★ Theme: Surprise!    

(^please no jump scares)

★ What is a GameJam?

Game jams are all about creativity, teamwork and experimentation! Don't be afraid to fail, as long as you enjoy yourself and create something, you're a winner and you have a new tale to tell.  Maybe you'll stumble upon the next viral hit, maybe you'll create a buggy mess that's still entertaining as hell to play, either of those outcomes results in you creating something.

Not only does participating in a game jam give you the chance to flex your creativity and build on your portfolio, you get the opportunity to talk to other jammers, get feedback and make connections. Everyone from AAA studios to students regularly participate in jams for a reason, be part of that group going the 🌟 extra mile🌟

Oh, and winners will receive some cool prizes, see below

★ Charity Fundraiser: SpecialEffect!

SpecialEffect is a charity dedicated to bringing the fantastic experiences you create to disabled gamers. From crafting custom hardware to providing equipment loans, SpecialEffect and its volunteers spend countless hours brightening lives and allowing others to enjoy the vast worlds we get to enjoy on a daily basis that would otherwise be walled off due to lack of accessibility support. 

In support of their work, we will be running a fundraiser alongside the jam where you can donate to the fantastic work they're doing.  
But wait! There's more: For anyone that donates and includes their Discord username (including their #1234 tag) will be entered into a raffle to win from a pool of:

- 3 x Our sought-after GDN Sticker

- 3 x Big Festive Game Jam Sticker

- 5 x Copy of Intrusion Protocol (Courtesy of @somber_dawn) 

- 1 x Complete Unity Developer 2.0: https://www.udemy.com/unitycourse2/ (Courtesy of GameDev.tv)

- 1 x Unreal Engine Developer: https://www.udemy.com/unrealcourse/ (Courtesy of GameDev.tv)

- 1 x Complete Blender Creator: https://www.udemy.com/blendertutorial/ (Courtesy of GameDev.tv)

- 1 x 3 hour PR session with a #gamedev PR Expert for your game! (Courtesy of GoPublixPR)

For every £1 you pledge, you'll recieve one entry! 

Donation Page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gamedevnetwork

You are not required to donate in order to participate in this jam! 

★ Our Sponsor

We're delighted to welcome PingPerfect as a sponsor for our Festive Jam, not only have they provided a generous contribution towards our campaign, but their involvement allows us provide some extra special goodies for the jam! We only invite services to sponsor that we think will benefit you!

"PingPerfect offer high quality customisable game servers with server locations worldwide. We firmly believe in supporting Game Developers and have a unique Developer program for Developers to become our official partners. From Indie games to AAA titles, our dedication is consistent and reliable, providing around the clock support, and can deploy patches across our servers within minutes to ensure a seamless experience. What’s more, we will help promote you, as Developers, at all events we attend and on our website."

★ GameDevNetwork

GameDevNetwork (GDN) is a community for anyone with an interest in game development, whether they're a AAA veteran programmer or someone that loves writing the ins and outs of game plots / mechanics.

Whether you're looking for an extra teammate for a project, need help squashing that pesky bug or just want some feedback on your latest pixel art masterpiece, we're here! 

★ I don't have a team!

No team? No problem! Check out the page CrowdForge set up for us! Sign up for a team and chat to your fellow jammers
https://crowdforge.io/jams/gdn

The process 

1) Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/gdn 
2) Say hi! Or don't, and lurk in #gamejam and keep up to date with all the jammy news 
3) ???  
4) Games!

You'll have from Friday 8th 00:00 GMT until Sunday 17th 23:59 GMT to create and submit your game.  You hold all rights to anything created during the jam.

★ Prizes

Our focus on jams is to create an awesome experience for everyone involved! Entries will be judged based on Theme Relevance, Originality, Fun Factor, and Accessibility. Though as a small reward, we'll be offering the winning team (as decided through a weighted itch.io voting score + eurovision-style judge vote) one of our super special limited edition 2017 t-shirts AND limited edition Big Festive Jam stickers for every team member! 

★ Q&A

Q: Can I have NSFW Content? A: No, sorry!  

Q: Can I use old assets / assets from <pack here> A: Free assets are OK!

Q: Which engines can I use? A: Any engine you like, use whatever you feel the most comfortable with.

Q: What's the maximum team size? A: 4

Q: My question isn't answered, can you help!? A: Yes! Join our Discord server and ask away https://discord.gg/gdn

★ BUT WAIT! There's more

The biggest reward for participating in jams is the fact that you have created something, in recognition of all of you wonderful people, we'll be giving away three of our highly prized stickers to random participants!

If you've made it this far you've already met any requirements to take part. Now get out there and make something awesome you crazy dev you! 

GameDevNetwork Stickers 

In addition, members of the winning team will each receive a high-quality die-cut GameDevNetwork sticker and a limited edition Big Festive Game Jam sticker, we don't do that cheap stuff here! Postage is free! Winners will also receive a fancy role on the server to celebrate jam prowess.