Captain Coder's

Learn You a Game Jam 2024!

The Optional Theme is: ONLY 1 INVENTORY SLOT

Watch the theme selection here: LINK

Captain Coder wants YOU to learn how to create art, code, and make games!

In this game jam, you are encouraged to push yourself outside of your comfort zone to learn something new! Learning a new tool? Learning a new programming language? Making pixel art for the first time? Learning blender? Go for it, learn and grow! 

As part of your submission, you are also encouraged to submit a dev-log, blog, or vlog sharing what you learned with others! Doing so makes your submission eligible for the Most Educational contest (two $250 prizes and three $100 prizes)! Additionally, by submitting a dev-log, blog, or vlog, you will be entered into a drawing to win $50 (5 drawing winners!)

The theme is ONLY 1 INVENTORY SLOT . You may optionally not implement the theme. However, you should note that one of the ranking criteria is THEME.

Discord & Twitch

Captain Coder will hold "office hours" live on stream and discord to try and help anyone who is stuck. If you would like to volunteer to be a mentor during the jam, please reach out and let me know!

Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/68HBjPGbSp

Twitch:  https://twitch.tv/thecaptaincoder

What should I put in my dev-log, blog, or vlog?

This is really up to you! The main idea is to share your progress before, during and after the jam with others.

Here are some ideas:

• What did you want to learn going into the jam?
  • Was this your first time coding? 
  • Was this the first time you made a platformer?
  • Was this your first attempt at pixel art? 3D Art? Music Composition?
  • Was this your first time attempting to create animations? Body rigging? Procedural generation?
  • Was this your first attempt to compose music?
• What did you ACTUALLY learn?
• How did you grow during the jam?
• What resources did you use to learn during the jam? Were there any good guides, video tutorials, or people that helped you?
• What was the most challenging part of the jam?
• What was the most interesting part of the jam?
• If you could do it again, what would you do differently?

There were so many excellent submissions last year! Here are a few of the judges favorites:

• https://vinkesoft.simple.ink/
• https://anasaurus.itch.io/the-oddity-office/devlog/551477/my-very-first-game-jam
• https://high-lord.itch.io/chimera-rampage/devlog/548342/developing-chimera-rampage-and-learning-to-create-music-sfx-post-1
• https://itch.io/blog/551641/never-mess-with-git-blog-post
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sch4MforH8k

You can find all of the previous submissions here: https://itch.io/jam/learn-you-a-game-jam/entries

Ratings

Submissions will be evaluated using 5 categories:

1. Gameplay. How well are the mechanics of the game executed and how well does the gameplay match with the idea presented?
2. Visuals. How well is art utilized in the game’s presentation? Is the art consistent? Does the art compliment the game play?
3. Audio. How well does the game utilize music and sound effects? 
4. Theme. How well does the game fit the secret theme?
5. Enjoyment. How much did you enjoy the game?
6. Creativity. How creative was this entry?
   

Rules

1. Ranked Jam: Although this is a ranked jam, the main goal of the jam is to learn something new! 
2. Prizes: You may opt-in to be considered for the Most Educational prize. By sharing a devlog, blog, or vlog, you are eligible to win the $250 Most Educational Blog or $250 Most Educational Video prize and will automatically be entered to win one of 5 - $50 drawings. (See Prizes below for more details)
3. A secret theme will be announced when the jam starts. If you would like to suggest a theme, you can do so here: LINK. About one week before the jam, you will have an opportunity to vote on a theme.
4. You must have the rights to all assets you use in your game. It is highly encouraged that you and your team make all of the assets for your submission. However, any asset that you have the right to use may be used as long as you properly credit the assets on your itch page and *WITHIN* your game as well as on your submission page. Failure to do so may result in disqualification. Be sure you leave time to add credits.
5. You can use any game engine you want (you can even write your own).
6. Your game must be made within the time constraints of the jam. The game jam is 14 days long giving you two full weeks. The idea is to make the game in 1 week, then use the second week to polish and write your devlog. You can update your game anytime **BEFORE** or **AFTER** the voting period.
7. Teams are encouraged! You can go solo but working with a team can be super fun and you'll learn a ton along the way! If you don't already have a team, feel free to search for one on our Discord channel. There is no maximum team size but I recommend not using more than 3 or 4 people as communication can slow your progress.
8. Submissions must be free during the voting period. No one is going to play / vote on your game if they have to pay for it.
9. Content should be appropriate for all young people. This game jam should be safe and fun for all ages! If you wouldn't feel comfortable sharing it with someone who is 10 years old, then it doesn't belong in this jam. Heavy topics are allowed as well but please refrain from romanticizing/advocating for racism, sexism, transphobia, etc.

Prizes

During submission, if eligible, your team may opt-in to be considered for one of the Most Educational prizes.

1x Most Educational Writing ($250 - via PayPal)

The most educational written submission will win this prize!

1x Most Educational Video/Podcast ($250 - via PayPal)

The most educational video/podcast submission will win this prize!

3x Runner Ups ($100 - via PayPal) - Sponsored by Average Game Studios

The top 3 runner up blogs, vlogs, or devlogs will win this prize!

These 3 prizes are sponsored by Average Game Studio

Captain Coder and the 2 guest judges will review the dev-logs, blogs, and vlogs to determine which submission will receive the 5 Most Educational prizes (Note: your team cannot win more than one)

Note: Depending on the volume of submissions, this may take some time to complete. The judges will make a best effort to review and select a winner by the time voting has ended but make no guarantees on an exact timeline.

1x Most Creative ($50 - via PayPal) - Sponsored by Omni Digital Technologies Ltd.

During the voting period, anyone who submitted a game may vote on other entries. The entry with the highest Creativity rating, will win this prize.

This prize is sponsored by Omni Digital Technologies Ltd.. You can check them out on twitch: twitch.tv/omni_digital

5x Dev-log, blog, or vlog Drawing ($50 - via PayPal)

Anyone who submits a dev-log, blog, or vlog and does not win the Most Educational prize will be entered into a raffle to win $50.  5 unique winners will be drawn from all eligible submissions. To be eligible, the submitted dev-log, blog, or vlog must have some amount of "substance" which expresses what the developer (or developers) learned as well as the resources they learned. I don't want to be super strict about this BUT this requirement is subjective and is in an effort to prevent someone from submitting a 10 second video / a 1 sentence blog and winning the raffle.

Eligibility

Everyone is encouraged to submit to this Jam regardless of eligibility! However, due to legal reasons, to be eligible to receive prizes, you must:

• You must create and submit a dev-log, blog, or vlog sharing what you learned with the broader community
• Be eligible to receive cash prizes in your country.  In USA: 18+ years old (13+ with parent/guardian consent)
  
• Opt-in during the submission process
• Have a PayPal account that can receive money