everything I could think of and I got close, but I can't take it anymore. Rage quit. I'm sure it was just me. I need simple instructions to guide me through.

[00:11:03]Cave Dive by Hyper Hypermine. This was the most awesome game menu. An arcade machine in which we play our game. It's so cool. Now, we collect coins and travel from left to right screen to screen. Also, if you remember to read the instructions, we can use the space key to dash smash through blocks. And that really does help getting us from one side of the screen to the other. And I really do love those particle effects and the retro sounds.

[00:11:32]Now, how do I pronounce this? Zinic the alien by one Brazilian and one. It begins with an exciting story about how you're an alien whose ship crash landed on Earth and you must escape the humans and then transitions into this excellent strategic scrolling platformer. We have limited bombs and must use them wisely to blow up sections of the wall. If we choose poorly, then we'll be soft locked and we'll have to restart the level.

[00:11:58]This was surprisingly fun, especially as we begin advancing through the levels with new bomb and wall types being introduced. So, okay, okay, we have our finalists. Five platformers to choose from, but who is today's winner? And this was a close call, but after much deliberation, it is one Brazilian and one with their game Zinic. The game really smashed the theme, every move matters, every bomb placement having consequences and leading to success or failure. Excellent work and congratulations to you.

[00:12:31]Which brings us to the last game genre of the jam, the final tussle for best puzzle game. And the competition has been fierce. I'd like to call out a special mention to Emmet MMS for taking on a challenging project, seeking help in the academy and sticking with it. And Luminava with her delightful hand-drawn backgrounds. Wow. But now, let's see the short list projects starting with our rising challenges. Chess by Mikey J 1012.

[00:13:00]Of the many chess games submitted for this jam, this one was one of the best.

[00:13:04]With its clean board and pieces, this project goes on to begin to validate the correct moves each piece can make.

[00:13:10]That's so clever. What happens next is a little unconventional, but I think this is perhaps a work in progress and I hope to see more soon.

[00:13:20]The noble path by cool guy 1086.

[00:13:24]Beginning with an engaging story, >> [music] >> you are then plunged into a puzzle of single use platforms, lasers, and triggering doorways. You just need to find the correct path. It's very engaging and well worth play. The last level has a clone of yourself to move as well, and that was especially fun to figure out.

[00:13:43]Cats versus dogs by Troll Master 123.

[00:13:47]You play as the cat, so be careful of the dog. It's a chase around the tiled grid to find your way home. Only your home is randomly zipping around the board, too, which makes it very tough.

[00:13:59]And did I mention the board is randomly changing, too? And then you'll find things get complicated with all sorts of strange tiles that affect your movement and the flow of the game. It's wild. So, some awesome ideas and a showcase of great coding, but who will be our new rising challenger today? The award goes to Cool Guy 186 with the Noble Path for a well-designed puzzle game that was simple and fun to pick up. A nice clear levels, a well-defined goal, and good level progression. Congratulations.

[00:14:30]But that is not the end of it. No, we still have our puzzle offerings from the previous winnings vying for returning champions. Let's see them now.

[00:14:39]Mimic Neon by Ben Wex 13. This is one of those Simon Says type games, but instead of colors, we must memorize the order of the directional chevrons emitting from the central cube. I really appreciate the layout as it maps directly onto the arrow keys used to control the game. And again, that helps with our muscle memory. The visuals are fun, and I like the shimmering star backgrounds and smooth animations. A little more audible feedback might be a nice touch.

[00:15:05]Otherwise, an excellent game to stretch your brain.

[00:15:09]Serial Shuffle YMM Demo by Gamer Wolf Studios.

[00:15:14]Wowzers, how do you do it? You have such a flair for creating addicting polished games. Once you get over the awesome interface and into the game, it's simple matching game. Swap tiles to try to make runs of three or more of the same type.

[00:15:29]The more you can clear at once, the bigger the bonus. I love the thought you put into the user interface. The integrated help walks you through the game without interfering, and there's even a save code that pops up when you stop the game. Amazing.

[00:15:42]And that leaves us with War Tactics by Wouter van Oortmerssen.

[00:15:47]And this one has got me beat. It's not your normal game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Wouter has reimagined the game over a 9 by 9 board with some really devious rules that require some real tactical thought, and I today, at least, appear to be lacking. Because the exceptional AI in this game was able to outplay me on every match, and I played quite a few.

[00:16:09]And no, this was not even on hard mode.

[00:16:12]Visually, the game is good with clever fog of war around the game areas that you have not yet got access to. And you really have to plan ahead. And watch out for what the AI is doing, too, as otherwise, your game will end very quickly, and not in your favor.

[00:16:27]Wow, I simply cannot say enough about the quality of these puzzles. You just have to play them. Really, you should.

[00:16:33]But I have to pick a winner, and it's very tough, but the theme is every move matters, and that sways it for me. The winner has to be Wouter van Oortmerssen with War Tactics.

[00:16:44]It may not have the same crazy, exceptional polish shown by Game of Studios, but it's a close second there, and it has such strong AI coding that it is a match for any level. I'd love to spend more time learning the tactics of this game. So, congratulations to you.

[00:17:01]And a huge thank you to everyone who took part, returning champions, rising challengers, and anyone jumping into the game jam for the very first time. These jams are such a great way to put into practice what we've learned in the Grit Patch Academy, and push ourselves to become better coders and game creators.

[00:17:17]Indeed, if you love building games like these and want to take your skills even further, you can join me inside the Griffpatch Academy, my online learning community where I teach you step-by-step how to make full games, level up your Scratch skills, and learn alongside hundreds of other young creators just like yourselves. There's a link below if you want to find out more, and together we can learn to build your favorite games. Have you heard of the game Hollow Knight? This summer we are starting work on a Metroidvania scroller. So excited about that. So this is the perfect time to jump on board. But that is it for me today. So until next time, have a great week ahead and scratch on, guys.