Submissions open from 2024-12-10 21:00:00 to 2025-01-10 20:00:00
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Welcome to The Calgary High School Game Jam!

The Calgary High School Game Jam is a game jam for high school students in the city of Calgary, and area. It is a jam where you and your team will have 4 weeks to make a game from scratch, hopefully learning some new skills, and practicing your teamwork.

Theme :

The theme of the game jam is "The Ripple Effect". All games must follow this theme, however you want. It can be as creative, or as literal, as you want. You will be given a score based on how well and how creatively you follow the theme.

Rules :

  • All games MUST be free and public, allowing EVERYONE to play.
  • All games MUST be playable online, no downloadable games (See guides section for more details).
  • All games MUST be made without the use of AI, whether it be writing code, image generation or music generation.
  • All entries must be SAFE FOR WORK (No NSFW games or mature content):
    • No sexual themes
    • No gore
    • IF YOU HAVE TO ASK, DON'T DO IT
  • No DISCRIMINATORY content

Teams :

  • Teams are able to be any size.
  • All teams MUST contain only high school students.
  • All submissions MUST be done with every team member listed as a contributor.

Assets :

To promote teamwork and creativity:

  • All assets are to be made during the duration of the game jam by a team member:
    • This includes music, sprites, SFX, and UI.

Guides :

We understand not everyone has made a game before, so here is a list of important tutorials, and tools to use.

Planning:

To help with planning, please create a game design document. This step is not mandatory, or checked, however strongly suggested. Please see example. (Credit: Aizen, for the 2022 Pirate Software Game Jam)

Tools :

Here is a list of different tools you can use to create your games:

Engines :

You are allowed to use any engine you want, here are some suggestions:

  • If you are new to coding, and want an easy introduction:
    • Scratch: Scratch is an easy block-based game engine for beginners. It can be used to make 2D games, in a readable and understandable way.
    • Makecode Arcade: Microsoft's Makecode Arcade is a game development platform for making retro-arcade machine style games. It has options for block-based code, Python, and JavaScript. Best pick for beginners.
  • If you know/want to learn JavaScript:
    • PhaserJS: PhaserJS is a 2D game design platform designed for HTML5 games, running on the web.
  • If you know/want to learn Python:
    • PyGame: PyGame is a 2D game design library for Python, which allows users to make games. We suggest against PyGame, as it is complicated to use, however is a good challenge.
  • Want more complex and powerful tools:
    • Unity: Unity is a powerful 2D and 3D game engine running on C#. This is a great option for Indie Games. Games such as Hollow Knight, Untitled Goose Game, Pokémon GO, Fall Guys, Among Us, and Cuphead were made in Unity. We highly suggest using Unity. 
    • Unreal Engine: Unreal Engine is a 3D game design platform running on C++. This is a great option for high-quality, AAA-style games. Games such as Fortnite, Black Myth Wukong, Satisfactory, Palworld, and Only Up! were all designed in Unreal Engine. Note: Unreal Engine is difficult to use for HTML5 exports.
    • Godot: Godot is a game engine using its own GDScript, which is similar to Python. It is a 2D and 3D game engine. No massively famous games were made in Godot, however, a good list is in this video. We strongly suggest using Godot.

Assets :

You are able to use any platform to design your assets, however they have to be made by you. Here are some suggestions:

Tutorials :

Publishing your game :

Different game engines have different ways to convert to HTML5 for browser play

Documentation :

Documentation is where you will find all coding and installation related information

Beginner guides :

Here are some basic introductory guides to the different platforms

Final Resources :

Here is a list of channels and websites that will prove useful to your game design experience

YouTube Channels :

  • GMTK: Game Maker's Toolkit is a YouTube channel dedicated to game design, and discussing different topics within the aspect of game design.
  • Design Doc: Design Doc is a YouTube channel which discusses the many aspects of game design, talking about what makes different aspects good and bad.
  • Programming With Mosh: Programming with Mosh is a great channel exploring introductions and more advanced topics in many different coding languages.
  • Unity: The official Unity channel is a great place to learn more about the game engine and its features.
  • Unreal Engine: The official Unreal Engine channel is a great place to learn more about the game engine and its features.

Websites :

  • Stack Overflow: Stack Overflow is an online forum dedicated to asking coding-related questions. Any question you can dream of has probably already been asked, check this forum out first. (Great alternative to AI for finding solutions).
  • Reddit: Reddit is an online forum where users can share anything they want. It is a great place to find coding-related questions and answers. (Reddit has a wide range of subreddits, most have nothing to do with coding).
  • W3Schools: W3Schools is a website dedicated to tutorials. It is a great place to learn code, without reading official documentation.
  • GeeksForGeeks: GeeksForGeeks is a webpage dedicated to programming and tutorials. It is a great place to learn coding without reading the official documentation.

Voting :

All winners are chosen by the community. You will be graded on three different criteria.

Note: All voting will be done by accounts that have submitted games, or are listed as a contributor to a submitted game.

Voting will be open for one week after submission date, and winners will be announced following the voting.

  • Functionality: How well your game works.
  • Creativity: How well your game follows the theme/How creative you are following the theme.
  • Design: Combination of graphics, SFX, music, and overall design of your game.
  • Enjoyment: How enjoyable is your game.