General questions

Who can enter? Coventry University students from the BSc/MSc Games Technology and BSc Interactive Multimedia and Web Technologies.

When does the jam begin? The jam begins Monday, April 8th, 11:00 BST/UTC+1

What is the theme?  The theme will be announced at the very beginning of the jam. Your game should follow the theme, and you will be asked how your game fits the theme on the itch.io submission page. That being said, you will not be disqualified from the jam if your game doesn't adequately fit the theme. 

What can I make my game in? Anything, provided you can upload a file that runs on Windows or browsers, and doesn't require any additional hardware or software.

What assets can I use? The game should be developed during the jam, but you may use pre-existing code and can use whatever art and audio assets you have the legal right to use. We'd recommend making your own stuff (especially your own art) but it's up to you. That means you can use pre-existing sprites, textures, fonts, models, shaders, animations, sound effects, and music - including public domain assets, assets you have purchased, assets you have made yourself, or assets that are (legally-acceptable) derivative works of existing media.  You should credit all external art and audio in your game description.  The jam moderators (lecturers) cannot advise you individually on what assets you can use, so if in doubt, be cautious and make your own stuff! 

When should I submit my game? The jam concludes on Friday, April 12th, at 14:30 BST. We recommend uploading something nice and early, and updating as you go! Once this concludes, all submissions will be shut - with no opportunities for late submissions!

Who will judge the games? Games will be judged by all the contributors and by lecturers. There will be two categories of ranking: Students' favourites and Official Lecturer's ranking. All of the results will be revealed when this process is over.

What will the games be judged on? Games will be ranked against the following criteria: gameplay, enjoyment, creativity, and presentation.
Project Submission Guide

Creating & publishing your project page

We advise that you set up a draft of your project page ahead of the deadline. To create your game project page, go to your itch.io Dashboard and select the ‘Upload New Project’ option.

You should upload your game to itch.io like it was any other game. From there you can upload the files, and provide additional details. Complete the submission form, in line with itch.io’s Quality Guidelines

• Set Title to the name of your game
  • This should be the actual name you've chosen for your game, rather than a general project title or description of the project.
  • A good game title does not need to include any reference to Search For A Star or your own name.
• Set Classification to ‘Games’.
• Set Kind of project to ‘Downloadable’, 'HTML', or 'Unity ≤ 5.3' (that will be played in the browser).  (If you're submitting a Unity game and want to provide a version that works in browsers, you should set compression type to Gzip from Unity's WebGL Player Settings.)
• For Release State, choose an option that best describes your project, even if ‘prototype’ or ‘in development’.
• Set pricing to either '$0 or donate' or  ‘No Payments’ - You can change this once all projects have been marked by the judges if you wish.

• If you selected  ‘Downloadable’ for the game kind, upload your compiled release build as a single zip file.
  • It should be possible for a user to download, unzip and then immediately run your game.
• You can also upload any supporting documentation as a separate PDF file alongside your game file. This should be used for :
  • Your intro explaining what you want to create for the project
  • Discussion of your ideas and any concept research
  • An outline of your design plan
  • A list of any external tools or 3rd party assets used in your project
  • Any dev diary or production notes (especially if you've written about problems encountered / solved )
  • A short reflective summary, saying how you think you did & what you might change
• Complete the Description text field with information about your game. Include information on the following :
  • An overview of what your game is
  • Your game controls
  • Any accessibility features / limitations.
  • Any recommendations for playing (e.g. controllers, local multiplayer)
• For Genre, Tags, Custom Noun, Community, complete to your own preferences.
• Include a cover image & screenshots. Include a gameplay video or trailer if possible. Gameplay gifs are great.

• When your project is complete, set ‘Visibility & access’ to ‘Public’.
  • To optionally prevent your project showing up in public listings, tick the box for ‘Unlisted in search & browse’.

Look into Designing Your Page if you want to creatively express.

You may create, update & make changes to your project page at any point, but you will not be able to upload any changes during the assessment period.

When you're ready to submit your game

Go to the End of The Year GameJam 2024 page and press the ‘Submit game’ button. Choose your game from the dropdown box. Answer the required questions to complete the submission! Make sure to put in your team name!

To ensure that your game is in the jam, please go to your game's itch.io page and look for the badge that says "Submission to the End of The Year GameJam 2024" in the top right.

If it's there, you're in! If not, please submit again. If problems persist, please visit the Discord channel for technical assistance. 

When should I submit the game? You can submit the game at any point during the next few days, and we recommend that you get something up nice and early! Until submissions end at 14:30 BST, April 12th, you can change the itch.io game as much as you want (such as uploading a new build, or uploading a separate Mac version, or changing the details) and it will automatically change the game that's in the jam. You don't need to un-submit and re-submit.

If you have any issues with the submission process or want to clarify anything, let me know either here, at ab8809@coventry.ac.uk or ask on our Discord.

Please note that there is no ‘fail’ or ‘disqualification’ criteria. Do what you can & submit what you are able to. Even unfinished pieces and works in progress can be valuable.

(Template for content layout and guidelines used from Grads in Games and GMTK game jams on itch.io)