Out of Office Game Jam

A collaborative game jam for laid-off games industry professionals — by laid-off games industry professionals.

Are you a recently laid-off game developer or industry pro?

Looking for a creative, resume-boosting way to network holistically — without the pressure?

Need a fun distraction from The Horrors™?

Welcome to the Out of Office Game Jam, a week-long event designed to bring together displaced talent from across the games industry. Whether you're looking to ship a small project, meet future collaborators, or just shake off the dust, this jam is built for you.

 How it Works:

• Join the Discord and complete a quick verification
• Fill out the entry form to help verify and organize teams and individuals participating in the jam. 
• Form a team or fly solo — your call.
• Plan, design, build, and deploy a game in one week, based on the jam’s theme (to be announced).
• At the end of the jam, all submitted games will be uploaded to Itch.io and are yours to use however you see fit.

A panel of organizers and senior devs will playtest and provide feedback on every submission.

Note that any engine is acceptable as long as the finished project can run on windows PC. 

 Who Can Join?

Anyone affected by industry layoffs — whether you're a:

• Programmer
• Artist
• Writer
• Producer
• QA 
• Sound Designer
•  Or anything in between.

At this time, we are limiting eligibility to people that have worked professionally in the games industry, and are currently unemployed.   

Don’t have the full skill set to make a game solo? Use the Discord to network and team up. Artists, find programmers. QA? Join a team and start testing!

Not up for development? Apply to be a judge or panelist — we’re especially looking for senior professionals to help review submissions and share insights.