Welcome to the CSC3231 2025 Game Jam!

The theme for the jam is Scale

You have 2 weeks to make a game based on the theme Scale. You can interpret the theme in any way you like, but ideally you would come up with a clever way to integrate it into your game's core mechanics. The game can be of any genre, but it must be made in Unity and exported to be played in a web browser with keyboard and mouse. Once the jam is over, participants will have 1 week to play and rate each other's games, then I will announce the winners and hopefully play a few of your games on the big screen in the following week's lecture.

You are not expected to create a full polished AAA game - aim to showcase your core mechanics in about 10 minutes of gameplay. Try to keep your scope in check and don't get overly ambitious. Things like fancy graphics, audio and story can make a nice addition, but are not required.

For some more tips on game jams, watch this video: 

Rules

The jam will start at 11:00 on Monday October 27th, and end at 20:00 on Sunday November 9th. After this deadline, no game files can be uploaded or changed. Participants will then be able to play and rate each other's games until 20:00 on Sunday November 16th.

Your game must be created in Unity and be playable by a single player in a web browser with mouse and keyboard. Instructions for exporting for web from Unity can be found HERE. (do not rely on Itch.io's own instructions - they are outdated). One thing to be aware of is that Unity's High Definition Render Pipeline is not compatible with WebGL, so DO NOT USE HDRP (I learned this the hard way when preparing a submission for a recent game jam!)

All design and development of your game should happen during the jam period, however as the focus is on game design, you may use preexisting art and audio assets (e.g. from the Unity Asset store). Games should be submitted by individuals, not teams - this is so that you can continue working on the game for your final coursework submission without risking an accusation of plagiarism - although you may bring in collaborators to work on art and audio only.

Rating

Once the submission period is over, anyone who submitted a game will be able to play the other submissions and rate them (This is not open to the public, so don't invite your friends/parents/pets to give your game 5 stars!) At first you will be given a list of games to rate, then once you have rated 3 of them you will be free to browse the full list and rate any submission (this is to make sure every submission gets a fair chance and people don't just play their friends' games!) The way itch's algorithm works, the more games you rate, the more visibility your own game gets, so try to rate as many as you can!

Games will be rated in the following categories:

Fun: Does the gameplay work well? Is it enjoyable to play?

Creativity: Does the gameplay present interesting new ideas that haven't been seen before?

Refinement: Does the gameplay feel polished? Does the game seem like it has been through several iterations of playtesting and improvement?

Theme: How well does the game fit the theme? To score highly here, a game should integrate the theme into its gameplay, not just as superficial dressing to the graphics or story.

As well as giving a rating for these categories, please also leave a comment with constructive feedback that can be used to improve the game for the coursework submission (this is also a chance to ask others to rate your own game).