Welcome

Are you a game creator with a vision but held back by complex engines, steep learning curves amd overwhelmed by cryptic code? Yahaha Studio understands your needs and is dedicated to creating a low-barrier, code-free ? Yahaha Studio is here to change that. We offer a code-free, highly efficient game creation process that minimizes the learning curve and lowers the barrier to entry. With a focus on horror themes, we provide exciting game templates and a vast asset library filled with ready-to-use horror mechanics, so you can skip redesigning and dive straight into creation. Let your creativity soar in the ocean of game development. 

What are you waiting for? Join us on this thrilling journey through the shadows of creativity. Craft your horror game, and let it send shivers down the spines of players everywhere. Submit your game to our event, and who knows, you might just be the next horror game sensation!

We're excited to share updates to the Yahaha Game Creation Event:

- Event Timing: Our 7-day challenge is now a 21-day challenge.

- Increased Rewards: We've boosted the prize pool for the Horror Hatch event to incentivize participation and creativity. Details on the rewards can be found below.

- New Criterion: We've added "Game Duration" to our scoring, encouraging games over 20 minutes for a richer player experience.

- Flexibility for Veterans: Despite the extended timeline, you maintain the freedom to create as you wish.

Let's embrace these updates and continue to push the boundaries of game creation together!

Theme

Within Illusions

Background 

A knock at midnight, a shadow by your bed, a stranger in the mirror. The world around you distorts, bending with the rhythm of your heartbeat.
Every reflection is wrong.The face in the mirror—it's not your face. The eyes stare back, empty, cold. The corner of your eye twitches—there’s something behind you, just beyond your reach. You know it’s there, and yet... when you turn, it’s gone. But the air is colder now, the silence heavier.
You do remember locking the door, you do remember closing the window, but everything feels too familiar yet foreign. In the distance, whispers. A voice you swear you recognize, it's not your own, but it beckons.

This is when you realise, it’s not just fear. It's happening.

Please note: The content provided in this background is intended to help jammers understand the theme. You are free to interpret and develop the theme as you wish. The final game does not need to strictly follow the background story.

Key Features

- Fear-Driven Interaction: Basic actions reflect the character’s emotional state.Threats remain unseen, implied through subtle cues like distant wheezing, shifting shadows, or out-of-place footprints, heightening tension without overusing jump-scares.

- Twisted Perception: Visual cues—like reflections, shadows, or illusions—are used to guide, mislead, or unsettle the player. What you see can’t always be trusted, and reality bends with your choices.

- Presence Unseen: An invisible force stalks the player, reacting to noise, hesitation, or light. It never appears directly—but always leaves traces: breath on glass, shifting shadows, creaking floorboards.

- Distorted Expectations: Create situations where players expect one thing to happen, but something completely different occurs. Break familiar patterns to create tension and psychological discomfort.

Hints

- Deceptive reflections: Use weird objects or others as puzzles—what the object or event shows may not match the room, but could reveal a truth or hidden path.

- Delayed reactions:Don’t make every action snappy. If the player is scared, a delay when opening a door or pulling an object (like their hand trembling) increases immersion and fear.

- Players self-question: Use notes, recordings, or reflections to contradict the player’s memory . Blur the line between protagonist and intruder.

- Twisted memories: Let players think they know what’s coming—then twist it. For example, recreate a scene from earlier, but flip one key element (e.g., their reflection is missing).

Something wants in. Something wants you. And now... it knows you're awake in quiet.

Awards

1st place * 1 - 200USD$

2nd place * 1 - 150USD$

3rd place * 1 - 100USD$

Best Decoration * 1 - 50USD$

Rising Star Award * n - 30USD$

Participation Reward * n - 30-45USD$

Referral Reward * n - 10USD$

The Referral reward is designed to encourage existing users to invite new users. The inviter will receive a $10 reward as long as the invitee submits a project, without any requirement for the project to qualify. However, the invitee must achieve a score of 60 or above on their project to receive both the $10 reward and the $30 participation reward.

The Participation Reward is designed to reward creators who consistently submit qualified works. The consecutive award rule: For 1-2 consecutive qualified works, the prize is $30. For 3 consecutive qualified works, it increases to $35. If you win 4 consecutive times, the prize is $40, and for 5 or more, it's $45.

The Rising Star Award is designed to help and motivate game creators to increase the attention of their games and  promote the feedback and communication among game enthusiasts.

This awarding rule is that if the number of downloads exceeds 100, we will give an additional reward corresponding to 10% of the number of downloads. Each 100 downloads is counted as a level interval. For example, if the number of downloads reaches 100, we will offer a reward of 10USD$; If it reaches 200, we will offer a reward of 20USD$. The upper limit of the bonus is 50USD$. We will conduct data statistics according to the download data within 7 days after the end of each Game jam.

Based on our experience, we suggest that everyone carry out more game promotion activities outside the website and carefully decorate their own game pages.

Some tips for increasing the number of downloads：

1. Detailed game introductions

2. A more exquisite display page

3. High-quality video presentation

4. Actively spread on various major social networking platforms

NOTE: We encourage everyone to share the game with external groups. But to ensure the fairness of award distribution, we will check the authenticity of the download data. We reserve the final right of interpretation for this activity.