1-Button Jam 2025

Hosted by Feldo · #1buttonjam

Joined

Overview

Community

Submissions open from 2025-11-21 18:00:00 to 2025-11-30 22:00:00

Starts in

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Discord server at https://discord.gg/F33HJ3e

** Themes will be unveiled at the start of the jam **

Rules and answers to FAQ

1 – The main goal of this jam is to create games involving only one button action. Imagine a big red button, your game should be playable with that.

2 – Mouse movement is the equivalent of four directional buttons (left, right, up, down), so it should be avoided. No mouse or touchpad movement! You can use a mouse button, though.

3 – Any game engine is allowed.

4 – Publishing a web game is better, as more people will play your it (executables work only on some Operating Systems, and may instill fear of viruses). It is not mandatory, though.

5 – This jam is not ranked. Feel free to participate even if you’re a beginner.

6 – Teams are allowed, with no size limit. A team should submit the game with one account (you can add contributors on the game page).

7 – You can (and you should) use several physical keys and buttons, all having the same effect. The idea is that they would act the same way. For example, your game could use the space bar, the left mouse button and a joypad button. The user could use what she or he prefers, but it’s the same functionality.

8 – The button can be used to trigger different effects. Short press, long press, double tap… could give different behaviors, all with one single button.

9 – It’s good to have a starting menu with options. If you have one, it’s best to make it usable with the same main button (for example : short press to switch to the next menu item, long press to validate the selected item). If that’s too complicated for you, you can have a mouse controlled menu.

10 – At the start of the jam, three (or more) simple words are given as themes. They are here to help you, and to get you started. You can use any number of them, even none ! Using at least one theme word is more fun and makes you part of a community working on the same brainstorming. But if the given words do not inspire you at all, chose something else (a random wiktionary page, for example) and go for it. A game is still better than no game.

11 – You can get general help on the community forum of the jam page, or on the discord server of the jam. The discord contains a technical section, but for deep technical help, you may have to join the specific discord server of the engine you’re using. The jam discord server is also a place where you can share your work in progress and receive feedback.

12 – Be careful with the difficulty curve of your game! Many (many) jam games are way too hard (because the dev knows it perfectly and won’t see the difficulty anymore). Don’t be afraid to have a very gentle beginning, and a slowly growing difficulty. It would be great also to offer difficulty settings.

13 – Text games are allowed, but remember that games will less text will be easier to play for people from all around the world.

14 – If your game mechanics relies on colors, implement additional signs (or whatever works) to make it playable by colorblind people.

15 – You can get ideas to make your game better on this page: https://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/

16 – On your game page, don’t forget to upload a cover image. More people will play your game.

17 – After your game is published, it is important to play some games from other people! Try several games and write comments about what you liked (and report potential bugs). Give feedback, because if everyone does it, you’ll get feedback on your game too, and that’s always nice :)

18 – If you’re running out of time, submit a Work In Progress of your game before the deadline. You’ll be able to update it afterwards. Remember, though, that most people will play the games just after the end of the jam. Don’t take too much time!

19 – If you have a problem when submitting the game and missed the deadline, you can contact me (Feldo) on the discord server, and I’ll be able to manually add your game to the jam, even after the deadline.

20 – Games can contain reasonable amount of violence, gore, etc. Many games already contain that anyway. But you should warn about it on the game page.

21 – Explicit sexual content is to be avoided.

22 – UNRANKED JAM. ONE BUTTON. NO MOUSE MOVEMENT.

23 – Have fun!

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You can try the games submitted to former jams here :

2024: https://itch.io/jam/1-button-jam-2024/entries

The theme words were: DOME, AGREEMENT, BUG

2023: https://itch.io/jam/1-button-jam-2023/entries

The theme words were: PLAN/E, CHARGE, INVOKE

(PLAN/E being interpreted as PLAN or PLANE)

2022: https://itch.io/jam/1-button-jam-2022/entries

The theme words were: RESISTANCE, HOP/E, BOLD