Join the GoedWare Game Jam Limited Shapes Edition, a 9‑day coding challenge open to all! This special event invites you to learn, enjoy, and share your game‑development experiences while working within a Limited Shapes constraint and a surprise theme. Use any game‑development framework, and submit your game on itch.io. Games will be rated across categories including Art/Visuals, Gameplay/Fun, Audio/Sound Design and Theme by both participants and a special jury panel. Prizes include gift cards and sponsored items for the winners. The allowed shape(s) and theme will be revealed at the start of the jam. Have fun, learn, share your creation and you might just win!
The GoedWare Game Jam Limited Shapes Edition has arrived!
We’re thrilled to present a new creative challenge, inviting you to design a game using only a limited selection of shapes and an exciting thematic constraint. This time, it’s all about embracing visual and design limitations to spark unique, imaginative creations.
Ready to put your creativity to the test? In this Special Edition, you’ll have 9 days to craft a game that creatively uses the provided shapes and theme to enhance its storytelling, gameplay, and overall experience. Show us what you can achieve with smart design, cohesive visuals, great sound, and compelling use of the theme!
Share your progress and excitement on social media with the hashtag #GoedWareGameJam!
GoedWare: LinkedIn | Website | Discord
Link to previous Jams #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 | ZERO UI | HALLOWEEN | CUTSCENE | LIMITED COLOR
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:
"LIMITED SPACE"
Some inspiration: The theme LIMITED SPACE challenges you to think about boundaries, restrictions, and how to do more with less. Space could be physical like fitting shapes into a tight area, moving within a shrinking arena, or designing a world inside a single room. It could also be abstract: limited inventory, limited choices, or limited time to act.
Whether it’s puzzles, action, strategy, or narrative, the fun lies in how you make players adapt when their options are constrained. Combine this with the allowed shapes and see how creative you can be within those limits!
ALLOWED SHAPES (SEE IMAGE)
You may only use the following shapes in your game (just one, or all of them):
- Circle (2D): must be a perfect round (no ellipses).
- Regular Pentagon (2D): all sides and angles the same (no stretched or skewed versions).
- Sphere (3D): must be a perfect ball (no ellipsoids).
- Right Square Pyramid (3D): must have a square base with the top point exactly in the center (height may vary, but no tilted or off-center tips).
We selected these shapes to strike a balance: challenging enough to inspire creative solutions, but still accessible for beginners and easy to judge fairly across all submissions.
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!!
P.S. You can create the shapes however you like. For example: use your game engine to generate spheres, a modeling tool like Blender for the pyramid and/or your favorite image editor to design the circle and pentagon sprites. We’ve provided a small sample pack with a FBX model of a pyramid and some PNG files for the circle and pentagon. You can download it from our Discord.
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😉.
- Limited Shapes Constraint: You must use only the shapes revealed at the start of the jam. These shape(s) are a core part of the challenge, so be sure to incorporate them meaningfully and consistently throughout your game. No other shapes are allowed.
Shape Rules- What Counts as a Shape: A shape is a distinct geometric form (e.g., triangle, circle, cube, sphere) revealed at the start of the jam. You may only use the provided shapes. Using all is optional. The shape selection will include both 2D and 3D shapes, so you are free to create a 2D, 3D, or 2.5D game, but your visuals must follow the rules for that chosen dimension. If you're using a 3D engine, models must be built from the allowed 3D shapes (e.g., cubes, spheres, capsules). Natural lighting and shadows are allowed.
- Use Only the Allowed Shapes: All visual elements (sprites, models, backgrounds, UI, characters, etc.) must be composed of only the revealed shapes. No custom or additional shapes are allowed. Exception: One flat ground plane or floor is permitted for gameplay purposes. Solid-colored or gradient backgrounds are also allowed.
- Modifications: You may rotate, flip, duplicate, color and uniformly scale the shapes, but their original form must remain visually clear. No warping or combining into new complex forms that break the shape restriction. You may combine or slightly overlap shapes, but they must remain clearly recognizable and not merge into new shapes.
- Transparency, Materials & Effects:
- Transparency, outlines, and visual effects (like glow, bloom or shaders) are allowed as long as they don't visually introduce new shapes or suggest forbidden ones.
- Particle systems must also use only the allowed shapes as individual particles and avoid arrangements that suggest forbidden shapes.
- Fog effects are allowed for subtle atmosphere, but they cannot form distinct or recognizable shapes.
- Materials are allowed, but shapes must remain clearly recognizable. Do not texture shapes to resemble other geometric forms.
- UI Text Is Allowed: You are free to use text in your UI (menus, HUD, instructions, dialogue, etc.). This does not need to follow the shape restriction and can use any fonts or styles. Keep in mind that visual elements like health bars, buttons or icons must still be built using only the allowed shapes. The mouse pointer is an exception.
- Judging & Enforcement: We expect participants to follow the shape rules carefully. Minor flaws or visual overlaps are okay, but clear or repeated disregard of the limitations may lead to disqualification.
- What Counts as a Shape: A shape is a distinct geometric form (e.g., triangle, circle, cube, sphere) revealed at the start of the jam. You may only use the provided shapes. Using all is optional. The shape selection will include both 2D and 3D shapes, so you are free to create a 2D, 3D, or 2.5D game, but your visuals must follow the rules for that chosen dimension. If you're using a 3D engine, models must be built from the allowed 3D shapes (e.g., cubes, spheres, capsules). Natural lighting and shadows are allowed.
- 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 9 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. Assets bought in the stores usually (99.9%) have the correct license to use them in our jam.
- 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: You may use AI tools to assist with coding and asset creation (such as art, music, or sound effects). However, the majority of the code must be your own work, and any AI-generated content should be used thoughtfully and ethically. If you use AI-generated assets, make sure they respect copyright rules and do not resemble or replicate existing copyrighted content.
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: The ease of play and overall enjoyment factor. How intuitive and enjoyable is it to play the game, and how well does it keep the player engaged?
- Art Style / Visuals: How well the game uses the limited shapes and other visual elements to create an engaging, cohesive, and visually appealing experience. Creativity within the shape constraint is key!
- Audio / Sound Design: The impact of the game's audio and sound design. How effectively do sound elements enhance the mood, atmosphere, and immersion of the game?
- Theme: How well the game fits into and interprets the provided theme. Unique and meaningful integration of the theme into gameplay, story, or design is encouraged.
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 7-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.
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.
#Public Voting
- #Overall winner: The overall winner will receive a $75 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.
#Jury Ranking Prizes
- #1: The winner will get a $200 gift card!!
- #2: The runner-up will get a $100 gift card.
- #3: Third place 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.
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.
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).
- Browser games get more plays. If you want more people to actually try your game (and vote on it), consider submitting a WebGL or HTML5 browser version. Many players prefer not to download files during a jam, so browser games tend to get significantly more attention and feedback.
- 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. 😊
FAQ
Also check the latest updated FAQ in our community
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.
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.