Game Off is our annual game jam, where participants spend the month of November creating games based on a theme that we provide. The theme for this year's Game Off was HYBRID!
You’re welcome to interpret the theme however you wish, but if you need some ideas to kickstart your creativity, think about how your game could…
- Feature an imaginary (and hilarious) mashup of animals plants, or other objects with associated strengths and weaknesses. Giraffeopotamuses anyone?
- Crossover different game genres, such as a turn-based platformer, real-time roguelike, or tower defense rythm game?
- Combine multiple visual styles. Perhaps pixel art characters exploring photo-realistic worlds?
- Include a composition of music styles and sound effects like bagpipes and breakbeats?
- Mix genres like Comedy Horror and Weird West?
- Be powered by alternative/multiple controls - button mashing meets mousing or mobile device interaction?
Everyone around the world is welcome to participate, from newbies to professional game developers—and your game can be as simple or complex as you want. It’s a great excuse to learn a new technology, collaborate on something over the weekends with friends, or create a game for the first time!
How to participate
- Create a game based on the theme over the next month.
- Sign up for a free GitHub account if you don't already have one. It's free!
- Join the Game Off on itch.io. If you don’t already have an itch.io account, log in with your GitHub account.
- Create a new public GitHub repository to store the source code and any assets you’re able to share for your entry and push your changes before December 1 13:37 PDT.
- Submit your game through itch.io.
You can participate by yourself or as a team. Multiple submissions are fine. And of course, the use of open source software is encouraged.
Voting
Voting will open shortly after the jam ends and is open to everyone who’s submitted a game. Similar to last year, entries will be rated on the following categories: Overall, Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, Innovation and Theme Interpretation.
As always, we'll highlight some of our favorites games on the GitHub Blog, and the world will get to enjoy (and maybe even contribute to or learn from) your creations.
Help—I’ve never created a game before!
With so many free, open source game engines and tutorials available online, there’s never been an easier (or more exciting!) time to try out game development.
Are you…
- Into JavaScript? You might be interested in Phaser.
- Comfortable with Python*, C++ or C#? Godot might be a good match for you. (Godot uses GDScript, which is similar to Python)
- Proficient with Python? Check out Pygame.
- Dangerous with Java? Take a look at libGDX.
- In love with Lua? Check out LÖVE or Defold. Like retro games too? Drop everything and check out LIKO-12!
Do you really like retro games? Maybe you can…
- Hack on a Roguelike dungeon crawler in JavaScript or Haskell.
- Crank out a text adventure in or some interactive fiction with Clojure or Ink (similar to Markdown).
- Craft that 8-bit console game you always fantasized about with PICO-8, Pixel Vision 8, TIC-80 (Lua), BASIC8 (Basic), or Pyxel (Python).
The itch.io community feature is enabled for this jam—it’s a great place to ask Game Off-specific questions, share tips, and more.
Help—I’ve never used version control, Git, or GitHub before!
- Git Documentation: everything you need to know about version control and how to get started with Git
- GitHub Help: everything you need to know about GitHub
- Any questions about GitHub? Please contact the GitHub Support team and they'll be delighted to help you
Don’t be shy—share your progress / screenshots! The official Twitter hashtag for the Game Off is #GitHubGameOff. We can't wait to see what you build 💙❤️
