Firefly Zero Jam #1

Hi, I'm Gram, the creator of Firefly Zero.

What is Firefly Zero?

I'm glad you asked! Firefly Zero is the first in the world WebAssembly-powered handheld game console. Yes, a real physical game console that you will be able to buy and play. We've been working hard for several years to make it amazing. We already have real prototypes and very-very soon you'll be able to get your own.

We put a lot of effort into making the best gamedev experience ever. We support a whole bunch of programming languages and getting started and making your first Firefly Zero game is as easy as it gets. We have a small and cozy Discord community and I always help all of gamedevs we have to do their best. Because I love you ♥️

Ugh, oh... So, what about the gamejam? 

Right, the gamejam! So, we want you to try Firefly Zero (well, not the device just yet but the emulator, CLI, and SDKs) and leave your feedback so that we can make really-really the best developer experience in existence. And to make it fun and beneficial for you, we decided to organize a gamejam.

And we even got cool prizes! Everyone gets a sticker pack! Just submit anything and you get a pack of these little fellas:

Also, the top 5 of our favorite submissions will get a cool T-shirt and the very-very first place will get a free Firefly Zero device from the very-very first batch when we produce it. 

Alright-alright. How do I participate? 

You ask all the right questions, almost as if I'm writing them myself! To participate, wait for us to announce the gamejam theme on the evening just before it starts (our evening, we're Europeans; if you're in Amsterdam, come say hi!), make a fun little game, and submit it here, on itch.io. The gamejam is just 2 days, so don't overthink it! 

Any rules? 

You can use any of the languages we support (Go, Rust, C, C++, Zig, MoonBit, AssemblyScript) or our own homegrown Bulb Script (a love-letter to the amazing Bitsy). Also, it must be made for Firefly Zero (d-uh!) and be nice on resources (would be cool to run it on the real device, right?). And that's pretty much it! 

Oh, and don't send us AI-generated slop, please. We're here to embrace human creativity and see what cool stuff YOU can do. 

What if I get stuck? 

Before the gamejam begins, make sure to check the docs. We put a lot of love into them. And join our Discord, we'll make sure to be here for you before, during, and after the gamejam. And if you just want to talk with other nerds about gamedev and life, don't be shy. 

See you at the gamejam 💖

~ Gram