Look out - it's a SHARK!

By The Code Zone team 18 June 2023 2 min read

This week at The Code Zone, hackers are playing GameDev Club's latest game 'Shark Attack'.

This week at The Code Zone, my hackers are playing GameDev Club's latest game 'Shark Attack'. In this action-packed game, the player has to guide Zonebot through shark infested waters and the further Zonebot swims, the more points the player gets. We've also coded in some special wooden platforms to give good-old Zonebot a much needed rest in between his swims and to help him stay away from those sharp teeth... because just one hit from those sharks is game over!

For our Guided Hack this week, our hackers implemented coins that spawned randomly throughout the stage which gave the player extra points upon touching them - turning this survival game into more of a strategy one with figuring out if the extra points were worth getting too close to the sharks!

The coins are generated through clone creation but this time the cloning code is actually within Zonebot's sprite rather than the coin's. Whenever Zonebot takes a step, there is a broadcast code which causes the stage (and all the enemies and items in it) to move down simultaneously. By adding the coin cloning code into that broadcast script, it means the coins can spawn seamlessly with the rest of the game as it moves - super cool!

My young coders wanted to make getting the coins a little less risky. To combat this, we coded in a lives system using variables and sensing code. This meant that if we had a few lives left, it was worth swimming over for the coin even if we were hit by sharks! In addition, we also created a power-up which would either slow down the sharks by adjusting its movement speed or would make Zonebot invincible for a few seconds. Anything to get those precious coins!

For a refresh on Power-Ups and Variables, be sure to check out your Coding Skills on your Dashboard as we have an array of short tutorials which you can work through, add to your backpack and use for future games!

Happy Coding!

Jaz

What a week in the clubs looks like

Posts like this one are what actually happens in a session, written by the mentors who ran it. A Game Dev Club session is one hour a week, in a group of no more than six, with the same mentor every week, online or at one of our in-person clubs.

That cap is deliberate: it is what makes it possible for a mentor to notice when a child has gone quiet, or has rebuilt the same game four weeks running because they are avoiding something harder.

Children build their own games rather than working through a set course. Levels move down as readily as up, so the work always fits, and staying where you are is a perfectly good outcome. Every mentor is DBS-checked and STEM-certified.

Most children start in Scratch or MakeCode and move to Python and TypeScript when they are ready. Mentors write a note on every child after every session, which is how we know when somebody is ready to move up, and it is why a child who has gone quiet for three weeks does not simply go unnoticed.

More than a third of our members are autistic or have ADHD, based on what parents tell us when they join. Children can keep the camera off, type instead of speaking, take a break without it disrupting anyone, and step away and come back.

In 2025 we received the Autism Inclusion Award from the National Autistic Society, and in 2026 we were ranked second in the UK in Club Hub UK’s Top 100 Children’s Activity Providers.

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 an hour actually looks like before you book anything, club news is the more honest read of the two.

The first session is a free taster and we do not ask for card details. Book a free taster session, see what it costs, or read about support for neurodivergent children.

Filed under club updates

Look out - it's a SHARK!

What a week in the clubs looks like

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