How To Make An Interactive Game On Google Slides

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Google Slides, a platform that many use for presentations, can also be leveraged to create engaging and interactive games! Today, we are going to provide a step-by-step guide on how to make an interactive game with Google Slides.

Step 1: Setting Up Your Google Slides

First, you’ll need to create a new Google Slides presentation. Visit slides.google.com and click on + New Presentation.

Step 2: Design Your Game Layout

Think about the design of your game. You can create anything from trivia games, adventure games, educational games, to board games. Create the layout of your game using various shapes and text boxes.

Step 3: Creating Interactive Elements with Hyperlinks

Here’s where the fun begins! In Google Slides, you can make objects and text interactive using hyperlinks. This can be used to create pathways or choices in your game.

For example, let’s say you want to create a choice for the player to either go left or right. You would:

  • Create two text boxes with the words “Go Left” and “Go Right”.
  • Create two slides after this one, one for the outcome of going left and one for going right.
  • Select the “Go Left” box, click the Insert link button, and then choose the slide for going left. Do the same for the “Go Right” box.

Once you’ve done this, clicking on these choices during the presentation will take the player to the respective slides!

Step 4: Adding Game Logic Using Google Apps Script

To make your game even more interactive, you can use Google Apps Script to add some game logic. Google Apps Script is a powerful tool that lets you create custom functionality for Google Apps.

For our game, let’s say we want to keep track of the player’s score. Here’s how you might do that:

    var score = 0;
    
    function increaseScore() {
        score++;
    }
    
    function decreaseScore() {
        score--;
    }

In this code, we’ve created a variable to store the player’s score and two functions to increase or decrease the score. You can call these functions when certain choices are made or actions are performed in the game.

To implement Google Apps Scripts in your game, you should get familiar with the Google Slides API which allows you to programmatically control slides. You can learn more about it here.

Step 5: Testing Your Game

Finally, it’s time to test your game. Click on the Present button to start the game and make sure all your links and scripts are working correctly.

Conclusion

Creating an interactive game on Google Slides can be a fun and educational project, whether you’re a teacher wanting to create an engaging lesson, a student wanting to present information in a unique way, or just someone looking to have some fun. With interactivity through hyperlinks and the power of Google Apps Script, the possibilities are endless!