🎮 About the Jam

Arcjam is a game design event where you use Arcweave to design and publish a short game in 72 hours.

The term “game” is to be taken in the most general sense, meaning any kind of interactive experience, story, puzzle, graphic novel, et al. Surprise us!

A paid Arcweave subscription is not required for participation.

For help on how to use Arcweave to design games, you can watch the Basic Tutorial Series on Youtube or read the Docs.

Previous Arcjams

This is the second Arcjam. The previous one was organised in 2021 and participants made some impressive things happen.

You can see the previous winners on the Arcjam Hall of Fame, on the Arcweave website, and play all the entries on the 2021 jam's page.

And now, it's your time to make history.

Collaboration or solo

Arcjam participants can work alone or collaboratively. Remember, Arcweave offers real-time collaboration (for the free plan as well), so find the right partner and go for it!

Theme

Upon the jam’s opening, you will receive a theme, which you can incorporate in your game. You won't be disqualified if you don't, but its organic incorporation will be one of the criteria during the voting process (see further below).

Language

All submissions must be written in English.

Artwork

Graphics and illustrations add not only beauty, but also a whole extra layer of communication between the game and the player. Therefore, you are very much encouraged to include them in your submission. (On the other hand, you don’t have to.)

If you do include images, remember: whether you use your own, your team’s, or someone else’s artwork, you have the responsibility to clear rights and permissions for any artwork used in your submission. Arcweave and Arcjam’s organisers hold no liability for any contestant using unauthorised material.

Abusive content

Games and comments promoting hate speech, racism, sexism, and any other form of discrimination against groups or individuals will not be tolerated by the Arcjam organisers or the itch.io platform. The same applies to bullying of any kind and inflammatory comments (i.e. trolling).

Sensitive content

If your game has sensitive content or/and is not suitable to be played by kids, please make this explicitly clear. Specify the game’s age restrictions both in its description on its itch page and its Metadata fields. (See below, under "Submitting your game.") 

🔥 New Arcweave Features 🔥

Arcweave has evolved since the previous jam and now offers more flexibility and features at your disposal.

✅ Visited element checks

No need to explicitly create variables for everything any more. If you want to check if the player has taken a specific route, you can check whether specific elements have been visited.

🎲 Arcscript code in connection labels

Assign values to variables while exiting an element or manipulate option text using if conditions.

🎹 Audio

Arcweave can now play audio. Create your game's soundscape by attaching audio files to your elements. Add atmos/music loops and one-shot barkings, dialogue lines, and sound effects.

🎬 YouTube embedding

You can now embed YouTube videos as element covers, instead of images.

🧑 Components visible in Play Mode

Play Mode now shows the current element's attached components. You can use this to show the current speaker or an inventory list.

🐞 Enhanced debugging

Along with monitoring the variables during Play Mode, the debugger now allows real-time assignments and a handy Undo last choice button. You can also Quickstart Play Mode from here, i.e. from any element, to test your story without restarting all the time.

Therefore, more space for experimentation since the previous jam. If you have questions on how to use Arcweave's features, our Discord community will be happy to help.

🚀 Submitting Your Game

1. Make your game's Play Mode public

Before submitting your project, make sure you’ve made its Play Mode public from within Arcweave, so that other people can play it.

You can choose to make only the Play Mode of your project public (keeping your boards unaccessible) or the whole project (if you want to also share your modus operandi).

To do either, click on the Share (the paper plane icon) on the screen’s top right and choose “Share.” Then, make a choice from the dropdown menu and copy the relevant link.

2. Register your game on itch

To submit your game to arcjam, first make an itch.io page for it:

1. Log in on itch.io (or register, if you don’t have an account already).

2. On your [Dashboard], choose “Create new project.”

3. Under the [Edit game] tab, fill in the game’s info (title, genre, etc), with particular attention to the following:

1. choose “$0 or donate” for [Pricing]. Players must be able to access the jam’s submissions for free.
2. under [Details]>[Description], write a blurb for your game and also its Arcweave Play Mode URL. Very important!
3. if your game has age restrictions, add a detailed warning in the same [Description].
4. on [Visibility & access], make sure you save the project as Public.
5. give your game an iconic, killer cover and [Upload Cover Image].

Some fields are irrelevant to the jam, like [Kind of project], [Uploads], and [Release status], so choose whatever suits you. You won’t be uploading files anyway, since Arcweave games run from their own link and not from their itch.io webpages.

4. Under the [Metadata] tab, under [Audience & Content], please specify any age restrictions that your game may have. If your game is not suitable for children of any age, please tick both boxes AND add a detailed warning in the previous section’s [Description].

5. Under the [More] tab, choose [Admins] and add the itch profiles of your collaborators in the game. They also need an itch account, if they are to vote separately in the jam.

That’s it! You are now ready for your submission to Αrcjam!

3. Submit your game to the jam

To do so:

1. On this page, click Join jam and Submit your project.
2. Under [Existing game], choose your game from the dropdown menu.
3. Submit!

Good luck!

After the Jam

Voting

Every participant and their team members will be able to vote for other people’s submissions. Voting will open on the jam’s closing date and time and it will rank games according to the following criteria:

• Quality of writing: this refers to general language skills and how language is used to convey emotion, support your game’s subject, and carry its thematic statement—if any.
• Narrative: this refers to your game’s narrative elements (plot, characters, structure, inner journey, twists, finale, etc.) and to how they function together and contribute to the player’s experience.
• Mechanics: this is about how your game’s inner workings transform to user experience. Does it have puzzles? An original scoring system? How does the plot advance? Does the player level up?
• Theme incorporation: have you managed to fit the theme in your game in an organic way?
• Presentation: games that rely heavily on text may not focus much on presentation, so those that do deserve a bonus. This criterion includes the use of images, video, audio, and any creative use of Arcweave’s formatted text.

Note: if you use video and/or audio  in your game, narrative-related criteria (Quality of Writing, Narrative, and even Mechanics) may apply to them as well, them being part of the whole experience.

Prizes

Apart from the sheer thrill of entering a game jam, the Arcweave team will reward the 3 top-ranked games with prizes from the following prize pool:

• 🥇 a 1-year subscription to Arcweave Pro (valued at $240),
• 🥈 a $100 Steam gift card, and
• 🥉 a $50  Steam gift card.

“Prize pool” means that the first winner gets to choose from all prizes, the second from the remaining, and the third one takes what is left.

After the announcement of the winners, each of them must contact the organisers to claim a prize from the pool. If a winner doesn't respond within 3 days from the jam's results, the prize will be transferred to the next highest-rated game. Please note that this only transfers the prize and not the winning position itself; in other words, even if a winner fails to claim a prize, their game is still listed as one of the winning ones.

Arcjam’s Hall of Fame

Finally, the highest-ranked games will be hosted on Arcweave's website, on a special Hall of Fame, as in the previous Arcjam, where they will be featured for everyone to play, forever, and ever, and ever… 

Plus, the link to all entries will always be available for an equally infinite amount of time.

FAQs

I don't know how to use Arcweave. How can I join Arcjam?

Arcweave is super easy to learn. Create a free account and start creating right away. You can even collaborate with someone more experienced with it and, when you feel like trying more complicated things (like if/else conditions), our tutorials are here to support you. Plus, we would be delighted to see you in Arcweave's Discord community, where no question is left unanswered.

Can I write my game in a language other than English?

Yes, as long as you are prepared to do double the work, since an English version must be included as well. In other words, you can use another language as an option (e.g. a "Choose language" menu, at the game's starting screen), but you must provide the option to fully play the game in English.

Can I write my game using software or game engines other than Arcweave?

Sorry, but no. This may change in the future but, for now, it's plain vanilla: we are eager to see how you can push Arcweave's boundaries in new, creative ways. The Play Mode is the final product.

(There are plenty of jams out there without game engine restrictions, so you're welcome to go crazy with them. And if you use Arcweave, we'd love to see the result!)

How close do I have to stick to the jam's theme?

How long is a piece of string? (Or an integer?)

If you incorporate the theme into your game in an organic way, you'll get more points for 'Theme incorporation' than someone who hasn't done so. That's all. 

Don't be afraid to face the theme. See it as another stimulus that can spark your creativity.

How many people can I collaborate with?

There is not limit to the number of people your team can have. Just be clear with the credits—it's nice to see who does what in a project. Also, all of them should have an itch.io account and join the jam, so they can vote the games afterwards.

So, what are you waiting for? Join the jam now, to stay up to date with news and notifications. And visit Arcweave's Discord channel, to join users and devs discussions about everything Arcweave.

🎮 LET THE GAMES BEGIN! 🕹️