The Genies Game Jam is open to any individuals or teams who want to create games that reach the next generations of players. As part of the jam, we’re on the lookout for projects we can invite into our Incubator program and get early access to the Genies DevKit!

Whether you want to learn or challenge yourself, we want to see engaging games with short playtimes! Think of something simple that you could play while walking with your phone!

Note: the game does NOT need to be pushed to iOS or Android, but those are the platforms which you should design for fidelity, mechanics, and screen space.

Theme: Personality Types

Personality tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator can be fun ways to learn about yourself and others! With character archetypes, there’s a lot of opportunity to be creative with gameplay or even just player mechanics.

Here are some examples to get you thinking: 

As a simple, fun example, think about how an Introverted character vs an Extroverted character might interact in a game. With an endless runner, an Introverted character might try to dodge NPCs that are in the way of the path. Conversely, with an Extroverted character, there might be NPCs that they are actually trying to run into and interact with. Taking it a step further with the character archetypes:

• A platformer, where an ISFJ (Carer) collects animals or an ESTP (Adventurer) smashes boulders for shortcuts
• A rhythm game where an ESFP (Entertainer) gains more points for streaks and loses more points for misses, while an ESFJ (Cheerleader) gains a bigger bonus multiplier for activating their special ability.
• A tower defense game, where an INTJ’s character (Strategist) provides passive buffs to nearby towers, while the ENTJ (Commander) is on the path fighting enemies.

There are so many ways to play around with personalities to choose their own adventure! The challenge for you will be to make them shine in the game!

Rules: 

• Must use Unity as the engine.
• You may use any Unity Plugins or 3D assets you wish.
  • Please make sure to credit sources or authors when applicable.
• You may not use any recycled code or existing/completed projects.
• The core loop of your game must not take longer than 5 minutes to complete
• There must be a definitive win condition to ‘finish’ the game. It can also be time-based.
• Can be a single player experience. 
• For Participants:
  • Must be 13 years old or older to participate.
  • You must agree to the Genies Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. A checkbox to accept will be available when you submit your project.

Scoring:

Each category is scored out of 10:

• Theme: Would a teenager play this game and find it interesting?
• Engagement: Do we want to keep playing and trying over and over?
• Presentation: Does the final result look polished and aesthetically uniform?
• Creativity: Does the gameplay feel unique or different?

Bonus Points (Up to 4):

• Use visual scripting for your game.

Submissions are accepted starting at 12 am on 11/27. Submissions close at 11:59 PM PT on Monday, Dec 11th!

Voting 

Once the time runs out, the best 3 games will be chosen by a Genies judging panel based off of the scoring criteria. The winner will be notified after the judges make their decision on December 13, 2023. 

Prizes & Perks 

1st Place: $300 Amazon Gift Card

2nd Place: $150 Amazon Gift Card

3rd Place: $50 Amazon Gift Card

In addition, all submissions will be reviewed by the Genies product and engineering teams - If your game is approved by the Genies team, you will have the opportunity to join the exclusive Genies Developer Community and continue their game - gaining access to the private Dev Kit, support and resources to continue building, potentially earn funding, and be among the first to create & launch your own experiences for Genies Party

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About Genies

Genies is culture’s avatar technology company empowering developers and artists to create their own interoperable gamified experiences. The company has raised $250 million from investors including Silver Lake, BOND, NEA, and Bob Iger. Initially, Genies were adopted by thousands of Hollywood icons including Justin Bieber and Rihanna through partnerships with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. Today, the company is also delivering avatars to the masses through the experiences built through its Developer Kit and artist crowdsourced platform, The Workshop. These experiences all integrate together to form one ecosystem called Genies Party.

More About the Developer Community & Fund: 

We recently announced our Dev Kit and are onboarding select candidates with dev &/or technical art skills to create mini games for our upcoming interoperable avatar social network (Genies Party - https://blog.genies.com/a-deep-dive-genies-party/). As some of the first artists or developers in our ecosystem, there is the opportunity to access our private Dev Kit with support from our team, and be among the first to create & launch your own games for Genies Party!

Experiences you create for our avatar social network will be owned by you and you will have the opportunity to be enrolled into our $1M Developer Engagement Fund, allowing you to unlock funding both as you build your experience and as your experience picks up traction post launch. 

Use itch.io community tab to stay updated and ask any questions that you may have!