Welcome to Blend Jam, a game-making competition about unlikely combinations.
Each edition throws two ingredients into the blender: genres, settings, aesthetics, or ideas that don’t usually belong together. Your challenge is to turn that combination into a game.
Experiment, team up with other devs or blend solo, and make something you might never have made otherwise. Beginners and experienced jammers are equally welcome.
The theme will be revealed when the jam starts!
Until then, the blender stays empty.
Here's the EXAMPLE of how the theme works: Space Opera × Cooking
Run a kitchen aboard a starship, prepare dishes for alien diplomats, or settle an intergalactic feud through a cook-off. Blend the themes through your story, mechanics, or setting, the recipe is yours.
Once the two ingredients are announced, you can interpret them through gameplay, story, visuals, atmosphere, or a combination of these. Both should have a meaningful place in your game.
Any gameplay genre is welcome. Surprise us with how you bring the blend together.
Theme reveal & development begins: 3rd of December, 19:00 CET (look at the top for your timezone)
Submission deadline: 13th of December, 19:00 CET
Voting ends: One week after the fix window closes
Host’s Picks announced shorty after overall Voting ends
Find teammates, introduce yourself, and get your tools ready. You may prepare general-purpose code and templates, but game-specific development and original asset creation must wait until the jam begins.
The hosts retain the final choice of future themes, and suggestions are not guaranteed to be used. Keep your suggestions private so future reveals stay a surprise!
CraftPix.net is an online store and resource specializing in high-quality premium and free 2D game assets for game developers, indie studios, and hobbyists!
Voting is open to people who submitted a game and contributors to submitted entries.
Voting period is 1 week.
To vote as a teammate, you must have your own itch.io account and be added as a contributor to your team’s project. A written credit alone is not enough.
Games will be rated in these categories:
| Category | What to consider |
|---|---|
| Fun | How engaging, enjoyable, or compelling is the game? |
| Theme Blend | How meaningfully and creatively does it combine both ingredients? |
| Visuals | How effectively do the visuals support the game’s style and experience? |
| Audio | How well do music, sound, or deliberate silence support the experience? |
| Design | How interesting and well-executed are the player’s actions and interactions? |
| Story | How effectively does the game communicate its narrative, world, or characters? |
| Overall | The overall rating across the categories above will determine the winner |
The Overall category determines the community winner. Other categories receive their own rankings.
Judge each game on what it sets out to do. A quiet narrative game and a fast arcade game can succeed in very different ways.
discolexia is your host!
Alongside the community results, your host will choose their personal favorites.
Host’s Picks are separate from the community rankings and do not change the voting results.
Your game and its original, game-specific assets must be created during the development period. Existing libraries, general-purpose code, templates, and third-party assets are allowed. Disclose what you used and provide the required credits.
Do not submit an existing game with minor changes to fit the theme.
Teams may include up to 8 people creating work specifically for the entry.
People who only playtest, provide feedback, or created pre-existing third-party resources do not count toward this limit. Voice actors also doesn't count as full team members.
Credit everyone who contributed. You may work on multiple entries or teams, provided each team follows the limit.
Agree on responsibilities, credits, and ownership with your teammates before starting.
Generative AI may not be used to create code, artwork, animation, writing, music, sound effects, or voices for your entry. This includes material on your game’s itch.io page. Choose tools and engines that let you work without generative AI features. Conventional procedural generation, game AI, and non-generative accessibility tools are allowed. You don’t need professional artwork to participate. Find a collaborator, use permitted asset packs, or make a wonderfully wonky doodle.
Follow the licences for all third-party assets, code, fonts, and audio, and credit their creators. Paid and free resources are both allowed. Your submission must include your own creative work; repackaging an asset pack or submitting a largely unchanged template is not enough.
Use any engine or framework that complies with the rules. Your entry must include a version playable on a standard computer without requiring VR equipment, a controller, or other specialist hardware. Optional support for those devices is welcome. Browser builds are encouraged but not required. Clearly list supported platforms, controls, and installation instructions.
Players must be able to access your submitted build for free throughout the voting period. After the fix window closes, keep that version available and unchanged until voting ends. Save further development for a clearly labelled post-jam version.
Mature themes, horror, blood, and fictional violence are allowed, but must be clearly disclosed where relevant. Explicit sexual content, graphic realistic depictions of extreme violence or abuse, hateful material, and illegal content are not allowed. Put content warnings on the game page and, where appropriate, before the relevant content appears in-game. Clearly warn about flashing or strobing effects. A content warning does not make otherwise prohibited content acceptable.
Small experiments, rough prototypes, and beginner projects are welcome.
Spam, unrelated submissions, asset flips, and entries made primarily to harass, offend, or shock people will be removed.
Be polite, welcoming, and respectful. No harassment, discrimination, threats, personal attacks, or unwanted sexual attention.Give constructive feedback about the work. Respect people’s time, privacy, and boundaries.
Need teammates, help, or somewhere to share your progress? Join BLEND JAM DISCORD.
For questions or private reports, contact discolexia. If you’re unsure whether your idea fits the rules, ask early.
Hosts may remove submissions or participants that violate the rules. Serious misconduct may result in immediate removal.
You retain ownership of your original work. Third-party resources remain subject to their own licenses and rights.
By submitting, you give the organisers non-exclusive permission to show screenshots and short gameplay clips from your entry in Blend Jam announcements, showcases, and promotion, with credit to the game and team.
This permission does not transfer ownership or allow the organisers to sell or redistribute your game.
Find your people. Keep your scope small. Make something unexpected.
We’ll bring the ingredients. You bring the game.
