The 2025 ACS Game Jam is a vacation-long game making competition. If you've never made a game before, this is the best opportunity to learn this skill.

It will be lots of fun, you will learn a lot and make friends, and ultimately you will get a lot of CAS.

THE THEME IS:

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Interpret the theme as you wish. For example:

A horror game about urban exploration with a risk-reward mechanic about opening doors

Or a chance-driven roguelike from the perspective of Schrodinger's cat

Or a point-and-click game where opening certain wardrobes changes the narrative for the worse

Or maybe a clicker where you are managing resources to buy pillows that protect your curious cat from finding a dumb way to die

Or a story-driven game / visual novel in which the narrator urges you not to be curious (like in the Stanley Parable) but you disobey, only to find out the terrible consequences

Or a noir style mystery game where you look through written clues and make choices to solve a cat-mystery, perhaps some work of cat mafiosos

Pro tip: Don't overscope. You will die. When you start brainstorming, ask yourself "Can I imagine myself doing this in one afternoon?". If you can't, then make your idea way simpler. A simple, polished game is a always better than one that is clearly not finished.

All game engines and tools are allowed. We strongly recommend you export to WebGL so that the game is playable in browser: this way more people will play your game and give you feedback.

With that said,

Good luck!

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The games will be rated both by peers and judges upon the following categories:

Fun: did players enjoy the experience?

Game Design: Were there any interesting mechanics, were they well implemented without bugs?

Art: Does the game feel nice to look at?

Music and Sound Effects: Do the game's sounds match the mood?

Theme: Does the game implement the theme in an interesting and innovative way?

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You are allowed and encouraged to use the asset store as well as anything you find on the internet, but make sure to credit creators.

Join now and have fun!