Game Writing SIG Arcjam

Empowering writers, narrative designers, and collaborators to create bold, inventive portfolio pieces
Strengthening our community and boosting its morale, especially at a time when it is facing a tough job market.
Providing an opportunity for creative people to experiment with new techniques, collaborate with peers, or simply have fun telling stories!

Entries are to be created in Arcweave and submitted through Itch.io using their Arcweave embed code. (See full instructions under 🚀 Submitting your game.)

A paid Arcweave subscription and paid IGDA membership are NOT required for participation.

🏷️ Theme

The theme of the jam is RESILIENCE. You won't be disqualified if you don't, but its organic incorporation will be one of the criteria during the voting process.

jam-theme

🎯 Why participate?

By joining the jam, you'll have the opportunity to:

Grow your creative and technical skills in interactive storytelling.
Collaborate with other writers, narrative designers, and devs.
Complete and publish a portfolio-ready piece by the end of the jam.
Get feedback & visibility from peers and judges.
Win prizes and promotion across the organizers' channels.
See your project showcased on the Arcweave website.
Build connections with like-minded creatives in the IGDA Game Writing SIG community.

ℹ️ Participation info

⚙️ Requirements

To participate, you'll need to do the following:

Join the IGDA Game Writing SIG community:
Join the IGDA Game Writing SIG Discord to become a community member. Then, follow the channels under the Game Jam Chat category to stay up to date with announcements and participate in the jam discussions.
Create a free Arcweave account:
You and your team will write your game in Arcweave, so each of you will need to register for a free Arcweave account.
Unlock your Arcweave Pro workspace for free:
Get your trial code for an Arcweave Pro workspace directly from the IGDA Game Writing SIG Discord.
Create an itch.io account:
The jam is hosted by itch, so you will need an itch account to submit your game.

🛠️ Using Arcweave

All games in this jam are to be created in Arcweave. For submission instructions using the itch.io platform, see Submitting your game, further down this page.

As co-host of the event, Arcweave provides:

One project per team in the jam's Arcweave Pro workspace
Priority support during the event in the Arcweave Discord server
Perpetual hosting for submitted projects
Co-promotion and visibility for standout entries

For guidance on designing games with Arcweave, check out the Basic Tutorial Series on Youtube or the Arcweave Documentation.

🤖 Using other platforms

To participate in the jam, you must submit a playable Arcweave Play Mode link embedded on your game's itch.io page. (See Submitting your game, further down this page.)

While your submitted project must be created entirely in Arcweave, you are welcome to experiment or prototype using other platforms (such as Unity, Unreal, or others). However, only the Arcweave version will be evaluated.

⚠️ Without an Arcweave Play Mode link, your game will not be eligible for judging or community ratings. ⚠️

🤝 Collaboration or solo

Game Writing SIG Arcjam participants can work alone or collaboratively. Arcweave offers real-time collaboration, so find the right partners, register your team, and dive in.

🔠 Language

All submissions must be written in English.

🖼️ Audiovisual assets usage rights

Graphics and audio add extra layers of communication and meaning between the game and the player. Therefore, you are very much encouraged to include them in your submission.

Remember: whether you're using original or someone else's assets, you have the responsibility to clear rights and permissions for it including crediting appropriately. Arcweave and Jam's organizers hold no liability for any participant using unauthorized material.

✨ Generative AI stance

Narrative content and audiovisual assets must be created solely by the participants. Generative AI tools are not permitted.

For any concerns regarding AI and Arcweave, see Arcweave's approach to generative AI.

🔞 Sensitive content

If your game has sensitive content or/and is not suitable to be played by minors, please make this explicitly clear. Specify the game's age restrictions both in its description on its itch page and its metadata fields.

⛔ Abusive content

Games and comments promoting hate speech, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, and any other form of discrimination against groups or individuals will not be tolerated by the jam organizers or the itch.io platform. The same applies to bullying of any kind and inflammatory comments (i.e. trolling).

📑 Code of Conduct

This event adheres to the IGDA Code of Conduct, and by participating you agree to familiarize yourself with its content and follow it. If you feel unsafe or uncomfortable, please talk with an organizer or volunteer. If you see someone being treated with disrespect, please let the organizers know.

🎉 Feedback & awards

Once the jam closes, the judging period will begin! In this jam, both celebrity guest judges as well as community judging will help us determine the best games—eligible for prizes! Winners of the jam will be announced on December 8th.

🗳️ Community voting

The Community gets to rank games based on the following criteria:

Storytelling
Gameplay
Theme interpretation

🎓 Professional evaluation

Out of all games submitted, 10 games will be shortlisted by the organizers for guest judge comments and ranking. Shortlisted games will also receive personalized feedback on how well their game works as a portfolio piece that showcases game narrative skills.

Based on their overall community scores, as well as the judges' scores, the top 3 games will win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize of the jam!

Additionally, our Guest Judges will select games to give the following three recognitions:

Excellence in Writing Craft: At the core of writing craft we find the prose itself. Here, we look for a game that uses language and words in masterful ways, whether it's to grip our emotions, weave together spellbinding descriptions, carry us to faraway places, or for something unexpected. Like a smooth dark chocolate melting in your mouth, the Excellence in Writing Craft Award goes to a game that leaves us wanting more for the pure joy of taking in the text.
Excellence in Narrative Design: Storytelling in games goes beyond the words – from choice design to mechanics to the environment to your systems, narrative can be imbued on every level of the game. Whether simple and elegant, or ridiculously responsive and complex, the Excellence in Narrative Design Award goes to a game that explores and exemplifies the ways in which gameplay meets story.
Innovative Use of Technology Award – A professional game writer must master design tools in order to collaborate with their teammates. Demonstrating technical competency is a critical component of a sustainable career in the games industry. The judges and organizers will look for interesting and imaginative uses of Arcweave. The Innovative Use of Technology Award will go to a game that showcases technical innovation and competency..

🕹️ The Judges

The following six industry veterans will evaluate the shortlisted games and provide personalized feedback to help the standout project leaders grow as game writers:

C.J. Kershner

C.J. Kershner is a WGA and BAFTA-nominated writer and designer, and the head of Polyhedron Productions, a narrative consultancy and independent developer founded in 2015 and located in the wilds of New York. With 25 years of professional experience, he has helped ship dozens of AAA and indie games across a variety of genres, and currently leads development on the post-apocalyptic comedy trash collection game, Keepin' it Reel Fishing, for the Playdate handheld console. He is also the co-organizer of the CNY Game Devs community and a mentor with Gameheads Oakland.

Frances (Frankie) Wakefield-Harrey

Frances (Frankie) Wakefield-Harrey is an experienced Lead Narrative Designer currently writing the cozy story behind the hit game Love & Pies at Trailmix Games. Her work spans mobile, VR, and console, with credits on Love Island: The Game, The Walking Dead, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Reach (VR). She has held roles at studios including nDreams, Preloaded, The Chinese Room, and io Audio. Frances is passionate about character-driven storytelling, cross-team collaboration, and creating meaningful game experiences, as well as mentoring emerging narrative talent.

Jarory de Jesus

Jarory de Jesus is a game developer who specializes in narrative design, implementation, and programming. As a developer he's worked on properties such as Madden, Marvel, and Star Wars as both a Narrative and Technical Designer. Jarory is also a community organizer for Black in Gaming (BiG) and a member of the Latinx in Gaming community as well as President of the board for Global Game Jam. His current studio, Coquito Games, is the culmination of his years of experience and passion for telling stories from under-represented voices.

Kelly Bender

Kelly Bender has worked in the video game industry for over 8 years as a Narrative Designer & Game Writer, and has worked on 30+ published video games (AAA, AA, indie, mobile & VR). He also teaches the Game Writing Bootcamp at Game Design Skills.

Konstantinos Dimopoulos

Konstantinos Dimopoulos is a game designer, game urbanist, lecturer and author, who was once into the planning of real cities. He has worked on games like Lake, ARMA Reforger and The Sinking City, is the author of the Virtual Cities atlas of video game cities, has co-designed the Ex Novo tabletop city-builder, and is currently teaching game design & game urbanism at the D6 Learning online school.

Natasha Skult

Natasha Skult is the CEO & Creative Director of MiTale, an independent game and software development company from Finland, focusing on narrative-driven games. She is an active member of the Finnish and international games industry as Chair-Emeritus of IGDA and Lead Organizer of W Love Games and Finnish Games Week. Besides industry work, she is also active in academic research and finishing her doctoral degree teaching courses in game design and game (digital) art production at University of Turku in Finland and Ashesi University in Ghana.

Chride Lassheikki

Chride Lassheikki is a Senior Narrative and Game Designer at Nitro Games in Helsinki, Finland. They are also a cofounder of the Pride Game Jam HKI, and have been co-hosting the Game Writing SIG script reading sessions since 2021.

🏆 Awards & Recognition

All teams that successfully submit a game will receive:

Arcweave Pro/Team Discount: All jam participants that aren't already Arcweave subscribers will receive a 50% discount for a Pro or Team workspace!

The top games will enjoy the following awards and recognition:

Prizes – Winners will each select their award from a pool of prizes graciously donated by our community, which currently includes:
- Arcweave Pro Workspace
- LinkedIn and resume coaching from a professional recruiter
- Free educational design course
- Free copies of game writing text books
- Free IGDA membership
Spotlight Features: Winners and Shortlisted projects will be showcased and promoted across IGDA and Arcweave channels and platforms.
Guest Judge Promo: Standout entries may be recognized and further promoted by our panel of judges as examples of excellence in narrative craft.

Read the prize announcement here!

🚀 Submission instructions

After finishing your game, submit through the following steps:

1. Make your game's Play Mode public

Before submitting your project, make sure you've set it as public. To do this:

In your Arcweave project, go to Share (top menu, orange button).
In the Share modal, next to "Anyone with the link...", select "Can view & play".

These guidelines are also available in the Arcweave documentation.

2. Create an HTML page for itch

To make your Arcweave game playable on itch.io, you'll need to upload it as an HTML file.

Open a new file in a text editor (e.g. Notepad on Windows).
Paste the code below.

<iframe src="https://arcweave.com/embed/{HASH}/play" style="width: 100%; height: 100%; border: none;" allow="fullscreen"></iframe>

In the above code, replace {HASH} with your project's hash. To do this, in your Arcweave project:
1. Click the cog icon on the left side of the top menu.
2. Select Properties.
3. Locate Project hash and click the clipboard icon to copy it to your clipboard.
4. Paste the project hash in the above code, replacing {HASH} with it. Make sure you also replace the curly brackets {}. The src property should eventually look like this:
```
            src="https://arcweave.com/embed/MWEZebKl2g/play"
        
```
Save the file as HTML, giving it a name like my-game.html

You will upload this HTML page to itch.io, in the following step.These instructions are also available in the Arcweave documentation.

3. Itch.io: Register your game

To submit your game to the jam, first make an itch.io page for it:

Log in on itch.io (or register, if you don't have an account already).
On your [Dashboard], choose Create new project.
Fill in the game's basic info: Title, URL, and tagline.
Press Save.

Your game will be saved and you will be automatically directed to its itch page, which only has the title, as in the screenshot below.

Press Edit game on the top menu, to configure and upload your game.

4. Itch.io: Configure and upload your game

Since you have already saved the game, you will now see some tabs at the top of the game's editing page.

Tab: Edit game

Go to the default tab (Edit game) first.

Upload Cover Image: Give your game an eye-grabbing cover. Add more screenshots if you like.
Classification - What are you uploading: Put Games — A piece of software you can play.
Kind of project: Put HTML — You have a ZIP or HTML file that will be played in the browser.
Pricing: Put $0 or donate. Players must be able to access the jam's submissions for free.
Uploads: This is where you will upload the HTML page you have created.
1. Press Upload and select the HTML page from your drive.
2. Check the box This file will be played in the browser.
Embed options:
1. Adjust the settings as you prefer or keep the default values.
2. Mobile friendly: Recommended for better accessibility on all devices.
3. Fullscreen button: Recommended to enhance the player experience.
Details:
1. Description: Write a blurb for your game. Let your players know what it is about!
2. Under Description, add a detailed trigger warning for sensitive topics and any possible age restrictions your game may have.
3. Genre: Choose Interactive Fiction or any other genre that better represents your game.
Visibility & access: Make sure you save the project as Public.

Tab: Metadata

Now, go to the Metadata tab, back at the top.

Please indicate if your game contains any sensitive or mature material.

If your project is not suitable for minors or the workplace, check “Has sensitive content.”
If you want players to see a warning before accessing your game, also check “Show content warning.”

For games with explicit or potentially distressing themes, make sure to include a detailed content warning in the Description (under the Edit game tab).

Tab: More > Admins

Click the More tab and select Admins. Add the itch profiles of your collaborators in the game.

That's it! You are now ready for your submission to the Interactive Narrative Jam!

5. Submit your game to the jam

To submit your game to the Game Writing SIG Arcjam:

At the top of this page, click Join jam and Submit your project.
Under [Existing game], choose your game from the dropdown menu.
If you haven't already, follow this link to fill out the prize form.
Submit!

Good luck!

❓ FAQs

✴️ I don't know how to use Arcweave. How can I join the jam?

Arcweave is easy to pick up; just create a free account and start building right away. Collaborate with experienced users or dive in solo, supported by tutorials and documentation.

And if you need help, the Arcweave Discord community is always there for you.

✴️ Can I make a text-only game?

Yes! The focus here is on game writing and interactive narrative. You are free to use audiovisual assets (and Arcweave makes this very easy) but it is not a requirement.

✴️ Do I have to form a team?

No, you can also participate as a solo writer. Arcweave offers real-time collaboration and it makes it easy for multiple creatives (e.g. writers, narrative designers, artists, etc.) to work together, but it's absolutely fine to join on your own.

✴️ Can I write my game in a language other than English?

As long as you are prepared to do double the work, yes, since an English version must be included as well. In other words, you can use another language as an option (e.g. a "Choose language" menu, at the game's starting screen), but you must provide the option to fully play the game in English.

✴️ Can I write my game using software or game engines other than Arcweave?

Arcweave's Play Mode is the required final product of your participation, in order for your submission to be eligible for judging and prizes. We are eager to see how you can push Arcweave's boundaries in new, creative ways.

If you want to submit a game that includes development in other platforms, you still need to provide judges and community with your game's Arcweave Play Mode link.

✴️ How close do I have to stick to the jam's theme?

How long is a piece of string?

If you incorporate the theme into your game in an organic way, you'll get more points for the Theme interpretation criterion than someone who hasn't done so. That's all.

Don't be afraid to face the theme. See it as another stimulus that can spark your creativity.

✴️ How many people can I collaborate with?

There is a team limit of 8 people max, but experience has shown that the sweet spot lies between 3 and 4 people per team. Whatever the number, be clear with the credits; it's nice to see who does what in a project. Also, all of them should have an itch.io account and join the jam, so they can vote the games afterwards.

So, what are you waiting for? Join the jam now! Follow the Game Writing SIG Arcjam communication channels in the IGDA Game Writing SIG Discord to stay up to date with news and notifications. Visit Arcweave's Discord server as well, to join users and devs discussions about everything Arcweave.

🎮 LET THE GAMES BEGIN! 🕹️