TL;DR
- 9 days
- Online multiplayer games
- $2500+ in prizes
- Use any engine including Unity, Godot, Unreal, three.js, and more
Have you been sitting on a multiplayer idea you want to prototype? Or perhaps you've been looking for an opportunity to dip your toes into multiplayer development for the first time? Now is your chance! Multiplayer Madness is a 9-day game jam with over $2,500 in prizes where you’ll build a multiplayer game using the engine/libraries of your choice. In order to be considered for the prizes, you need have your game server hosted on Hathora Cloud.
Ready to join us? Click join at the top of the page and then join our discord and follow the prompts to join game jam channels. You can use those channels to find teammates, share progress, and get help from our amazing community. The Hathora team and our judges will also be holding periodic office hours to help troubleshoot or answer any questions you may have.
- The game must have online multiplayer functionality, meaning it must be playable by 2 or more people over the internet. It can be pvp, co-op, async multiplayer -- anything is fair game!
- The game must use a dedicated server (rather than using peer-to-peer), and the server must be hosted on Hathora Cloud to be considered for a prize. Everyone who makes an account on Hathora and uploads a server build will automatically receive $500 credit, ensuring you won’t pay anything for hosting for the jam and for a while after.
- The game needs to be accessible in English and be submitted on itch.io. We encourage HTML5 (web) submissions so that it will be easier for judges and other submitters to play it, but we also accept Windows submissions.
Example types of games include:
- Multiplayer board/card/party game
- Multiplayer fighting game
- Online platformer
- Online shooter
- Online RPG
- Prizes
- All qualified game submissions receive $200 bonus Hathora credit
- Community choice (submitters vote)
- First Place: $1,000 cash prize + $500 additional Hathora Cloud credit
- Second Place: $500 cash prize + $250 additional Hathora Cloud credit
- Judge's choice
- Top Unity Game: $250 cash prize + Lifetime access to Fish-Net Pro
- Top Godot Game: $250 cash prize + One year membership to Quiver
- Top JavaScript Game: $250 cash prize + One ticket to JSGameDev + A year subscription to Playcanvas
- Most Likely to Go Viral Game: $250 cash prize + Consideration by Game Dev of Top 100 Game in AppStore and the founder of ScoreSpace for distribution
- Evaluation criteria
- Submitters will rate the games on a scale of 1-5 across the following criteria:
- Originality - How interesting, creative, and multiplayer-friendly is the underlying concept?
- Theme - How closely does this game relate to the theme?
- Playability - How intuitive is the multiplayer aspect of the gameplay?
- Fun - How likely will you play this again with other people?
- Submitters will rate the games on a scale of 1-5 across the following criteria:
Who are the Judges for Judge's Choice Awards?
- Steven Yau is a game maker geek with over 15 years of experience ranging from AAA console games, XR and F2P mobile games for some of the largest companies in the games industry. He will select the JavaScript Judge’s choice award.
- Amit Mathew is a serial entrepreneur and former professional game developer. He currently leads Quiver, a startup helping indie game developers go from idea to launch using the Godot game engine. He will select the Godot Judge’s choice award.
- FirstGearGames is a professional game developer and creator of Fish-Networking, aka FishNet, the fastest and most feature rich free networking choice for Unity to date. He will select the Unity Judge’s choice award.
- Missy Fang, lead game dev at AppStop.IO and creator of a top 100 AppStore game One Victory Lap. She will co-select the Most Likely to Go Viral Game.
- KB is founder of ScoreSpace and host of 30+ Gamejams. He will co-select the Most Likely to Go Viral Game.
1. How do I most easily get started?
The best place to start is our starter guides for each game engine:
For a general overview of Hathora Cloud, check out our documentation page.
If you have any questions, ask for help our Discord!
2. Who can enter?
This is an online game jam, so anyone, from anywhere, aged 13 or older can enter the jam. You can work alone or in teams. There is no limit on the number of people per team, but you can only participate on one team.
Only one person needs to join itch.io and submit the game. However, if others on the team also join itch.io, they can be tagged as contributors. (On your game's itch page, pick "Edit", "More", "Admins", and follow the instructions).
3. What kind of multiplayer games can I build?
You can build a cooperative multiplayer game or a competitive one. The only thing that matters is that it is online - you can play with people, friends or foes, over the internet.
4. Is there a theme?
Yes, we will release a theme when the jam goes live on August 11.
5. What platforms should my game target?
We recommend following the Itch.io guidance so the game can be played by as many members of the community as possible. Ultimately, you can target any platform you’d like, but the more folks that can play your game the more they can give you feedback and rate your entry. However, we have specific judges’ choice awards for Unity, Godot, and JavaScript.
6. What assets can I use?
All assets plus fonts can be custom made or gathered from other sources. The game should be developed during the jam, but you may use pre-existing code and can use whatever art and audio assets you have the legal right to use.
7. Can I continue development after the jam?
Absolutely, you hold all rights to any submission you make. Only dependency is if you have licenses to the assets you’ve used in the game itself.
8. Should I share the source of my game?
Uploading the source of your submission is encouraged, but absolutely not required.
9. When will I find out the results?
After the close of submissions, the community voting period begins (submitting teams only) and it will last until August 25. Any evaluations submitted after that date will not be considered.
Judge voting will begin on August 21 and last until August 28, 2023. Final winners will be announced on Discord and on the Itch.io page on August 30, 2023 by 12:00pm ET. Winners will need to claim their prizes by September 2, 2023.
10. How original must my game be?
In order to qualify for Multiplayer Madness awards, your game needs to be made fresh during the nine days of the game jam. You may use the templates we provide, but you can’t take a game you’ve built in the past, make a few changes, and then submit it. Sorry, this is part of the ambitiousness of this game jam!
11. How do I submit a game?
You should upload your game to itch.io like it was any other game. From there you can upload the files, and provide additional details, including your Hathora AppId and your game engine. For games that do not run on web, please include screenshots and gameplay recordings.
You should make the game free (or let the person pick “any amount”), and you must set the game as "released", not "draft".
Then, you should come back to this page on itch.io, click submit game, and choose your game from the dropdown box. Answer the required questions to complete the submission!
To ensure that your game is in the jam, please go to your game's itch.io page and look for the badge that says "Submission to the Multiplayer Madness Game Jam 2023" in the top right.
If it's there, you're in! If not, please submit again. If problems persist, visit the Discord server for technical assistance.
12. Do my Hathora credits expire? Can I use the credits after the game jam?
Your credits will be available to you for the game jam as well as any future games you want to launch on Hathora for the next 24 months.
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