Join our discord community to meet Pakistani creatives, share your progress, receive feedback, look for teammates, or hang out!

Previous Iterations:

1st Pakistan Game Jam

What is a Game Jam?

A Game Jam is a short event where you and others work together to create a small game. Most Jams have some kind of restriction on theme or style to get you thinking about games in a new way. Pakistan Game Jams aims to be a way to encourage Pakistani game developers, provide opportunity for learning and skill building, and bring awesome Pakistani creatives together.

This Pakistan Game Jam will be ranked. Meaning winners will be decided based on voting by the public. You are encouraged to form teams but solo developers are welcome too. 

Who can enter?

This Game Jam is strictly for Pakistanis. Your team must have at least one person with a strong connection to Pakistan. That includes everyone living in Pakistan, or Pakistanis living abroad or their kin.

What game to make?

Pakistan Game Jam will have a theme announced when the jam begins. Participants should make a small game that somehow includes that theme. You are free and encouraged to explain your incorporation of theme and optional prompt on your the itch page and voters are encouraged to take this explanation into consideration.

It is also a good idea to credit all team members appropriately. Mention what each member did and link to their profiles if possible. Similarly good idea to credit any third party assets or tools you have used.

Games can be made using any technology or game engine you like. Some popular game engines are Godot, Unity, Unreal and Game Maker Studio but you can choose anything as long as the game can be played inside a browser. From text based adventures to first person shooters all genres and types of games are welcome.

Why a browser game? Because we want as many people to play as possible. Making your game compatible with the browser makes sure that most devices will be able to run it. And players don't have to worry about downloading a virus.

Theme

Theme: Connection 

This could be a physical or an emotional connection. Could be a connection between the player and something else or could be a network of various things. Could be as simple as connecting dots or as abstract as connecting hearts. Could be a mechanic or a story theme.

Limitation: No Visible Characters

You game must not feature any on screen characters. Game can still be about characters and can still feature controllable vehicles and objects. But no characters like people or animals etc.

Optional prompt: In The Zone

You may interpret this as being in the flow state. Or as a physical area or time in the game. Could be something player needs to achieve like the goal or a safe zone. Or to avoid like a danger zone. Still this is optional and only here to help you spice up your game idea.

You game will center around the theme and must abide by the limitation. You are free to or not to incorporate the optional prompt. Voters may award extra points for a good execution of both theme and optional prompt. But no points may be deducted for omitting the optional prompt.

It's up to you how you interpret the theme, and you can elaborate how your game fits the theme on your game page. 

Themes are meant to be a restriction that you need to solve your way out of. Don't despair if you dislike the theme, instead try to find a creative solution where you can have fun and try something you otherwise wouldn't have.

Voting

Voting will take place after the submission period. Anyone can play and vote on the games. Here are the voting categories:

Innovation: Rate the uniqueness. Either technical, artistic or gameplay innovation.

Fun: How much fun is a game. Gameplay will be judged.

Theme: How well is the theme, limitation (and optional prompt if used) implemented in the game. Extra points for creativity. No points deduction for skipping the optional prompt.

Vibes: How much you enjoy the feeling and experience of the game. Story, music, art and vibes will be judged.

Setup

• Join our official Discord!
• Spread the word, bring your friends!
• Form up into teams or decide on running solo.
• Come up with a team name and get ready to jam!

Rules

• This is not an exhaustive list. Don't be a dumbass. 
• You must follow the Itch.io TOS.
• No teams of more than 5 people.
• Your submission must run in the browser.
• Be cool to each other.
• No AI-Generated Content.
• No Pornographic Content or Nudity.
• No Illicit Drug References.
• Any submission published before the jam's starting date will be removed
• Only one submission per person/team is allowed
• No paid games or games that require someone to pay in any way
• You can only use assets you have the right to use. You can build your own stuff and learn from it or you can use freely available asset packs.