"ANTI JAM" — Flip the Classic

Everyone knows Pong, Snake, Breakout, Tetris, and countless other classics.

The task in this jam is simple: take a familiar classic and flip its core idea upside down.

Changing the colors or the name isn't enough — the twist has to hit the actual game logic: the goal, the mechanic, or the role. Ask yourself: what makes the original game the game it is, and what happens if you flip exactly that?

Examples of direction (not mandatory to use):

- AntiBreakout — instead of breaking bricks, you defend them from the ball

- AntiSnake — the snake shrinks every time it eats, instead of growing

Language: Any BASIC dialect (BazzBasic, RCBasic, FreeBasic, QBasic, etc.), but the game must be playable on Windows 11. If the game requires an emulator or similar, clear instructions on how to get it running on Windows must be included. Prefer zip archive when possible.

Duration: Aug 1 – Aug 31. The game must be finished by Aug 31. Voting starts immediately on Sep 1 and runs for 10 days.

Voting: Voting is open to submitters and contributors of submitted games. Everyone eligible to vote must first rate a random set of other entries before rating any specific entry — this ensures every game gets a fair number of ratings, not just the most visible ones. One additional judge outside the submitters may also be appointed with voting rights.

Contributors: How to add contributors/authors to your game listing on itch.io

Participants: Solo or team

Assets: If you can code but graphics or audio scare the living daylights out of you — the world is full of ready-made assets, use them, or even AI. Just give credit where credit is due.

Code: The code should be mainly produced by you or your team. Fine-tuning algorithms with, for example, AI assistance is of course allowed, so that less experienced coders can also take part in this jam.

Source code: Source code must be publicly available, with instructions on how to build it. Every participant's source code will also be published in a shared GitHub repo after the jam. So make sure to license your code in a way that won't cause problems for the organizer when it's published. Recommendation: MIT license.

Judging criteria:

1. Playability

2. Sound and graphics

3. Overall quality and instructions

4. Replay value

5. How well the "anti" idea has been followed

Prizes:

- 🥇 1st place: €25 Steam gift card, or alternatively a €25 donation to a nonprofit of the winner's choosing, in the winner's name.

- 🥈 2nd place: €10 Steam gift card (same options as 1st place)

- 🥉 3rd place: €5 Steam gift card (same options as above)

Note: Steam gift cards can only be sent to Steam friends. If you want the gift card instead of the donation, we'll need to be Steam friends at least for the time it takes me to send it.