Join the 14th GoedWare Game Jam, a 10-day coding challenge open to all, where you can learn, enjoy, and share game development experiences. Create a game using any framework, keep a devlog for insights, and submit it on itch.io. Games are rated in categories like gameplay, art style, audio, theme, and more, by both participants and a special jury panel. Prizes include gift cards and some sponsored items for the winners. Enjoy the Easter Egg challenge for some extra fun. Share your creations, learn something new, and who knows, you might just win! Theme is announced at start.

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The 14th GoedWare Game Jam is over. Everyone who was able to make a game within the 10-day deadline submitted it. We had 80 entries! We are hoping to get even a few more at the next GoedWare Game Jam! 

We really enjoyed organizing this event and we will do so again in the future. So watch out for the next GoedWare Game Jam! We hope you will join us again

First, thanks to everyone for participating and forwarding your games! Without you there would be no Game Jam. We hope you had fun creating, testing and playing your games. I know we did. 

RECAP VIDEO 14th Edition: 

And now for the results the winners in the various categories are listed below:

#Overall winner

The overall winner of the 14th GoedWare Game Jam is: Brawl Trash by Ciccino. Congratulations!

#Runner-up

The runner-up  is: Burning Memories by Stealthix & Tony Irayhany.

#Gameplay

The winner in what can be called the most important individual category for a game is: Brawl Trash by Ciccino.

#Graphics

We all love eye candy and the winner in this category was Unappeasable by Pikiboiii.

#Audio

Our ears loved this one: Burning Memories by Stealthix & Tony Irayhany.

#Theme

This game represented the theme "EVERYTHING IS A RESOURCE" the best:  Brawl Trash by Ciccino. 

#Devlog

Winners are Faces of the Underpit by EmperorZoldyck and Burning Memories by Stealthix & Tony Irayhany. We all join Game Jams to learn to make even better games that give the player a lot of fun and emotions playing it. This Jam we learned the most of several entrees.  These devlogs give us a nice sneak peek into their development process. Go and read it and learn😊!

#Jury ranking

#1 

Fishing Hell by SPLOTH & MrCatMcFly.

#2

Burning Memories by Stealthix & Tony Irayhany.

#3

Brawl Trash by Ciccino.

#Graphics

Unappeasable by Pikiboiii.

#Audio

Burning Memories by Stealthix & Tony Irayhany.

#Gameplay

Todo by Maikys

#Theme

I want to build a tower bigger than me! by kkcn.

#Feedback Award

The best feedback was from maybewhalen.

#Easter Egg Challenge

The winner is Rush to Riches by Mechanical Duck.

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This is the 14th Game Jam organized by GoedWare.  Our goal is to let you practice coding, create and finish a game in around 10 days and also learn from the experience, expand your skills and above all have fun and enjoy making your own game and playing other participants' games.

GoedWare: LinkedIn | Website | Discord 

Link to previous Jams #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 | ZERO UI | HALLOWEEN | CUTSCENE | LIMITED COLOR

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It is always challenging to find an engaging theme. It should provide a solid foundation for game ideas while remaining versatile enough to accommodate diverse concepts. We believe we've discovered that  with our theme:  

"EVERYTHING IS A RESOURCE"

Some inspiration: The theme EVERYTHING IS A RESOURCE challenges you to rethink what "resources" truly are. Go beyond the usual gold, wood, or mana—this is your chance to turn the unexpected into essential tools, currencies, or energy sources. In this jam, creativity lies in how you define and use the world around your players.

Consider games where time, information, movement, or even emotions become resources to be managed, spent, or conserved. A puzzle game might treat the player’s actions or undo steps as finite resources, requiring thoughtful planning. In a narrative-driven experience, trust or relationships could be a currency that must be earned, traded, or even sacrificed.

In strategy games, perhaps every tile, unit, or command has a cost—making the player weigh every decision. An action game might turn the environment itself into a source of power: light, shadows, or even sound could fuel abilities or unlock paths. Platformers could explore the idea of sacrificing parts of your character to gain access to new areas—your health, your limbs, your speed all become spendable resources.

For simulation games, systems could evolve around the idea that everything contributes to a larger economy—weather patterns, social moods, discarded items, or time of day might all be harvested or traded. In survival games, everyday objects or even waste might become vital lifelines in dire situations.

For a more unconventional twist, you could explore how abstract ideas like hope, memories, or failures act as resources. Perhaps the game challenges players to convert mistakes into progress—or to carefully balance intangible elements that normally go unnoticed.

The possibilities are endless when every element of your game world becomes a resource. Will your players manage scarcity, uncover hidden value, or be forced to make impossible choices about what to use and what to preserve?

You can always discuss, brainstorm and exchange ideas with your fellow participants @ our Discord Server.

Best of luck to everyone and enjoy this Game Jam!!

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Rules & Requirements

• Open to All: Anyone, regardless of experience, is welcome to participate!
• Itch.io Account Required: An itch.io account is needed to join the jam and submit your entry.
• Engine Flexibility: You can use any engine or framework you like! For example: Unity, Godot, Unreal, GameMaker, etc. You’re also welcome to build your own engine if you prefer😉.
• Submission Deadline: You cannot edit your submission after the deadline, so submit your game a few hours early to address any last-minute issues.
• Team Participation: Teams are allowed, but we recommend keeping them to 4 members or fewer, as larger teams can be challenging to manage in 10 days. (Prizes are awarded to the team as a whole, not individual members).
• Multiple Entries: If you have the time and can manage it, you are welcome to submit multiple entries.
• Music and Fonts: Any music must be royalty-free or copyright-free and properly credited. Fonts from the internet can be used as long as you have the appropriate licenses.
• Assets: You may use assets you already own, such as those from the Unity Asset Store or Unreal Marketplace. Ensure that all assets are properly licensed and that you have permission to use them. Avoid infringing on copyrights or trademarks.
• No NSFW Content: Games must not contain nudity, hateful language, or offensive visuals.
• Fair Voting: Any attempts to manipulate voting will result in removal from the jam.
• AI Assistance: AI tools may assist with coding, but the majority of the code must be your own work.
• DEVLOG (optional): You are encouraged to create a devlog as part of your submission. A devlog is a great way to share your game development journey and help others learn! This can be a blog, a video, your daily schedule of the jam, some text or a short story telling us how you made the game, what difficulties you had during the jam and how you solved them.
  What to Include in Your Devlog:
  • Your process: How did you make your game?
  • Challenges: What difficulties did you face, and how did you overcome them?
  • Key mechanics: Explain your game’s most important features and how you implemented them.
  • Lessons learned: Share any milestones or insights you think others can learn from.
  Where to Share It:
  • Add your devlog directly to your itch.io game project page.
  • Provide a link in your submission to an external blog, video, or other format.
  Why Create a Devlog?
  Creating a devlog is optional, but it makes your submission stand out and helps the community grow by sharing knowledge and inspiration. Plus, participants who create a devlog will be eligible for a special prize (see Prizes).

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Submission & Judging Criteria

All entries will be judged by other participants of the jam, so that includes you (hopefully)!

The categories the games are rated in are:

• Gameplay / Fun / Engagement: Is the game fun, accessible, engaging, and does it provide a smooth experience?
• Art Style / Visuals: How cool, beautiful, or eye-catching the game looks.
• Audio / Sound Design: How good the music and sound effects are, and if they make the game feel even better. Do they enhance the theme.
• Theme: Does the game fit into the theme.
• Devlog: How insightful and educational was the log of the developer(s). 

There will be a Judge/Jury Ranking where our panel will evaluate submissions based on personal preference, artistic quality, and gameplay experience. The jury panel will help balance any unusual voting patterns to ensure a fair outcome.

After the jam, a 10-day rating period allows participants to play and rate each game. Remember to leave constructive feedback—this is more helpful than just a number and helps other participants discover your game! 😊

Note: To be eligible for prizes, each game needs at least 10 ratings. Playing, commenting and rating others' entries will also increase the chances of your game receiving ratings.

*We reserve the right to remove any entries with clear vote manipulation.
**Minimum rating requirements may be adjusted based on the number of participants.

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Prizes

Yes, this Game Jam will also have prizes for the winners 😊. These prizes are made available by our sponsor and organizer GoedWare.

Let's start by saying that if you press that join button and upload a game before the deadline, you are already a winner!  Having fun while creating and finishing your game project is an achievement in itself!  That experience is more valuable than money, but we do have some real prizes for the winners also 😉.

We have a public vote with prizes and we also have a jury ranking.

#Overall winner

The overall winner will receive a $100 gift card!* + Eternal Glory of winning the Game Jam😁! 

#Runner-up 

The runner-up will get a $25 gift card.

#Gameplay / Fun / Engagement

The winner in this category will receive a $25 gift card.

#Art Style / Visuals

The winner in this category will receive a $25 gift card.

#Audio / Sound Design

The winner in this category will receive a $25 gift card.

#Theme

The winner in this category will receive a $25 gift card.

#Devlog (optional)

The most insightful, informative & educational Devlog will receive a $100 gift card .
* The Devlog category will be manually ranked by the Jury and not the participants. It is NOT a required part of the Jam if you want a chance to win overall prizes. The deadline of the devlog is also a couple of days after the game submission period. So you can add it later and focus on your game during the  jam.

#Jury Ranking Prizes

#1:  The winner will get a $250 gift card!!

#2:  The runner-up will get a $125 gift card.

#3:  Third place will get a $50 gift card.

#Gameplay, Fun & Engagement: The winner in this category will receive a $25 gift card.

#Art style & Visuals: The winner in this category will receive a $25 gift card.

#Audio & Sound Design: The winner in this category will receive a $25 gift card.

#Theme: The winner in this category will receive a $25 gift card. 

Plus a brand new special jury category:
#Feedback:  Awarded to the participant who provides the most helpful, constructive, and insightful feedback on others’ games. This category values those who go above and beyond with thoughtful comments, tips, and encouragement to help fellow developers improve their games. The winner in this category will receive a $50 gift card as a thank-you for fostering a positive, supportive community!

NOTE:

• Participants will receive an Amazon gift card for the Amazon website that applies to their country. No other gift cards or prizes will be distributed or swapped.
• For the record for Brazilians and Indian. Unfortunately, no gift cards are possible for amazon.com.br & amazon.in and we will give out gift cards for amazon.com online shop.
• Jury ranking prizes will stack with the public prizes.

# Easter Egg Challenge

 

Following its success in our 5th Anniversary Edition, we’re excited to bring back this fun extra challenge for the jam!

Add an Easter Egg Include a unique Easter egg in your game—something clever, funny, or surprising. It could be a joke, a secret power-up, a hidden shortcut, or anything else creative. The goal is to fit it seamlessly into your game and leave players with a sense of delight or awe when they discover it.

Share the Fun We’ll set up a spoiler channel on Discord and a community thread where players can share the Easter eggs they find and their reactions to them. The judges will choose a winner based on these shared experiences.

How to Participate When submitting your game, include a description of how players can find your Easter egg in the designated field. After the jam, we’ll share this information with everyone so the whole community can enjoy exploring each other’s hidden surprises.

The Prize What’s the prize? It’s a surprise! But we promise it’ll be something you’ll definitely appreciate! 😁

Discord

All the winners get a fancy Discord server role 😁.

* Because the organizers already know the theme in advance, we will merely be participators. If one of us gets voted to be winner of a category or the overall winner, prizes will be awarded to the next person instead.
** The prizes may change a little bit before the Game Jam starts, but will mostly contain the content as it is shown now. Once the Game Jam has started the prizes will not change anymore!

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Tips

In my experience, here is what you need to do if you want to win one of the top spots:

• Make your game easy to understand for new players. This is a super common trap a lot of game jam games fall into.  Start thinking about your tutorial or how you want to teach your mechanics right from the beginning!
• Usually it's a good idea to make your game not too hard to win. People spend roughly five to fifteen minutes on each game. In most cases they won't have enough time to reach a super high level of mastery. Keep that in mind when balancing the difficulty.
• Quality over quantity. Keep your game super simple! This is important in this jam but every bit of extra polish can really make your game stand out in a short jam like this.
• Take risk. The winning games are usually those who were brave enough to try something completely new and crazy (while also following the other three tips above). 
• Resources. Check out the resources thread "Free gamedev resources (art, music , sfx, vfx, models etc.)" in our itch.io community for useful resources that can help you start and can be used for your game. 

Obviously there are exceptions to all rules but still, I hope it helps. 😊

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FAQ

Question: What is the theme? 
Answer: The theme will be announced when the jam begins.

Question: Does my game have to be a certain format?
Answer: No, but remember that not all users have Windows/Mac/Linux devices. Browser based is a good idea to get as many people playing your game as possible and try to make at least a Windows version.

Question: What assets can I use? 
Answer: The vast majority of code must be written during the jam, but you can use whatever art and audio assets you have the legal right to use.

Question: Can I submit a game that I already started on?  
Answer: No, it is required that all participants make the entirety of the game in the time provided.

Question: Is there a Discord I can join? 
Answer: Yes, click here to join.

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LEGAL

• Anything you make during the GoedWare Game Jam is your property. GoedWare claims no rights or ownership of your game. 
• Any game submitted to the GoedWare  Game Jam may show up in a GoedWare YouTube video, Social Media or website without your express permission.

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