Every summer, during the months of June and July, the virtual tents of Circus Jam OPEN! Game developers, artists, and others with amazing talents are able to participate in a week long (7 full days) game jam event. This game jam will be taking place on the website itch.io and is purely online! If you want to meet up with your friends IRL, you are free to do so. When you are finished your game (or have done all you could), you must upload it online before the timer runs out! 

This jam is split up into two parts: Opening Act and Closing Act!

Opening Act will take place during June, while Closing Act will take place in July. Once opening act concludes, you can choose to continue working on your game during the second part in July OR start a new idea entirely. This gives everyone a chance to take a small break, gather their thoughts, and come up with an organized game plan!

[NOTE: this is not a pass to continue working on your game before Closing Act begins!]

⁠In future game jams, there might even be themes and limitations for Circus Jam! The theme will always be circus themed, but there might be extra themes that you can choose to follow for inspiration. As for limitations, they will be restrictions that will be announced the minute the game jam starts. 

If you don't get to finish your game in time or only submit a half-finished game: DO NOT PANIC!! I allow late submissions up until the last voting day! I also heavily encourage everyone to work on their games after the jam too if you didn't get a chance to fully finish them.

What a wonderful question! This game jam was inspired by my dad, surprisingly. My dad always talked about wanting to make a video game and coming up with some pretty interesting ideas for them. One of his ideas he always talks about is this:

"I've always wanted to make a game where you play as animals in a circus. The animals are running wild and attacking citizens!"

A bit of a dark twist when it comes to animals attacking people, but still a funny idea!

"One of the animals you could play as would be a monkey, where he throws his sh*t at everyone too!"

...yeah, he really did say that.

Since this game jam was heavily inspired by my dad's idea, YOU get a free extra theme called...

Dad Appeal

If you create a game based off of his idea, extra points for you! (note: it's an additional judging criteria!)

Alsoooo, the winner of the Game Jam will receive a custom Circus Jam 2024 trophy to display on their profile and social media pages! (digitally drawn by yours truly~)

So, grab your tickets and your popcorn-- the show is about to begin!