"Losing Is Good" Game Jam Showcase!

How’s it going, coders and parents? I hope you’re all doing well – or should I say, doing bad? – after all, we’re onto the second week of our latest GAME JAM, with the theme of ‘LOSING IS GOOD’, which has been full to the brim with amazing games, all with their own twists to turn the rules of video games inside-out, making it so that we need to lose the games to win them!

As a reminder, our Game Jams are a chance for members of The Code Zone to let their creativity and coding abilities run wild – we choose a base theme and some starter code, but after that, what ends up in their games are entirely their own ideas! What’s more, they can then choose to share their games with the rest of The Code Zone, who can then play their games, admire their hard work and creativity, and of course award them some XP points too. It’s a great way of getting members to try out all the coding knowledge they’ve learnt, while having a ton of fun in the process!

Because our Game Jams are always packed with fantastic submissions, we always like to showcase a few that have really stood out to us within the first week. And so without further ado, let’s get ready to win – or lose – in these crazy, topsy turvy games! In no particular order:

Ben – Hungry Kitties!

The first game here comes from Ben! He’s made an awesome game that first and foremost features his lovely pet cats, Snowy and Luna, who are watching happily in the geometry-dash inspired background, painstakingly drawn by Ben to look exactly like them! They’re very cute, but I can’t help but think they’ve got a mischievous look in their eyes… and when I think about how troublesome cats can be sometimes, and especially how huge they are in comparison to the Zonebot (who has been given some extra evil tech upgrades by the way, and does front flips and backflips when we jump!), I start to realise why ‘Losing is Good’ in Ben’s game – I think those cheeky cats are hoping we’ll bump into one of Ben’s custom-drawn spikes, so they can eat us for lunch!! Well, losing may not be good for the player, but it’s certainly good for those cats’ tummies, I suppose. I wonder what Zonebot tastes like? Either way, you’ve done a brilliant job in your game, Ben, so very well done!

Jackson – Weird, Whacky, and Wonderful!

The next game is from Jackson – and everything is crazy! Normally our member’s games have a touch of craziness to them, but Jackson pulled out all the stops for this one. It’s got tons of sound effects, interesting colour schemes, and some crazy mechanics – for example, the spikes in this game actively avoid us, trying to jump over us instead of bumping into us! I guess they’re determined not to let us win this week, that is, they’re determined not to let us lose. However, if we do manage to get hit by them, then we’re treated to a fantastic version of the Guided Hack, which rotates like a spinning slot machine display, leaving us full of anticipation for if we’re going to win or lose!! Masterfully done, Jackson – we love it!

Enzo – Capybaras and springs!

Next up, it’s Enzo’s game – Enzo has made an awesome game where we get to play as a Capybara with springs for feet, that allow us to jump super high, all while a beautiful sunset paints the sky in the background. We need to be careful though, as crewmates from Among Us come sliding across the ground – I can only imagine that this Capybara is a bit of a troublemaker, and maybe they’ve come to put a stop to it! However of course, if we get caught, we don’t need to worry – after a brief bit of time, we’ll see that we’ve actually won the game, with a ton of trophy emojis to really hammer it home. Great stuff Enzo!

Mason – Bacterial

Now we’re on to Mason’s game, a coding masterpiece he’s named ‘Bacterial’ – Mason has carefully coded a huge amount of features into his game, ranging from a main menu with functioning buttons, a bunch of awesome gameplay, and multiple endings! We play as an evil bacterium, determined to avoid capture by the heroic scientists trying to find a cure to us, which is where the theme of the Game Jam comes in – if we take too many hits from the medicines, we’ll be cured, which is a win for the human race (but a game over for us!) With inventive hand-drawn costumes, tons of complex code, and all sorts of fun mechanics, Mason’s smashed it out of the park with his creation for this Game Jam! Huge well done.

Niall – Spikes!

And last in our showcase this time round is Niall’s game! Niall has made a fantastic game where the objective fits perfectly with our Game Jam theme – we actually can only progress in the game if we jump into the spikes! Niall’s game features a soothing soundtrack as well as full platformer physics, with multiple levels available to us, and even a very funny little intro sequence where we get to learn the rules of the game! Get as far as you can, and don’t forget to use your double jump too to reach far-off platforms. Fantastic job Niall, your game is as awesome as it is spiky!

And that’s going to have to be the end of this showcase, I’m afraid! As always, it was super hard to pick which games to showcase (there’s always so many amazing games to pick from), and so don’t you worry if yours didn’t make it – we’ll keep making showcases, and yours could feature here in the future! Just keep up the hard work with your coding. Remember that to play any of these games, you can click on the Game Jam tab and click on ‘past jams’ to view all the submissions for this Game Jam or any of the past ones, and even play the games that us mentors have made! Be sure to give your fellow coders an XP point too by clicking on the XP star icon. We hope you enjoy the second week of the Game Jam, and we’ll see you again soon!