The fourth GoedWare Game Jam is over. Everyone who was able to make a game within the 8-day deadline submitted it. We had 28 entries. A new RECORD for our jams 🥳! We are hoping to get even a few more at the 5th GoedWare Game Jam in June 2022! 

We really enjoyed organizing this event and we will do so again in the future. So watch out for the fifth GoedWare Game Jam (#5)! 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. 

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

#Overall winner

The overall winner of the fourth GoedWare Game Jam is: AstrOS by  Humane Tiger. This game won in multiple categories, so it can truly be called the OVERALL WINNER! Congratulations!

#Runner-up

The runner-up  is: reMemory by Loressa.  The game had solid rankings in all categories.

#Gameplay

The winner in what can be called the most important individual category for a game is: Boundless Space by Guillermo Gonzalez.  This puzzle game gave players great enjoyment!

#Graphics

We all love eye candy and the winner in this category was AstrOS with a slick UI and subtle animations.

#Audio

Our ears loved this one: AstrOS. Relaxing background music, nice voices and SFX. 

#Theme

This game represented the theme "Space" the best: Defender Spacer by Grasp Games Ayush Dutta , There was a lot of space stuff in this game, including the space-bar key.

#Devlog

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 Space Slingers by Alexio Games. This devlog gives us a nice sneak peek into their development process. Go and read it and learn😊!

#Jury ranking

#1 

Glory to Munkind by LuciusVonStart. The jury thought the overall experience was very good. From the onscreen manual to the structure of the puzzles, the controls and the number of levels. And also graphically and audio it was fine and in a coherent style. The jury was very pleased with the overall combination of elements.

#2

Space Slingers, this variation on the classic game delighted the jury. The original mechanic was fun to play with and addictive.

#Graphics

MySpace - A Rock Legend by BunnyViking, it was a big download but it resulted in a beautiful terrain and environment plus a bunch of effects. And also the main character was well designed, original and pleased the judges.

#Audio

Geodoge Space by Jogo Company won this category among the jury. In the audio category, many games were very close. In the end, the exciting music in good combination with the intense gameplay was the deciding factor in choosing this game.

This was the 4th Game Jam organized by GoedWare ( LinkedIn | Website | Discord ).  Our goal was to let you practice coding, create and finish a game in 8 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.
*(Link to previous Jams #1 #2 #3)

It is always difficult to find a good theme. It should give you a push in the right direction for a game idea, but it shouldn't be too limiting either. We think we found that in the following theme:

"SPACE"

Some synonyms: room, expanse, extent, area, volume, span, scope, zone, spot, territory,  clearance & capacity.

Now, of course, you immediately think of a game in outer space, but SPACE really does have more possibilities.

Some random inspiration for this theme could be: that game in outer space of course, but also a game using space-time as a mechanic, a game about space in a room / building / shape / interior, a game utilizing the space-bar, a game organizing the available space, my space / your space, a game about the space between two or more objects and much more... Be creative 🤔😊! 

Good luck to you all and have fun at this Game Jam!!

• Anyone, regardless of experience, is welcome to participate!
• An itch.io account to be able to join the jam and submit your entry.
• You can use any engine or framework you like! For example: Unity, Godot, Unreal, Gamemaker etc. You can even make your own if you want. But some of our prizes are Assets for the Unity Engine (you can choose a gift card instead).
• You will have to create a Devlog where you give some insights in your game development progress or inform the other participants how you solved a specific game problem or implemented a game mechanic. In this way we all learn something from each other's experiences.
  • 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. Or an explanation of some of your key game mechanics. How did you come up with them or how did you implement them. Or what you think are important learning milestones for us. It does not have to be much. Every information you can share will be helpful for us to learn to make better games that are more fun for the players.
  •  You can easily add your log to your Itch.io Game Project page or provide a link in the submission where we can read your log.
• You can not edit your submission after the deadline! So be wise and submit your game a few hours before the deadline to be able to tackle any last minute issues.
• Teams are allowed, but we recommend keeping the teams up to 4 members, after that it becomes hard to manage a team in 8 days for a game. (Prizes are only for the whole team, not the individual members)
• If you have the time and can manage it, multiple entries for the Game Jam are allowed.
• Music must be royalty / copyright free and properly credited. 
• You can use fonts from the internet, as long as you have the correct license for it.
• You can use assets you own. For example assets from the Unity Asset Store or Unreal Marketplace.
• Please only use assets you have permission to use, and avoid infringing upon any copyright or trademark.
• No NSFW games.  Games must not contain nudity, or hateful language or visuals.
• Participants who try to manipulate voting will be removed.

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: How fun is it to play the game
• Graphics: How nice are the look and feel and art-style of the game
• Audio: Do your ears love the sound effects and music and do they fit the game and theme
• Theme: Does the game fit into the theme
• Devlog: How insightful and educational was the log of the developer(s)

There will also be a Judge/Jury Ranking: a rating by our own panel of judges. They will make a separate ranking from the participating games based on their own tastes, preferences and gaming enjoyment as to who will receive a prize. They will take into account any double or unfair voting in the normal rating. To balance uneven or unfair votes.

The theme will be announced when the jam starts.

After the jam ends, a 1 week rating period starts, in which people can play and rate all of the submitted games.

Don't forget to leave feedback on any game you rate! It's more helpful than just a number, and it helps them find your game 😊.

Note: You need at least 8 ratings to be considered for winning in any of the categories. So make sure you play a lot of games so your game will have a higher chance of getting rated!

*The voting is open, but we reserve the right to take any submissions down that are clearly vote brigaded.

** The number of needed ratings to be considered a winning will be adjusted according to the number of participants.

Yes, this Game Jam will 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 😉.

EXTRA PRIZES:
This edition we received 3 professional test days from Alkotech Labs to distribute to our participants. Very cool!
They are a QA startup focused on providing reliable, high quality and accessible testing services with indie friendly rates. These prizes are listed as additional prizes in the category where you can win them.

#Overall winner

The overall winner will receive a $125 gift card!*. 

* Participants will receive an Amazon gift card for the Amazon website that applies to their country.

EXTRA PRIZE: 1 Testing day by Alkotech Labs

#Runner-up 

The overall Runner-up will receive a $25 gift card or will be sent a gift link they can use to pick up the Unity FPS Games and Game Dev Assets Bundle.

* Bundles may have expired when the game jam starts, but the gift codes will still be valid. You can still get the bundle and its content with the gift code.

EXTRA PRIZE: 1 Testing day by Alkotech Labs

#Gameplay

The winner in this category will receive a $50 gift card!

EXTRA PRIZE: 1 Testing day by Alkotech Labs* 
* If the winner of the Gameplay category is also the overall winner or runner-up, this award goes to the overall 3rd place.

#Graphics

The winner in this category will be sent a gift link they can use to pick up the Humble Software Bundle: Best of Polygon Game Dev Assets, including 16 Polygon art style packs by Synty Studios.

#Audio

The winner in this category will be sent a gift link they can use to pick up the Humble Software Bundle: Your Ticket to a New Creative Universe, including Audio Studio 14 & Acid Music Studio 11 and more.

#Theme

The winner in this category will be sent a gift link they can use to pick up the Humble Heroines Bundle, including the well known indie hit Celeste.

#Devlog

The most insightful, informative & educational Devlog will be sent a gift link they can use to pick up all 25  Zenva e-learning courses to learn to code and make games.

#Jury ranking

#1:  The winner will get a $75 gift card.

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

#Graphics: 
The most stunning art will be sent a gift link they can use to get the Humble Software Bundle: Game Dev GUI Goodness, including over 50 GUI assets packs.

#Audio: 
The best audio will be sent a gift link they can use to pick up the Humble Big Music Bundle for Games, Films, and Content Creators 2, including 24 sound collections.

*Jury ranking prizes will stack with the public prizes. Except for the audio winner. If this winner is the same as in the public score, the #2 in het public score will get this key).

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!

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). 

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

Some resources to help you started.

• Blender, for 3D  models and can also do 2D and/or sculpting: https://www.blender.org
• Freesound.org: https://freesound.org | License: https://freesound.org/help/faq/#wait-this-is-all-free
• 8bit Sound Generator: https://www.bfxr.net/ | License: You have full rights to all sounds made with bfxr, and are free to use them for any purposes, commercial or otherwise.
• Kenny Assets: https://kenney.nl/assets | License: CC0 1.0 Universal
• Color Scheme Generator: http://colormind.io/
• Color Scheme Designer: https://paletton.com/
• Open Game Art: https://opengameart.org | License: https://opengameart.org/content/faq#q-how-to-credit
• Piskel,  a free online editor for animated sprites & pixel art:  https://www.piskelapp.com/
• Mixamo, animations: https://www.mixamo.com/
• Tree It, free tree creation tool: http://www.evolved-software.com/treeit/treeit 
• WOWIE Asset Pack (by Jonas Tyroller): https://jonas-tyroller.itch.io/wowie-pack
• LabChirp, a powerful and versatile sound effect generator: https://labbed.itch.io/labchirp
• Kay Lousberg free Game Assets: https://kaylousberg.com/game-assets
• ChipTone, a free tool for generating sound effect: https://sfbgames.itch.io/chiptone | License: All sounds created using ChipTone are free to use for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, under the CC0 licence. 
• Beepbox, BeepBox is an online tool for sketching and sharing instrumental music: https://www.beepbox.co
• Material maker, for procedural materials: https://rodzilla.itch.io/material-maker
• Audacity for editing audio: https://www.audacityteam.org
• Game idea generator, for if you're completely stuck on an idea: http://ygd.bafta.org/resources/game-idea-generator
• Ship Mixer, create ships that perfectly fit the shmup style:  https://kenney.itch.io/ship-mixer (License see link)
• Creature Mixer, create characters that perfectly fit the platformer style:  https://kenney.itch.io/creature-mixer (License see link)

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.

•  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.