What is this jam!?!

This jam is a community made game jam for the love of the C# builds of the Godot Game Engine. (In Godot 4, C# will be integrated into the standard builds, not as a secondary download option)

The creator of this jam (me) has made a twitter community specifically for Godot C# as well. Feel free to join to meet other people interested in Godot C#, there's also a lot of great tutorial makers in the community too, so check it out!

Since this jam's timeline falls right after Ludum Dare (

Competition Details

Game development can be hard, and especially since this jam takes place after Ludum Dare, this jam will be a bit more relaxed. Overall, the guidelines for this jam will be following the Ludum Dare jam's rules.

Specifically for the "Jam" category. The following sections specify details and and alterations to the LDJam rules. I tried to give head heading in a Question (Answer) format for quickly getting the gist of each rule.

Jam Theme: "Shelter"

The theme is "Shelter" interpret is as you will. And best of luck!

Teams? (Yes)

You are free to work alone or on a team of any size. Feel free to make some friends and "share the love" of the Glorious Godot Cult!

Timing (72 Working Hours)

The timing of this jam is the entire month of October. However, this is a "working hours" based game jam. So it will be a 72 hour jam, but that means you can do 6 days of 10 working hours, and one of 12 working hours, or you can split it up into different combinations as long as your total working hours come out to 72 hours. This is to accommodate a lot of different things: mainly time availability, but also it allows developers to stream their process on a schedule of their choosing, instead of binging. The intended goal of this is to minimize the stress of competing while also allowing fairness.

There is no way for us to really tell whether your game was made in 72 hours or if you used the entire month. So this component of the challenge is "on your honor". Joining this jam is an agreement on your part to abide by the rules, please don't be that person!

Self Timing Examples

An example of what would be feasible for a Monday-Friday work week for October, skipping October 31st, which is the submission day, would be 3.6 hours every day. (3 hours, 36 minutes). This is a pretty generous time, and you can definitely use your weekends as well to accomplish this time, with 7.2 hours per day only weekends (7 hours and 12 minutes).

Game Engine (Godot Mono Builds, 3.X, or 4)

As of writing, Godot 4 is not currently released, so I would consider 3.5-stable to be the most reliable version for the competition. You can use whatever version you desire, as long as there is a mono build.

C# is a requirement for this game jam. As well as open source code. This is so we can verify that you did use C# for the game. 

You can participate even if you are not terribly comfortable with Godot C#, the working-hours allows you to spend time learning C# as well, with a community that is all learning and building at the same time.

Some excellent resources for learning C# development quickly are:

• FinePointCGI's Tutorials (YouTube)(Website)
• Official Godot Docs (Many of the tutorials also have C# options)
• GDQuest's Tutorials (YouTube, Website)
  • Their website is a bit difficult to find C# specific tutorials, but they are quality Godot tutorials.

If you have way too much free-time, and enjoy long-winded explanations of different elements:

• QueenOfSquiggles' Godot Mono FPS Tutorial Series

If you have a resource you would like to share, please make a post in the forums about it! I can add it to the list here if you like as well <3

Previous Work & Game Bases (Generally, no)

If you would like to use existing code and/or assets, there are some definite stipulations to encourage a fair competition.

The original code/assets must be publicly available under a permissive license (CC0, CC-BY, MIT, etc...)

You must post about the resource in the resources section of the forums, so that it is reasonable for other participants to find the prior content you are using. If there is already a post about the resource, you may comment on the post that you are using it as well.

You must also have legal rights to use said content, either because you created it or because it is licensed under a permissive license.

Include information on your game page about any game bases, or existing code/assets that you used and why.

Tools & Libraries (Any you like)

You can use any tools and/or libraries that you like. You still need to comply with the Game Engine requirement, so you will need to use Godot and C#. But any addons, or C# libraries that you would like to use are fine.

3rd Party Assets (Yes, but with conditions)

3rd Party assets can be a huge help, especially if you are focusing on learning C# for this jam! However, to be fair to all participants, it is requested that you opt-out of any  judging categories that would be affected by your use of 3rd party assets.

In addition, if you are using 3rd party assets that you have no legal right to use, or are in breach of the asset's license through your use of the assets, that's an issue. We can't do anything about it, but you shouldn't be doing that kind of thing ever.

If you want to find some 3rd party assets that have usable licenses, look for CC0 and CC-BY.

CC0 - you can use it for anything, no attribution to the author required (still nice to give credit to the creator)

CC-BY - you can use it for anything, but you are required to credit the original author of the asset in your piece. For this jam, it's recommended to have a section on your game page listing attributions for assets, but including it in your game is also good practice).

Ownership (It's yours. Fully & Completely)

When you participate in this jam, you are required to comply with the rules, so there are limitations on your options with your game. But the intellectual property and true ownership of your game is always yours. And when the jam's voting period ends, you will no longer be restricted by these jam rules, so the restrictions are temporary.

Additionally, during the jam period, you're allowing content creators to play your games and provide feedback. Only creators who also submitted to the jam can vote on your game, but they will be able to provide feedback.

Post Submission Changes (Only bug-fixes)

You can submit bug-fix uploads of your game after the submission period has ended. However if you do this, you are required to use the "Development Log" feature on your game's page to detail what bugs were present and what changes were made to fix the bug(s).

We would like to keep post-submission changes to an absolute minimum, so please keep this in mind when submitting!

Game Pricing (Must be free for voting period, afterwards feel free to charge for it)

The TL;DR does a good job, but basically, let people play your game for free during the voting period. This makes sure that someone doesn't have to fork over $50 just to participate in the jam. You can accept donations during the voting period, as long as the option exists to play the game for free.

After the voting period has ended, you are free to charge whatever you want because it is entirely your game, and at that point you are not required to comply with any of the jam rules

Judging Categories (Same as Ludum Dare)

This section is also ripped from the LDJam rules page.

Innovation – The unexpected. Things in a unique combination, or something so different it’s notable.

Fun – How much you enjoyed playing a game. Did you look up at the clock, and found it was 5 hours later?

Theme – How well an entry suits the theme. Do they perhaps do something creative or unexpected with the theme?

Graphics – How good the game looks, or how effective the visual style is. Nice artwork, excellent generated or geometric graphics, charming programmer art, etc.

Audio – How good the game sounds, or how effective the sound design is. A catchy soundtrack, suitable sound effects given the look, voice overs, etc.

Humor – How amusing a game is. Humorous dialog, funny sounds, or is it so bad it’s good?

Mood – Storytelling, emotion, and the vibe you get while playing.

Overall – Your overall opinion of the game, in every aspect important to you.

Platforms (As many as you can!)

It is highly recommended to have an HTML build of your game that runs in the ItchIO website. This helps voters to play your game easily, without downloading copious amounts of games to their computer.

If you cannot make an HTML build, please provide builds for all major desktop platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux). Godot makes exporting to these platforms trivial (especially with continuous integration) so please make it so many people can play your game!

I use a Linux desktop, so if you only export for Windows, I will be unable to play your game! -QueenOfSquiggles

Use of the Forums (Yes, please do!)

The forums will be set up so you can post about all kinds of things such as:

• Looking for a group ( "LFG" )
• Sharing a resource for

  
  

  • learning
  • addons
  • general practice
  • etc...
• Questions:
  • about the jam
  • about Godot
  • about C#
• Media Coverage
  • If you are a streamer planning to play games from the jam
    • I mention streamers a lot in this, IDK if any streamers will actually play games, but if you are participating and are a streamer, it would really be appreciated! Live feedback on games is always the most valuable kind of feedback.
  • Making a development log for your game
  • any unlisted consumable content that isn't a game submitted to this game jam, but is still related to the jam

Content Creators (The Queen wants you!)

(Just in case you are confused, the creator and author of this jam is QueenOfSquiggles, this is not in reference to the Queen of England, but rather the Uncle Sam war posters)

Hey, you make "content", be is streaming, tutorial videos, news in any form, etc...?

It would be super cool if you would be willing to play games from this jam as part of your content.

You are 100% free to do this with the games.

If you would like to register yourself as a content creator related to this jam, I can add you to the submission form, and a generated, private Google Sheets table that will compile requests. I'll have the registered content creators listed as well as the format, so if you are expecting to create multiple formats, I will provide multiple check boxes for you.

If you a creator but not participating in the competition yourself, I can make it so you can post in the forums here as well.

If you have any questions, concerns, or need support, please contact me on Twitter.

As a content creator, whether or not you are participating in the competition itself, you are free to reject any requests made of you.

Any boundaries you have, or want to establish with respect to this game jam and/or its participants will be respected. This is something of a promise and a threat (to participants). Failure to respect a content creator's boundaries or any harassing behaviour will be dealt with. At minimum, it will result in removal from the competition. This is to keep content creators safe, and prevent any potential bad actors. I want to believe I will never need to kick anyone out, the community I know is kind and respectful. But this clause exists to guarantee safety and comfort.

I do have limited time myself (I will participate in this too), but I will do everything in my power to assist if you need it <3