DirectoJam is a monthly 168-hour long game jam where participants create an interactive experience inspired by a chosen movie director.
Whether you are an experienced veteran to Game Jams or a newcomer, we hope you will join us for this fun week.
Follow the official Twitter account @DirectoJam and stay up to date with the current jam and future jams. You can also tweet at us with your progress, submissions, Let’s Plays, or anything else related to the jam.
You can either try to replicate the director’s style or pay homage to one of their works. No matter what you do, it must reflect this director in some way.
Studio Notes are optional limitations you can use for your experience – not using any of them will not negatively impact the scoring. These limitations will be announced on the day the jam begins. You can use as many of the Studio Notes you want to use (whether it be none, one, or all). Be sure to include which Studio Notes you used in the game’s description.
All experiences will be ranked at the end of the jam and will last 5 days. Your experience will be ranked in the following areas:
- Overall – How well executed was the experience?
- Uniqueness – How unique was the experience?
- Aesthetic – How were the aesthetics of the experience (Visuals and Audio)?
- Director – How well did the experience capture the feel of the chosen director?
- You can only submit your experience within the designated time frame. During the voting process, you may not update your game UNLESS there is a game breaking bug that the update will fix.
- You can reuse existing code, existing assets, and royalty-free assets in your game HOWEVER, most of code/assets needs to have been made during this jam (in other words, no re-skinning older projects).
- This jam is a safe space: Hate speech against marginalized communities or harassment will not be tolerated.
- If your experience contains NSFW material (such as excessive gore/violence, sexual content, or disturbing content), place NSFW at the beginning of your title
- If your experience contains any massive spoilers (example: major plot twists, events that happens at the end of a movie, etc), make sure that you don’t show the spoiler in the thumbnail, description (unless you place a spoiler warning at the start), or screenshots. It is also recommended to include a spoiler warning at the start of the experience.
- Your experience needs to somehow capture the style or pay homage to the month’s chosen director.
- While taking inspiration from a director or their works, do not infringe on copyright (no using identical names, dialogue, appearances, music, etc).
- Games must be free to play during the voting process.
- Have Fun :)
Any submission breaking these rules may result in the experience being removed from the jam.
Q: Why do you use the term Experience instead of Games?
A: As there is an ongoing debate on what defines a game, we wanted to use a term that would allow a variety of entries regardless of your own definition of game. This means you can submit a digital game, a tabletop game, a visual novel, a toy, instructions for a craft, etc. As long as people can interact with it in some way (and are not passive in the experience), you can submit it.
Q: I am more interested in completing a 72-hour / 24-hour jam rather than the 168 hours you set; am I allowed to do that?
A: Of course! The 168-hours is only a maximum time limit that participants can use. If you want to use less time, go ahead; just be sure to include in your submission how much time you took.
Q: Is this jam meant for solo developers or a group of developers?
A: Whichever one you prefer. We are open to Teams or Solo projects.
Q: Can I submit multiple projects?
A: As long as each of the projects were started within the time frame, you’re free to do so. Just don’t start crunching or overworking yourself.
Q: Am I allowed to create a Let’s Play video of the entries?
A: Of course! Just let the creators of the games know you made a Let’s Play. You can also tweet your Let's Plays to @DirectoJam.