Solo developers build games with help from a shared community asset pack. Contributors create assets, tools, music, art, writing, code, and other resources for everyone to use.
There are prizes for both developers and contributors.
You can also collaborate with friends, as long as custom contributions are shared with the whole community.
The goal is simple:
Build together. Compete solo.
Submitted games may be featured live on stream during the judging period.
Join the Imaginary Game Studios Discord to access the asset pack, vote on the theme, request your twist, contribute assets, and hang out with other participants:
There are two official ways to participate:
Developers submit solo games.
Contributors submit resources to the community asset pack.
You can be one, the other, or both.
Developers can use the official asset pack, community assets, public assets, templates, tools, plugins, scripts, middleware, and anything else they have the legal right to use.
Contributors can submit art, music, SFX, models, animation, UI, writing, dialogue, fonts, VFX, shaders, tools, templates, Unity/Godot scripts, or other useful game development resources.
Collaboration is allowed, but the rule is:
If someone else makes it for your game, share it with the community.
If you make something yourself for your own entry, you do not have to share it.
If a friend, collaborator, musician, artist, programmer, or other contributor creates something specifically for your entry, that contribution must be submitted publicly in Discord, or through the itch.io community if needed, so it can be considered for the official community asset pack.
For example: Alice makes music because Bob requested it. Bob can use the music in his solo game, but Alice must also submit it to the community so other developers can use it too.
This keeps game submissions solo and fair, while allowing friends to collaborate.
And now that contributors have their own cash prizes, sharing useful work with the community gives collaborators a way to compete too!
Before the jam begins, the community will vote on a broad theme category in Discord.
At kickoff, we will confirm the winning category and spin The Wheel of Wonder to assign each participating developer a personal twist within that category.
Think of the twist as your personal focus. For example, if the community chooses Elements, your twist might be Fire, Ice, Grass, Electric, Psychic, and so on.
Your game should incorporate both:
The theme gives the jam a shared direction. The twist gives every entry its own little creative curse.
Before the jam starts, we will post a Twist Roll Call in Discord.
If you want your name included in the kickoff wheel-spin video, comment or react there.
Theme voting happens in Discord. Twist signups will happen in Discord too, but an itch.io community thread may also be available for participants who do not use Discord.
Late joiners can request a twist after kickoff in Discord.
Every prize-eligible game should include at least one Imaginary Game Studios cameo.
This can be big or tiny: a character, creature, prop, object, logo, joke, line of dialogue, hidden reference, or any recognizable element from one of our games.
You can use official assets from the pack, community assets, or your own original interpretation.
You can draw from Rogue Climber, Super Optimal Amount of Punching, Meticulous, or any other Imaginary Game Studios project. Super Optimal Amount of Punching and Rogue Climber both have free demos available, and you can play the Super Optimal Amount of Punching demo in your browser, no download required.
One cameo is enough, but you are welcome to use more. If you want to turn your game into a tiny Imaginary crossover event, you’re welcome to do so.
Your game does not need to match the genre of any Imaginary Game Studios game.
It does not need to be a roguelike. It does not need to be about climbing. It does not need to be about punching. It does not need to be about macro tracking, although honestly, that would be brave.
Use the characters however you like. Make fan art. Invent lore. Reinterpret them. Make Gobbo steal truffies. Make Furny the final boss. Make Metic judge your fridge.
Mostly, just leave a little Imaginary fingerprint somewhere in your game.
A major feature of the Imaginary Game Jam is the shared community asset pack.
Imaginary Game Studios will provide official assets, and contributors can submit additional resources for everyone to use. The goal is to help solo developers finish stronger games, reduce skill-set gaps, and give the whole jam a shared creative toybox.
You are not required to use every provided asset. Use what helps your game, ignore what does not, and feel free to create your own interpretations of Imaginary Game Studios characters and worlds.
The official asset pack may include character models, animations, props, UI, music, sound effects, logos, reference art, dialogue resources, community-contributed assets, and other useful development resources.
Up to 250 words of recorded character dialogue may be requested during the first week of the jam.
Voice requests must be made in the Imaginary Game Studios Discord server and will be fulfilled in the order they are received. Requests for established Imaginary Game Studios characters will generally work best. If you request a voice outside our character roster, quality is not guaranteed. No explicit language will be recorded.
Before using assets from the official pack, please review the Shared Asset Commons Terms below so you understand what you are allowed to do with them.
Using the asset pack for this jam does not grant ownership of Imaginary Game Studios characters, worlds, logos, or other IP. It gives you permission to use approved jam assets in games submitted to this jam under the terms described below.
Contributors can submit art, music, SFX, models, animation, UI, writing, dialogue, fonts, VFX, shaders, tools, templates, Unity/Godot scripts, or other useful game development resources.
The expected workflow is:
If you cannot use Discord, an itch.io community thread may also be available, but Discord is the preferred place for asset submissions.
Only assets accepted into the official community asset pack will count toward contributor awards.
To be eligible for contributor awards, assets should be newly created or substantially adapted for this jam. Older assets that you own may be shared with the community, but they may not be eligible for cash prizes unless they were substantially adapted for this jam.
All submitted assets must be your own work, or you must have the legal right to submit them. Do not submit stolen assets, ripped game files, copyrighted characters, copyrighted fan art, AI outputs you do not have the right to use, or anything you cannot legally share.
Imaginary Game Studios has final approval over what gets added to the official community asset pack.
Before submitting work, please review the Shared Asset Commons Terms below. You keep ownership of your work, but accepted assets are shared with jam participants under the terms described there.
Because asset contributions open before the game development period, here is the line:
If it is made for everyone, it can be an asset contribution. If it is made for your specific game entry, wait until the jam starts.
Before the jam starts, you may submit community assets, request assets publicly, set up your tools, discuss general ideas, review the asset pack, and prepare reusable templates or systems you have the right to use.
Before the jam starts, you may not build your specific game submission, create entry-specific levels/scenes/mechanics, privately receive exclusive custom help, or submit an old or mostly finished project as though it was made during the jam.
Templates, starter projects, public tools, and reusable systems are allowed if you have the right to use them. Game-specific work begins when the jam begins.
Community Impact Contributor: $50
Awarded to the contributor whose accepted assets are credited in the greatest number of eligible submitted games.
Outstanding Contributor: $50
Awarded by Imaginary Game Studios to a contributor whose work meaningfully improves the jam ecosystem. This may recognize usefulness, quality, creativity, technical value, volume of work, community impact, or any other contribution that made the jam better.
A participant can only receive one cash payout.
If a participant qualifies for multiple payouts, they will receive the highest eligible payout. Other awards will be redistributed to additional winners where possible.
Participants may still receive multiple honorary mentions, runner-up mentions, or non-cash recognition.
During the judging period, Imaginary Game Studios will evaluate eligible submissions in good faith. Judging is subjective, and all judging categories are weighted equally.
Only participants who submit an eligible entry will be eligible to score games for Community Favorite.
In the event of a tie affecting prize payouts, Imaginary Game Studios reserves the right to determine the payout recipient in good faith at its discretion.
Eligible game entrants will receive 1 free Steam copy of Rogue Climber.
Additional participation rewards may be announced later.
Please read this before submitting.
You may submit any game project to the jam, but only eligible entries can receive cash prizes or participation rewards.
To be eligible, your game must:
The entrant must be 18 or older to receive compensation.
No explicit sex scenes, extreme violence, mature language, hate content, or other content that would make the judging process require a cleansing ritual.
Game submissions must be developed by one person.
Using asset packs, community assets, public tools, plugins, templates, middleware, or other legally usable resources does not make those creators your teammates.
If another person creates custom work specifically for your entry, that work must be shared with the community so it can be considered for the official asset pack.
Late submissions will not be accepted under any circumstances.
Please upload early and test your build.
After the deadline, you may update your itch.io page, screenshots, credits, and other non-build information, but you may not submit or replace the playable build unless Imaginary Game Studios announces a technical exception for all participants.
Approved asset pack resources may be used in games submitted to official Imaginary Game Studios jams, including the annual Imaginary Game Jam and official Imaginary Mini Jams, unless an asset is specifically labeled otherwise.
Contributors keep ownership of their own work. By submitting work to the official community asset pack, contributors grant participants permission to download, modify, and use accepted assets in games submitted to official Imaginary Game Studios jams, including keeping submitted jam versions publicly available after the jam ends.
This does not grant permission to reuse those assets in unrelated projects, commercial releases, asset packs, non-Imaginary jams, or other games unless the asset creator separately grants that permission.
Using Imaginary Game Studios assets also does not grant ownership of Imaginary Game Studios characters, worlds, logos, or other IP. It grants permission to use approved jam assets in official Imaginary Game Studios jam submissions under these terms.
If you use assets, code, tools, plugins, music, fonts, templates, AI-assisted material, or other resources you did not create yourself, you must credit them.
Credits can appear in your game, on your itch.io page, or both.
For contributor award tracking, community assets should be credited clearly enough that we can tell which contributor made which asset.
Recommended format:
Asset Name — Contributor Name — Source
Example:
Gobbo Accordion Panic Loop — Alice Example — Imaginary Game Jam Community Asset Pack
To be eligible for contributor awards, your contribution must be accepted into the official community asset pack.
Contributed assets should be newly created or substantially adapted for this jam. You must own the work or have the legal right to submit it.
Do not submit stolen assets, ripped game files, copyrighted characters, copyrighted fan art, AI outputs you do not have the right to use, or anything you cannot legally share.
Imaginary Game Studios may remove assets or disqualify contributors if work is stolen, misrepresented, or submitted in bad faith.
Winning participants have 30 days to claim their payout after winners are announced.
Cash payouts will be provided through Wise where available. Steam Gift Card may be offered as an alternative. No other payment options are guaranteed.
Participants must be 18 or older to receive compensation.
Imaginary Game Studios does not mediate private prize-sharing agreements. If you privately agree to split prize money with someone, that agreement is between you and them.
If you would like to submit a game but excuse yourself from compensation, write:
“I excuse myself from compensation.”
somewhere on your game’s itch.io page.
Imaginary Game Studios is an independent game studio making weird, character-driven games with questionable business sense and unusually high Gobbo density.
You can support us by checking out and wishlisting our games on Steam:
Super Optimal Amount of Punching (Free Browser Demo available on itch.io)
The Imaginary Game Jam is one way we invite the community to play with our characters, reinterpret our worlds, and help build a weirder little creative universe together.
Join the Imaginary Game Studios Discord:
Come build something strange with us.
Imaginary Game Studios reserves the right to revise these rules in our sole discretion.
If rules are updated, we will do our best to communicate changes clearly in Discord and on the jam page.
