Designing any game from the ground up is hard and, often, a lonely experience. Creating a mega game  even more so, with hundreds of hours just to get to a testable version. The compounding complexity of creating rules and roles for tens to hundreds of individual players to use in real-time and in-person settings is mega challenging, to say the least. That’s just making the rough draft; then you have to worry about all the challenges that come with hosting an in-person event.

With those challenges in mind, the goal of this game jam is for the community to help inspire each other and provide support. 

• Have you been toiling away at a rough draft for years? 
• Gave up on a promising idea because it was too much for you to handle? 
• Did you just come up with your best idea yet and looking for that motivation to get started? 
• Don’t want to make your own game, but would love to help others? 

Then consider this your sign! 

• Be a Creator - Work solo or join our community to find someone to team up
• Be an Ally and offer your skills and expertise to those who need them.
• Be a Judge and give constructive criticism and vote on the submissions at the end of the jam

To help get the ball rolling, this jam presents three optional themes to inspire you or to put a fun constraint on their design. These themes are meant to be broad and vague so they serve you instead of the other way around. Below are the themes, along with examples of how they could apply to any given entry, if needed:

1. Shared Control
2. Space
3. Friendliness

At the end of the jam, we would like to give recognition to the different game submissions. In particular, we’ll ask the community Judge to evaluate and vote for entries that fit any or all of the themes. I, Charlie, will personally write up an article highlighting those works (even if they aren’t finished by the end). There will not be any monetary rewards; this is just for fun and strengthening the mega game community.

To submit an entry (unfinished works encouraged), you will have to put it up as either “Pay What You Want”, Free, or provide community copies. Regardless of how copies are distributed, unless the designers/authors specify otherwise, mega games submitted to this jam does NOT give anyone else permission to run these games. They are meant to be read, inspire, and discussed.

What is a Mega Game?

Definitions vary. To put it simply, a mega game is a game that takes 2-8 hours to play, 20-100 players, and a small dedicated staff (2-20 people) to manage the event during play (aka: Control). Usually, they are played in person in an indoor setting, but there is a healthy Play-by-Email scene as well. One can see mega games as borrowing aspects from boardgames, LARPs, and tabletop roleplaying games with each mega game having its own levels of rules complexity and roleplaying engagement.

Don’t know if your submission would count as a “Mega Game”? Just ask!

Where to connect?

Come by the Megagame Coalition Discord and chat with us before, during, and after the jam! 
https://discord.gg/z8upbrAsr2

Q&A

• Can I submit a non-mega game?
  • Not at this time. Although megagames often take elements from other games, such as board games, card games, and live-action role-playing games, we want to encourage submissions with the ultimate goal of being used in a megagame. The reason being this is possibly the only game jam specifically for Megagame and one that asks the megagame community for support. Please consider other game jams such as the largest game jam - Global Game Jam.
• Who can I contact if I am still unclear?
  • You can reach out to me (Charlie) or Powen! We will be happy to write back as soon as we're abled to!
    • Charlie's Discord: charlie_theythem
    • Charlie's Email: midwestliveaction@yahoo.com
    • Powen's Discord: powenyao
    • Powen's Email: powenyao@gmail.com