Falling Block Jam celebrates the combination of blocks and gravity in video games. Think Tetris, Puyo Puyo, Panel de Pon, Dr. Mario, and Lumines. For just over a week in September, participating developers will be making original falling block games within a limited window of time. Check out last year's entries for inspiration.
The jam will be held online, and anyone is free to join. Teams are welcome! There will be no voting or ranking. We are doing this for love of the game.
An optional theme will be announced when the jam starts to help jumpstart ideas.
1. Games must have block-like things that fall. That's the point of the jam! What constitutes a "block" is pretty broad, so they might be something like jellies, or fruit, or meat, or garbage, or little guys! But if you just make a racing game or something totally unrelated, it's not going to fit in. Push the boundaries, but don't disregard them.
2. Games must be made during the jam. Use of some pre-existing code and assets is ok, but submissions should be mostly made during the jam period. Projects that were published before the jam started will be removed.
3. Write "Made during Falling Block Jam 2026" in the description on your project page. This just helps me weed out spam.
4. Downloadable project pages must have screenshots, and preferably an animated GIF or video of gameplay. Nobody likes mysterious downloads, so a preview is helpful.
5. Refrain from using AI. Games obviously using AI art or audio will be removed. LLM generated code may fly under the radar, but I strongly encourage you to use your noggin instead.
6. Games shouldn't require extra software to run. They should be relatively self-contained, either playable in the browser or downloadable. If you want to make something printable or like instructions for some meta falling block live-action role playing experience, that's cool! But asking people to install python or something to run your game is a bit much.
7. Be careful double-dipping. If you make a game that happens to fit another jam that's running at the same time, that's cool! Some spammers try to submit games to EVERY jam going on, though. If your game is submitted to more than 2 other jams, it may be removed.
8. Be careful with multiple submissions. You might be part of a team on multiple games, but I generally don't expect to see one person making multiple submissions. If it looks like spam, it may get removed. Reach out if you have concerns.
9. Projects that are just a mysterious APK file will be removed. It's suspicious, I'm just sayin! If you don't know what this means, you don't need to worry about it.
Q: What's a game jam?
A: A game jam is an event where people make an entire game within a limited window of time. The dates and times for this jam are listed towards the top of the page.
Q: How do I submit a game?
A: When the jam starts, there will be a button near the top of this page to submit a game project. I encourage you to do this after the jam starts but before the last minute so you're not scrambling to figure it out before time runs out.
Q: What even are blocks? Do they have to fall?
A: It's a pretty relaxed jam. There should be something to do with blocks falling, but those blocks might be something like ice cream, or flowers, or dice, or robot parts! Be creative and push the boundaries, but if it's obviously not in the spirit of the jam, it doesn't belong here.
Q: How closely do I have to follow the theme of the jam?
A: The theme is a suggestion to inspire creativity and give us all something to share so that we can all look back and think, oh yeah, that's the year we did that thing together! But it's optional, so don't sweat it if you hate it.
Q: Can I come up with ideas before the jam starts?
A: Absolutely! The fun is in making the thing during the jam time window, but nobody wants to stop you from percolating on ideas beforehand.
Q: Can I submit a project I finished before the jam starts?
A: The point of the game jam is to make something DURING the game jam, so please don't submit a game you've already made.
Q: Can I update and submit a game I already made?
A: If you want to make a new version of an old idea that's meaningfully different from the original, that's ok! But your jam game should be a new project.
Q: Can I work on more than one game, or more than one team?
A: Usually one person will submit one game, probably the lead developer on a project. You can work on multiple teams, but if you submit more than one project, it might look like spam, so reach out if you think you might look suspicious.
Q: Is there a discord?
A: I'm not running a discord for the event, but I encourage you to hang out in the itch community forum here.
Q: Is this a competitive jam? Is there voting and ranking?
A: This is a casual jam, so there is no voting or ranking or prizes.
Q: What game engines are allowed?
A: Any game engine that lets you make a playable web build or downloadable application that people can generally run on computers. But don't make people download extra software from somewhere else to run it, it should be self-contained.
Q: Do games have to be playable in the browser?
A: Nope! You can submit downloadable games.
Q:Google's AI showed me some useful code when I searched for something, am I banned???
A: You're fine. This stuff is everywhere to an obnoxious degree. Don't let a chat-bot code huge chunks of your project for you, but also don't let the current state of search engines stress you out too much here.
