Link to the Spring 2022 Edition

What is GJL Game Parade?

It's the official Game Jobs Live game jam! A one-week long marathon to showcase your talent and to have fun together building short experiences or tiny, fun, games. As usual, we've partnered with many industry veterans and famous studios that are so eager to provide their judgement and find their next great hire. Stay tuned for studios to be announced!

Some of our esteemed judges:

Schedule (UK Time)

14th November 7PM
Theme Reveal livestream

21t November 11.59PM
Submissions Uploads Closure

24th November
Polish Updates Closure

25th November - 4th December
Projects Playthrough Livestreams

4th December 11.59PM
Community Judging Closure

6th to 10th December
Industry Judges Rating Window

14th December 7PM
Awards Livestream

For any doubt or question, please refer to the F.A.Q. below,
post on the Game Parade's community page or the official Discord server

Previews of some of the games created at the last Game Parade jams here!

Who can join?

Anyone! From every part of the world, of any age. We allow teams and solo developers: show your skills, have fun, enlarge your portfolio! We suggest teams to have no more than 6 members, it may become tricky to manage larger ones.

Theme

Leave Something Behind

Tools and Shortcuts

There are no restrictions on tools, software, asset/sound packs you can use during the jam; it's yours to ensure yourself the legal right to use them. On submission, you'll be asked to declare and list any packs you may have used. We encourage teams to build as much from scratch as they want, that's the fun of a jam!

Submission

The projects need to run on Windows or browser. You can support other platforms, but ensure one of the two above to make the wider audience play your game! On submission, you'll be asked to provide a link to download and inspect your project's source code. That's not part of the evaluation process, but we may have some judges wishing to do it.

Rating & Judging

The Community plays and rate games to assign the "Best Game Award". Moreover, participants are encouraged to provide their ratings for the "Judge's pick" categories, too, which are:

Best 2D Art
Best 3D Art
Best Art Direction
Best Game Design
Best Itch Page
Best Level Design
Best Original Audio
Best Solo Game
Best Story
Best Use of Audio
Best Use of Theme
Best User Interface
Most Commercially Viable
Most Fun
Technical Accomplishment

Ownership

Every game and content you will submit to the jam page is yours/your team property. Game Jobs Live will never claim any ownership. But by taking part you give permission to Games Jobs Live to show any submission in YouTube etc videos and livestreams.

Official Channels

We created an official Game Parade Discord server you may want to join to look for teammates or have confrontation and support during before and during the jam. Here's the link: Games Jobs Live Discord . You'll find channels for DevLogs and Post Mortems: we highly encourage teams to write a daily progress report to underline the challenges and the solutions your team applied, sharing how your team works and how it overcomes any obstacle or issue. Let's make this a shared experience so we can all grow together! 

Thanks for joining us. If you have any doubt or question join our Discord server: we're eager to solve and answer!
Take your chances to expose your talent to the industry, you'll never know!
We hope everyone will have a lot of fun!

Game Jobs Live Staff
Website - Youtube - Twitter

F.A.Q.
aka
The Souls Selector Game Parade Guide

Game Parade regular TheSoulSelector, has kindly taken the time to write up his perspective on each phase of a Game Parade game jam, which is full of good advice whether you’re an experienced jammer, or this is your first. Take it away TheSoulSelector:

“Whether you are a first timer or a long time Game Jam survivor like me, there is always something to be gained from throwing yourself into a Game Jam. Each Jam has it's own flavour, some short and sweet, some played out over a long time. Understanding what is expected of you, what is to be gained from it and how to survive in one piece, is always worth getting your head around. I like the Game Parade because it suits my strengths and my faults, I am over ambitious and prone to feature creep. Having 7 day's allows me to indulge my wants in a way that a shorter Jam usually sees me enter into a world of pain. I seem to have done alright from it having won a few Judges prizes which has been fantastic for my ego. I thought I'd have a go at explaining the up's and downs of the Game Parade so you can make the most of the opportunity as well.

14th November 7PM
Theme Reveal livestream

Every good Game Jam has a Theme for you to get your teeth stuck into. Game Parade is no different. If you have a good idea in advance you can submit suggestions here: It is also totally worth getting yourself into the Discord ahead of time. Many a question answered and the community is very active. That can all happen in advance. I really enjoy the livestream Theme announcement, we get to see the faces behind the Jam and have the tone set for the next 7 days of hard graft. So make sure you have the link ready, get into YouTube on time and lock in for the big reveal. It's a really nice way to kick a Jam off in my humble opinion. If you miss it then check into the Jam page on itch.io or visit the Discord to see what you have to work with. The fun starts here!

21st November 11.59PM
Submissions Uploads Closure

The Theme was set, the waves of panic overcome, your team formed, or not and eventually a game of some sort is finished enough to submit. This is the main part of any Jam, the blood sweat and tears section. Usually it's over in a couple of days, Game Parade gives you nearly 7 days to play with. Whether you are part of a team or decide to go it alone and enter a Solo game this is where you will be grafting. I love this phase of a Game Jam and it is easy to think that this is the only bit that counts. There is more to come, so be ready for the next calls to action, but for now it should be all hands on deck and get your game as finished and perfect as possible. When you hit that submit button the game you submit is the version that will be most played. This is the only version of your game that is guaranteed to be played by the other Game Parade participants and Judges. This is the one to get right, even though there is a polish phase on the horizon this submission is your Jam game. Don't be fooled into leaving anything out, or thinking that anything you add later is going to be played. It might, but it might not.

Whether you are taking part to have a bit of fun, extend your portfolio or try something out, it is important to remember that your game will sit with other entries. Some folk will work 24/7 on their games and others will fit in a few evenings here or there. The more you put in the more you will get out. Whilst you can use pre-existing assets remember that you might not compete well with games featuring original content. I know when I am rating I score original assets higher than pre made ones. It's all subjective but the decisions you make in these 7 days will effect what happens in the fortnight to come. Make sure you have no regrets. A Submission panic that I have experienced that I hope to protect you from is: You need a game play video as part of your submission and links to your pre-made assets if you have used them. Make sure you don't leave these until the last minute as the submission count down can be stressful enough as it is. Especially if like me you have spent 24 hours fixing game breaking bugs. As the submissions close we enter into the next phase of the parade. Play and Rate has begun!

22nd November
Play and Rate Starts

So in many ways the hard part is done. The Play and Rate is my favourite part of any Jam. It is more relaxed and less stressful for sure. You might only be interested in getting your game made and that's cool, it's easy to think that your work here is done. The Play and Rate is where you get to know what you are up against, your time to suss out who else is on this little adventure and more importantly what they managed to get done for the Jam. I think it is a real shame when people miss out on this bit. So why bother? Well the easiest way to get ratings and comments is to give them. If you want your game to be played, then you kinda need to get playing yourself. If you are in a team then this should be pretty easy, make a list and plough through it. The ratings are important in a couple of ways, mostly you get to find out how well you did compared to everyone else at the end. It's a good insight into where you are strong and where you are weak. I am always happy for some targets after spending my precious heart beats. Also this year the ratings act as a filter for the judges, get good ratings in a category and you go through in that category for the Judges to play your game. Everyone likes winning awards do they not? You could just rate and duck out of leaving comments, which is your right after all.

Why comment? Well the ratings are anonymous and so that favour cannot be returned. If I get a comment on my game I make sure I play, rate and comment on their game as a matter of urgency. I like returning favours. I also think that favours lead to generosity, I am more forgiving if I am returning a favour. If you don't comment then you leave any ratings you receive down to chance, or you could call it charity. If you have put 7 days of your life into making something then you should put the effort into making sure it is played. Leaving comments on other games is the single most effective way to achieve it. Also you get a pretty good idea of where your game sits in the over all Game Parade. It becomes pretty clear which games are going to do well. It is during the Play and Rate phase where the Discord comes alive, it is totally worth spending the time to have conversations, make connections and big up those that deserve a shout out. When looking for new games to play on Jam itch.io page you have quite a few options to filter the games. I tend to look for kudos, you know those people are active and are likely to remain so and will more often than not play your game. It is also worth thinking about the attention span of the Game Jam, once the submissions are done people are going to drift away and become less engaged. Life takes over so it is advantageous to get in there early if you want maximum visibility. Starting to play and rate at the end of the window means that you will likely be dancing with the hard core nerds like me. The quality will be there but the frequency will not.

24th November
Polish Updates Closure

The ability to add polish was a very interesting addition to the last Game Parade. It also highlighted that the word means different things to different people. So in a nut shell you have a few days where you can tweak and tinker. A little bug here, a volume tweak there. Generally speaking as long as you are not changing the game or adding anything new you should be good. After all you can't polish something that is not there. Polish does not mean add a new feature or levels. It was great to see the impact this had on some of the entries. I enjoyed having this option a great deal. It's definitely worth taking the opportunity to iron out any kinks you have. Whilst there is no guarantee that everyone will play this version if your game progresses to the later stages of Judging they will play the polished version too. Once the Polish deadline is finished that is the end of tinkering with your game as far as the Jam is concerned. Any post Jam work you do whilst totally worth it, won't be taken into consideration for the Game Parade. You might please a few newly dedicated fans, but no one will be compelled to look at it for the Game Parade. The Polish overlaps with Play and Rate, so if you have your game all shiny already it's time to check out what everyone else has been up to.

25th November - 4th December
Projects Play through Livestreams

It's always an experience to watch someone meet your game for the first time. Sometimes it goes just as you planned, sometimes you realise that it is not going how you intended. So much can be learned from this, not only from your own game but other peoples too. I so value the livestreams and I make sure I watch them all if I can. It's precious learning, that is hard to get any other way. If you also stream then get in touch with the organisers as they are well up for new faces getting involved. Each streamer is given a chunk of the submission list to plough through. It is not connected to the ratings or the judging in any way. It really is just a chance to see what has been made and how your game sits in the overall event. The big question is 'will they have any idea what my game is about?' It is usually at this time I remind myself how important it is to have a tutorial that is fit for purpose. One day I will learn.

4th December 11.59PM
Community Judging Closure

This is the end of us being able to have our say. Once this window closes we can no longer rate each others games. The scores are in and now we wait.

6th to 10th December
Industry Judges Rating Window

We hand over to the Judges who will have a good old go at any of the games that have scored highly in the respective categories. Our work is done until then so this is the perfect time to put your feet up and recover. They will probably play both the original submission and any polished version that got in before the deadline. They won't play anything published later, no matter how much better it is! This is where the awards are chosen and which will be revealed at the Awards Livestream!

14th December 7PM
Awards Livestream

Tune in for the celebration of everything that has been accomplished during Game Parade Fall 2021. Time to see the best of the best. Some of us will be lucky enough to be featured. It's a great way to close proceedings and to give kudos to the great work that has been achieved. Head over to YouTube with your fingers and toes crossed.

Fin

So if you made it this far, kudos to you, I waffle on a lot I know. I really hope you are going to be part of Game Parade Fall 2021. Each one I have taken part in has been great. I've learned a lot, met some ace people who have taken the time to help me and more importantly I am already a better game dev as a result. Who knows what doors will open for you? In the meantime let's hope for a rocking theme, a clear period in our diaries and no catastrophes that get in the way of us making some awesome games.

Peace
TheSoulSelector