Bored Pixels Jam is a game jam where you make a themed pixel game in only one week. It was created by the end of June 2018 and was first held on July 16-23, 2018. BPJ was made because of barrels' boredom during a particular break from school and her love for pixel art/games.

It's always fun to see a bunch of bored (or not bored) people make some pixel games for everyone to enjoy! Let's do our best to learn and have fun during this jam~

Previous Jam: https://itch.io/jam/bored-pixels-jam-7

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BoredPixelsJam

Discord: https://discord.gg/JKWyqj45S3

Our FAQ section is in our Discord server! You may join the server if you want but you are also welcome to post your questions in the community tab and we'll try to answer them as soon as possible.

What are the things I should know about before joining?

Games must consist of pixel art, voxel art, or 3D art with pixel art textures.
This is a ranked jam WITHOUT any prizes! Unless, you consider the validation from a title, Discord roles, and/or the satisfaction of finishing a game in a limited timeframe a prize then I guess this could be a ranked jam with prizes.
You don't have to be in a team to join! You can go solo or not. There's no limit to how many team members you can have.
The theme will be announced 1 hour before the jam starts. One week before the jam, suggestion for themes will be stopped and then everyone is allowed to start voting for their preferred theme. (We decided to close the theme suggestions early! Please check our Discord server or Twitter for the announcement. Thank you!)
It is encouraged that you create the assets (visual, audio, code) to be used in your game. You are allowed to use other assets as long as you have the right to use them. Make sure to properly credit the stuff inside your game! During submission, please indicate the external assets you've used in the designated field.
You can use any game engine you want. You can even create your own!
Your game must be made within the time constraints of the jam. Updates are not allowed during the voting period. Feel free to update as much as you want before and after the voting period starts. I also encourage working more on your game after the jam!
You're allowed to have more than one entry but it's advised to stick to one and concentrate on polishing it.
The game you make must be free for people to have easy access to it. You could always put a price on it after the jam but I do encourage enabling the donation/support feature in your game page!
Voting is open to the public. People would be able to rate your game based on relevance to the theme, concept, gameplay, presentation, and immersion during the one-week voting period.
NSFW content is allowed but please make sure to put content warnings and be explicit about its intended age rating. Heavy topics are allowed as well but please refrain from romanticizing/advocating for racism, sexism, transphobia, etc. Basically, don't be a hate-spreading person and be mindful of what you put in your game.
Get creative, take this as a learning experience, and have fun!!

How to rate with BPJ's Criteria:

RELEVANCE TO THE THEME
- The jam's theme is open to interpretation but this should be rated based on how the creator/s of the game interpreted the theme. During submission, jammers would be asked how they interpreted the theme which could then be used as a basis for the rating on this criteria.
CONCEPT
- How interesting is the game idea and what makes it special or worth noticing/playing?
GAMEPLAY
- How well are the mechanics of the game executed and how well does the gameplay correlate with game idea being presented?
PRESENTATION
- How well do the assets of the game complement its gameplay, concept/idea, and all the other assets (text, visuals, audio)?
IMMERSION
- How fun or enjoyable is the game? If it's not supposed to be "fun", did you feel the intended message/emotion you should feel from the game based on its presented concept?

Check out our beloved partner: Metroidvania Month!

Falcon Nova (also known as MrQuickGame) / Metroidvania Month has been our partner since BPJ4. MVM challenges you to create a metroidvania game in the span of a month and has a great community for feedback. If you like metroidvania games or if you're interested in making one, please be sure to check them out! The Discord server is very fun as well~

Have some useful stuff!!

Lospec - You can find palettes, tutorials, and tools here for making pixel/voxel art!
Pixel Logic - In-depth pixel art tutorial book
Aseprite - Animated sprite editor and pixel art tool
Pyxel Edit - Pixel art editor
Sprytile - Blender add-on for building tile based low-poly scenes with paint/map editor like tools
picoCAD - Program created in the PICO-8 platform to build and texture lowpoly 3D models
GraphicsGale - Free animation graphic editor
Piskel - Free online sprite editor
Bitsy - Low-res game maker
GB Studio - Visual game builder that allows you to make real Game Boy ROMs
PICO-8 - Fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs
Pixel Vision 8 - 8-bit fantasy console
Pixelbox.js - Create 2D games in JavaScript
Petaporon - Minimalistic piano roll sequencer
BeepBox - Online chiptune melody maker
Bosca Ceoil - Free and easy-to-use music maker

A note from the host

Hello to all the old jammers from the previous BPJs and to all the new people joining us this jam!

BPJ8 will be held during it's 3rd anniversary!! It's really been that long, huh?

The last BPJ was held back in January 14 to 21, 2020. It's also been awhile since I really dug my teeth into game development. I miss it a lot especially since it's also become a great creative outlet for me. There's so much I want to learn and create! I'm also excited to hear how everyone's been doing and what's going on in their gamedev journey! Seeing people trying to achieve their goals is really inspiring.

Game development can get hectic and tiring but it's also very fulfilling as well. A lot has happened but I hope 2020 and 2021 hasn't been too tough on you. I wish you get to experience some happiness in creating as well, whether it be game-related or not.

Please remember to take care of yourself and be considerate of others especially during this pandemic. Let's have a nice jam time, ok?