This jam is now over. It ran from 2014-08-30 05:00:01 to 2014-09-15 04:59:59. View results

YOUR SECRET INGREDIENT IS:

🍤

The shrimp. Please integrate the humble shrimp into each of your submissions!

WHAT IS THE BARFCADE??

On September 21st, Fantastic Arcade and Thu Tran will present this year's Starcade competition — a game show style event where two contestants will answer questions, face challenges, and play the games you create during this Gamemaking Frenzy, as Thu commands, until we crown the Champion of Barfcade! The event will be streamed live on Venus Patrol's Twitch channel.

All developers around the world will have over two weeks to create short, two-player competitive games based on FOOD, COOKING, EATING or BARFING, which will then be selected and strung together for an ultimate BARFCADE showdown.

The jam will begin Saturday, August 30th through to the Sunday, September 14th deadline at midnight CST, giving you over two weeks to spew as many BARFCADE games out of your system as you can!

TO ENTER THE JAM:

Your game must be a head-to-head simultaneous two-player game.
Your game must run on Windows and use WASD + SPACE for player one and ARROW-KEYS + ENTER for player two as input in order to be considered for inclusion on the BARFCADE cabinet.
It must have a short duration, 30 seconds or less, resulting in a WIN or LOSE for each player (we'll be keeping score offstage).
After the match is over the game must QUIT AUTOMATICALLY.
The game must in some way be about FOOD, COOKING, EATING, or BARFING (or any combinations thereof).
THERE WILL BE ONE SECRET INGREDIENT TO BE ANNOUNCED BY THU AT THE BEGINNING OF THE JAM!
You will have plenty of time to work on your game, and you may enter MULTIPLE GAMES! As many as you want!

SO, SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

Above is Barf Bros., by Adam Saltsman — it's head-to-head, it's quick and it's clear at the end of the game which of the two players won! Also, it has both eating and barfing.

After the jam deadline, the community will vote on their favorite games, and Thu, along with a panel of Fantastic Arcade judges, will choose the games that will be included on the BARFCADE cabinet.

THU WHO??

Futuristic Foodie Thu Tran is one of Fantastic Arcade's favoritest celebs, a creative-genius-weirdo who captivated us with her IFC series Food Party and MTVOther's Late Night Munchies.

For the third annual Gamemaking Frenzy, we decided to ask Thu to help us select the very best competitive eating & cooking games from around the world, that we will fuse into one delicious banquet... a sumptuous STARCADE... where two contestants will step forth and match skills in the culinary videogame arts, until only one emerges and is crowned our winner.

Thu agreed, but demanded that with light must also go shadow, and that the dark hazards of overindulging our munchies be acknowledged. And thus: the BARFCADE came into being. A JAM to make GAMES for a GAMESHOW about EATING, COOKING, and, yes... BARFING.

ARE YOU READY TO BARF??

The jam's secret ingredient will be announced on Friday, August 29th, just before the jam officially begins! Once it's open, you'll be able to submit your games using the button at the top of this page, until Sunday, September 14th at midnight CST.

As the jam goes along, you can tweet your progress using the hashtag #barfcade, and follow @fantasticarcade for news and highlights.