Our Halloween Game Jam Round Up...WEEK 1!

As many of you will already be aware, this week we kicked off our super exciting Halloween Game Jam! For those who are new to The Code Zone, the Game Jam provides an opportunity for our coders to make their own games and animations based on a theme. Members of our live clubs get to work on their games during club time with the help of their mentor, and our mentors are also accessible through the chat for those who need a hand outside of club time. 

The theme for the current Game Jam is… Don’t Look Under The Bed!

We’ve already seen so many incredible games, and we’re only halfway through! That’s why we wanted to take a moment to show off some of these incredible spooky Halloween inspired games. Here we go, in no particular order…

1. Aoife - “Infinite Runner”

The first game we wanted to showcase today comes from Aoife! Aoife decided to make an infinite runner style game with a really cool cutscene at the beginning. She also challenged herself to combine the theme for this Game Jam with one of our previous themes which was “Honey I Shrunk The Code Zone”. In this game, Zonebot decides to look under their bed and in a surprising turn of events they are shrunk down and have to escape while avoiding all of the smelly socks that they’ve kicked underneath.

You need to press spacebar to jump and the longer you avoid the socks the more points you get! This is such a creative game, and we’re really impressed with the hard work Aoife put into the opening cutscene - well done Aoife!

2. Simon - “The Heavenly Apple and the Door”

Up next we have a platformer style game from Simon! Like Aoife, Simon came up with a really cool narrative for his game. Zonebot needs to climb some precarious platforms to reach a door at the very top - but watch out, the platforms occasionally turn invisible so you need to remember where they are!

If you reach the door at the top, it means that you win… but that’s not all! Simon added an ending screen that tells us there are always more secrets to be found and all will be revealed when the core of the heavenly apple shines white. This game is awesome to play, and the story is so intriguing we can’t help but want to find out more! Great job Simon!

3. Tyrone - “Don’t Look Under The Bed”

Like Simon, Tyrone also decided to work on a platformer for this Game Jam. He added loads of different features such as a win screen, a game over screen, enemies that chase you around, and a really cool spotlight feature that makes most of the screen dark so only a small amount of light follows Zonebot around. Tyrone intentionally made his game quite tricky, which means it’s even more satisfying when you finally reach the bed on the top platform!

We love the effort that Tyrone put into designing his game over and win screens, they look really cool against the dark backdrop! 

4. Charlie - “The Extraterrestrial Life of Charlie”

Charlie decided to make a choose your own adventure game for his Game Jam entry! In this game, Charlie is sitting on his bed and is sad because his friend Miles has moved to Iceland - oh no! You have two choices - text Miles or eat a twix. If you eat a twix nothing happens, but if you text Miles then Charlie and Miles have a lovely conversation where Miles reveals he’s actually coming home in 2 weeks, phew!

Charlie also included a menu screen with a play button which looks awesome. We love the message behind Charlie’s game, great job!

5. Izyan - “Don’t Open the Door!!!!!!”

Our final game for this showcase comes from Izyan! In this platformer, Izyan made himself the playable character and he needs to climb the platforms to get to the door. If he opens the door, a scary monster jumps out. 

There are lots of cool visuals in Izyan’s game. There are floating pumpkin lanterns in the background and bats raining down from above which is very fitting for the spooky season. When the monster jumps out from behind the door, they also make a funny noise! We also love that he changed the background to be the night sky and the platforms are white which makes them pop, amazing work Izyan!

With that, we reach the end of our mid Game Jam showcase. We’ve seen amazing games across the board so it was really hard to choose just five, well done to everyone who has taken part so far! If you want to play some of the games yourself then just visit the Game Jam tab on the dashboard to check out all of the games from past Jams.

Want to get involved? The Game Jam continues next week so there’s still time to get stuck in, it’s free for anyone to join! We can’t wait to see what else our coders come up with, until next time…

Happy coding!