This jam is now over. It ran from 2022-11-01 20:37:00 to 2022-12-01 21:37:00. View results


This year’s Game Off theme was cliché!

Cli-ché
noun
a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.

If you've heard a phrase a million times, chances are it's a cliché. For example, “a blast from the past,” “play your cards right,” “it’s an uphill battle,” “avoid it like the plague,” and “don’t deploy on a Friday." You catch my drift?

Take one (or more) of your favorite clichés and use them to inspire your game.

Need some ideas? Here are a few that spring to mind:

  • A shoot ‘em up involving a loose cannon.
  • A dating simulator focused on how opposites attract.
  • A clicker game prompting you to pluck low-hanging fruit.
  • A racing game where you’re skating on thin ice.
  • A football game where you frustrate the opposition by moving the goalposts.
  • A beat em’ up where you have to throw in the towel.
  • Maybe even some clichés from the movies—ammo that never runs out, deceptively fast zombies, exploding cars.
  • Or clichés from video games—conveniently-placed exploding barrels, food healing critical injuries.

The sky’s the limit! I’ve created a list of clichés (almost 4,000) that you might find helpful if you’re really stuck.

Join the jam on itch.io and submit your entry before December 1 13:37 PT. Questions? Ask in the community forum on the Discord server.

What is Game Off?

Game Off is our annual game jam challenging folks to build a game based on a theme.

How to participate

  1. Create a game based on the theme (some cliché).
  2. Sign up for a free GitHub account if you don't already have one. It's free and I assure you I’m not on any sort of commission!
  3. Join the Game Off on itch.io. If you don’t already have an itch.io account, you can sign in with your GitHub account.
  4. 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 PT.
  5. Submit your game through itch.io.

Voting

Voting will open shortly after the jam ends and is open to everyone who’s submitted a game.  Entries will be rated on the following categories: Overall, Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, Innovation and Theme Interpretation. Voting will end on Jan 5th at 13:37 PT.

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, or Sprig.
  • Comfortable with  C++ or C#? Look at  Godot, Unity and Unreal Engine.
  • Raving about Rust? You might like Bevy.
  • Proficient with Python? Check out Pygame or  Godot (Godot uses GDScript, which is similar to Python).
  • 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!
  • Fond of Flutter? Take a peek at Flame.
  • Gearing up with Go? You might want to look at Ebitengine.
  • Do you really like retro games? Maybe you can…
    • Crank out a text adventure in or some interactive fiction with Clojure or Ink (similar to Markdown).

Help—I’ve never used version control, Git, or GitHub before!