BACKGROUND

We are now in SEASON THREE here at the Indie Game Academy. First season was Portfolio Madness, season two was Network Nexus. SEASON THREE IS FOUNDER'S BEGINNINGS. 

During the next months, Indie Game Academy will be featuring talks, Q&As, community lectures, panels, and more all surrounding the topics needed to know for founding your own indie studio. Let us give you the tools you need to start creating your dreams!

THE JAM

The Jam is simple. You will have 4 days to form a team and create a game. Any game! Want to make a puzzle? Go for it! Always wanted a RTS in your portfolio? Make it! 

What's the catch? How is this different from every other jam? We'll tell you!

Along with creating a game over the weekend, we want you to create a pitch deck. This can happen during the game build portion of time, or can take place between submissions closing and the mock pitch night. We will provide examples of a pitch deck at the opening ceremony on May 30th! Stayed tuned here for more information!

Schedule

May 30th - 6pm ET - Jam Kickoff. 1-2 networking events will take place prior for those interested in forming a new team or finding team members.

May 30th-June 3 - Jam time! You will have 4 full days to create a game of your choosing!

June 3-7 - Judges will be able to play your games and during this time, you will work on your pitch deck

June 7 - Mock Pitch Night will occur! Each team will have about 6-7 minutes (time may change depending on number of submissions) to pitch their new game to a panel of judges. Judges will then deliberate and decide on 1-3 winners. 

Helpful Information:

Kickoff Deck:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10J_ooP5gfftk52FqUGUTMidlZlYsBRZ2rO8aow8V...

How to pitch a game and not suck!:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PqmKFr7sWLaqsiym2F7yKClSju1YHK5T6aNKpfEysz4/edit?usp=sharing 

A real pitch deck!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1J5mju9OgKl2wioEpGAND2nbu-hhoZTLqEdN0pkLY5Cw/edit?usp=sharing

Kickoff Announcement Information

First, we will be holding two networking events today. We are highly encouraging folks to work on a team for this jam, and if you are looking to join a team or find folks to work with, we are providing two opportunities to do this! 

The first will be at 4pm EST, and will take place in our own Gather platform space! If you are unfamiliar with Gather, this is a virtual co-working and event space where you can move around as a sprite and be able to connect with others via video and voice chat.  When you enter the space, we recommend that you make your name include your preferred engine so that you can easily find others to work with.

Join link here: https://app.gather.town/app/YpP1M7LaLEETno8v/IGA?spawnToken=nqh0cUDdQsyyIiJDYjYi

Password: FoundersJam

The second event will be at 6pm EST. We will have a brief jam kick-off, where we will go over specifics of the jam itself, offer tips, and explain a bit about the pitch portion of the jam.  Those will attend this event live are welcome to stay directly after the kick-off for a second networking event. This will also take place in our Gather. 

Join link here: https://app.gather.town/app/YpP1M7LaLEETno8v/IGA?spawnToken=nqh0cUDdQsyyIiJDYjYi

Password: FoundersJam

We do have a limited capacity for our gather space. Any overflow for those attending the kickoff, we will hopefully be able to stream into our discord. If you are either unable to make one of the two networking events, we invite you to check out our discord community, where we have a channel dedicated to folks looking for teams. - #iga-jams https://discord.gg/indiegameacademy

Please reach out if you have any additional questions about the events or the jam in general! We can only send out one email a day, so if you join our discord, you can get more updated information if anything changes!

Looking forward to seeing what you all create!

-The Indie Game Academy team.

Rules

• Your game must be original, not featured in a previous game jam, and created within the allotted time period!
• Teams are welcome and encouraged! Our Discord will have a channel designed for finding teams to join. 
• Please be kind and joyful, NSFW and hateful content will not be tolerated and may be grounds for removal from the Jam.
• You may use what assets you have at your disposal but content MUST be original, please no copyright infringement. You can make your game in whatever engine, programming language, or software you like. 

Code of Conduct

• Treat each other with respect  
•  Be mindful of your speech and behavior towards others, especially when disagreeing  
•  Harassment or abuse of any form will not be tolerated  
•  Use appropriate profile images and names 
•  Do not send unsolicited private messages to anyone  
•  Do not share sexually explicit, racist, sexist, or otherwise disturbing content  
•  Do not disclose personal information about anyone other than yourself 
•  Do not advertise services, software, or other prods

Community

Please join our community for updates and a special forum channel for those looking to form teams and meet other jam participants! JOIN HERE