🍣 Welcome to Drop Bear’s Mini Byte Jam! 🐨
G'day devs and dreamers! Drop Bear’s Byte Jam is here to celebrate that true spirit of creativity, camaraderie, and a little bit of cheeky fun. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve got a portfolio of shipped titles, this 7 day sprint is designed to bring out your best and to remind you why we fell in love with game development in the first place.
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📖 Overview
- Duration: 5th of August 10:30 AM AEST to 12th of August 10:30 PM AEST
- Voting Ends: 20/08/2025 12:00 PM AEST
- Winner Announcement: 25/08/2025 on our discord!
- Platform: HTML builds preferred (downloadable builds accepted) ( But no one really downloads or rates these. We highly suggest a web build. ) It is important to note that in our last jam over 3 downloadable games did not receive a single ranking due to this!
- Genre: Anything goes - puzzles, shooters, narrative, experiments, more
- Team Size: Solo, duo, or up to 5 max
- Skill Level: Perfect for beginners to pros
Rules:
- Credit all third-party/pre-made assets in your game description
- No NSFW or profane content
- Pre-made games will be disqualified
- Games must follow the announced theme
- Clarify if you have used AI please, This way people can vote on the section AI was used based on a case to case opinion. AI is only to be utilized as a tool. No full AI implementations. This includes Art, Audio and Full AI Created Programming.
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🌀 Theme
The theme for this jam is
Energy!
Here are a few ideas that may help you come up with your own unique idea on how to fit the theme " Energy " !
- Health as a Power Source
- Use your health (energy) to power doors, weapons, or shields sacrifice survivability for progress.
- Absorb to Grow Bigger, And Bigger AND BIGGERRRR
- Absorb energy from enemies or objects to grow bigger, faster, or more powerful, but become harder to control.
- One Charge Only ( A SURCHARGE?)
- Every level gives you one full battery. Jumping, attacking, every movement you make will drain it , reach the exit before it runs out.
- Chain Reaction Puzzle
- Transfer energy between machines, but each one has a limit overload breaks them, underpowering does nothing.
- Environmental Power Zones
- Power is location-based. You’re strong in energy zones, you are weak outside and this forces smart movement and combat positioning.
At the end of the day. The way that your interpret this theme is up to you you. Whether you create a game that caters strongly or mildly to the theme you still created a game! And that is something that you should be proud of! We look forward to seeing all of your talented entries and wish you the best of luck! Remember if you need help with ideas or just people to chat to our discord server is the perfect place to go enjoy jamming!
🎮 Core Mechanic (Optional)
The core mechanic for this jam is
Floating!
Here a few ideas that can help boast your creative thinking in terms to how you could implement the Floating mechanic into your game jam submission.
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🏆 Why You Should Jump In
- Fast-paced fun: Build a quick prototype in a focused 7-day sprint
- Learn by doing: Go from concept to completion fast
- Expand your network: Meet fellow devs on Discord
- Boost your portfolio: Show off a polished short project
- No prizes needed: Streamed live on Twitch, celebrated by all
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🗓 Important Dates & Deadlines
- Jam Starts: 05/08/2025 10:30 AM AEST
- Jam Ends: 12/08/2025 10:30 PM AEST
- Voting Ends: 20/08/2025 12:00 PM AEST
- Winner Announcement: 25/08/2025 on Discord
- Live Stream: Twitch - dbsaustralia or Twitch - saryahm
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- Overall: This is your overall rating. This will decide the winner.
- Theme : How well the game used the theme given.
- SFX: Did the SFX make you feel like you were really there? Did you feel as though the SFX gave the correct feedback?
- Art/Graphics : Was the game visually appealing? Did they do well on the art?
- Music : Was the music good?
- Mechanic Implementation : Does the game have the optional mechanic?
- Gameplay : Did you have fun?
A PDF certificate will be awarded to the winners of both The Game Jam and The Detective challenges.
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📅 How to Submit
- Create a new project page on Itch.io under the “Drop Bear’s Byte Jam” group
- Upload a ZIP or HTML/WebGL export of your game
- Tag with #DropBearByteJam2025
- Include your game title and team names in the description
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🦘 Join the Mob on Discord
The heart of Drop Bear’s Byte Jam lives on our Discord server:
- Voice & Text Channels: Collaborate and get help
- Workshops: Quick how-to sessions on Unity, 3D, audio
- Show & Tell: Share progress, get feedback
- Shout-Outs: Roles and social media features for winners
👉 Join our Discord - We are cooking SNAGS for yah!
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Ready to chew through 7 days of pure creativity? Grab your favorite beverage, turn up the Outback playlist, and let’s make some games the world won’t forget.
🚀 Good luck, have fun, and may the Drop Bear’s spirit guide your code!
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