To participate, please make sure you have joined the ATL Gamedevs discord!

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About

This jam is for FUN and LEARNING

This jam will not be judged or ranked. There will be no winner or prizes. Your goals in joining this jam should be aligned with at least one of the following:

• Practicing or learning a skill or tool
• Working with someone new
• Having fun making a game

Online Kickoff, Remote Jam, IRL Closing Festival

There will not be a dedicated "jam space" during the jam. There will, however, be an IRL event at the end. During the jam, participants are welcome to collaborate however they want to. Whether you meet up at coffee shops or hang out at home, be sure to show up for the Closing Festival!

Make something NEW

There are other jams here on itch that are great for continuing work on existing projects. This jam is about making new things. Try to come with an open mind about what you will create!

WILDCARDS

Instead of a singular theme everyone must abide by, we will reveal 3 WILDCARDS at the start of the jam. Use just 1 or all 3 if you want an extra challenge.

Mentorship

Take advantage of the organizers who are available throughout the game jam. They are there to help with any coding, design, art, or project planning problems you're having!

Awards

There will not be any ranking, but any team that finishes a game before the deadline will win a limited-edition ATL Jam pin! We have a unique design for each year we host this jam, and this year's design will be revealed at the Kickoff Event. See last years pin below:

Kickoff Event

Where: Discord Voice Chat

When: 6:30pm, Friday December 6th, 2024

What: Meet up with other participants and form teams. The WILDCARDS will be revealed at this event and shared on Discord.

Closing Festival / December ATL Gamedev Meetup

Where: My Parents Basement

When: 7:00pm-10pm, Thursday December 12th, 2024

What: Come celebrate all the finished games, and enjoy the final ATL Gamedevs Meetup of 2024! Whether you finished your game or not, this is a great opportunity to play the games everyone made.

Rules

1. Teams must have 4 or less contributors

More contributors does not always equate to a better game. Solo submissions are allowed, but we encourage working with someone to help practice creative collaboration! By limiting team sizes we can also help ensure people form more teams and try working with people they haven't worked with before.

2. No Generative AI (art or code)

Either team up with others who will fill in your gaps in skills, or use this as an opportunity to learn a new skill! Writing prompts in AI is not a skill we are looking to practice for this jam, there are plenty of other opportunities do that.

3. No NSFW & No Offensive Content

No excessive gore or nudity. No homophobia, transphobia, racism, or otherwise prejudiced material. You are more than welcome to ask organizers about the content of your game as you work on it, if you're unsure.

4. At least 1 member must be ATL based

In an effort to make this a local community centered event, we ask that at least 1 member of your team is based within Atlanta or neighboring cities. You are welcome to participate remotely throughout.

5. No Late Submissions

After the jam starts, there will be a countdown on this page. Please keep a very close eye on it, because after the time has finished no more games will be considered official submissions to the jam. We highly recommend submitting a safety build a few hours ahead of the deadline.

6. No prior work

This jam is focused on starting and finishing something NEW during the jam. You're welcome to build on top of some code you may have written before, assuming its just tools and generic helper methods. Make new art, new music, and write code to solve new problems. The goal is to learn and grow!

7. No Crunch

Get sleep. If your game is too big to finish without being able to sleep and take care of your physical and mental well being, your game is too big.