Another week, another Scratch game for our GameDev Club members - this time we are playing Jetpack Jumper!
This game of the week is another space themed one (definitely a favourite amongst our mentors and members!) where we control a jetpack wielding Zonebot traversing through the night sky. Using your spacebar to keep him airborne, you need to help Zonebot collect as many coins as possible as he flies whilst also avoiding any UFOs that get in his way... alongside some missiles once they are coded in!
The Guided Hack for Jetpack Jumper involves creating a deadly missile which randomly shoots across the screen every 5 to 8 seconds. This is created by using clone generation coding along with some of our favourite randomisation code - however we decided to mix it up this week by also adding in some warning animation. To give Zonebot a warning about the missile, we first switch the sprite's costumes to a warning symbol for 2 seconds - then we set the x position to off screen before changing the costume to a missile and moving it across the screen with a repeat block. Visual and functional!
My members didn't think it was fair that the game got extra obstacles and weapons to take Zonebot down so of course we had to combat this by giving Zonebot some ammunition of his own. Armed with rockets, arrows or even lasers, our young coders hacked the game to make sure Zonebot got a fair chance. We also added some other cool hacks such as a coin magnent that made the coins gravitate to Zonebot the closer he got to themm as well as a shield to protect him against the missiles.
We have had a fantastic day here at The Code Zone and I can't wait to see what the rest of the week has in store for us
Cheers,
Jaz x
About The Code Zone Academy
Posts like this one are written by the mentors, about what members have been building. The Game Dev Academy has no fixed session time: a new build goes up every week and a child opens it whenever they are ready, with a STEM-certified mentor answering by text and video message when they get stuck.
Children build their own games rather than following a set course, starting in Scratch. Levels move down as readily as up, and staying where you are is a perfectly good outcome. Every mentor is background-checked and STEM-certified.
The blog is in two halves. Guides are the evergreen explainers written by the mentors who teach the clubs, covering the questions parents actually ask: what comes after Scratch, how to support a coding-mad child when you cannot code yourself, and what works for autistic and ADHD children.
Club news is the other half, and it is where posts like this one live: game jams, Minecraft builds and weekly roundups, written up by whoever ran the session. Neither is marketing. If you want to know what the work actually looks like before you sign up to anything, club news is the more honest read of the two.
