What is Patch Notes?

Patch Notes is a jam series for broken ideas, cursed mechanics, and prototypes that never made it past the group chat.

v1.0 was a 3-day sprint — wild, messy, and full of experiments. Over 480 games and 5000 votes later, we learned one thing: chaos works.

Now v1.1 takes that same spirit and gives it room to breathe: 10 days, two weekends, and two ways to play.

What’s New in v1.1?

We’re introducing two paths:

• Fresh Builds → Start from zero, chase the theme, and make something unhinged.

• Patch Builds → Take what you made in v1.0 and iterate.

Not everyone ships gold in one sprint — and that’s the point. Game dev is about iteration, and Patch Notes is here to keep you moving.

Whether you’re polishing up old chaos or summoning brand-new bugs, you’re welcome.

The Theme

Not revealed yet. (You know the drill.)

Expect something weird, open-ended, and guaranteed to cause at least one existential crisis in your codebase. Theme drops the moment the jam begins via the Indieformer YouTube channel.

The Details

• When: January 16th (8:00 PM) - 25th (8:00 PM) CET. (10 days, two weekends)
• Where: Itch.io + Discord
• Who: Anyone. Solo devs, teams, veterans, hobbyists. Writers, artists, musicians — you too.

Finding a Team

• Join the Indieformer Discord to find teammates, pitch ideas, or just lurk until someone ropes you in.

• Try the Jamlytics Teamfinder if you want a smarter way to match up.

• The Jamlytics Discord is where you want to be for all things jam.

The Rules

• You have 10 days to make your game.

• You must incorporate the jam’s theme.

• No NSFW content (no nudity, extreme gore, or real-world trauma).

• Re-use of small code/assets is fine, but no dropping in a fully finished game.

• Browser or Windows build required at minimum.

• Submissions must be in English.

• Upload before the deadline. (We’ll have backup plans via Discord if there's problems — don’t panic.)

AI Usage

• Collaboration with humans is encouraged.

• If you use AI, include a short note on exactly how.

• Clever, supportive AI use = fine. Full end-to-end AI builds = not in the spirit.

• We used it ourselves to tweak copy on this very page.

Scoring Criteria

• Art (5 points)
  • How your visuals and assets bring the game to life.
• Innovation (5 points)
  • Creativity in your gameplay, mechanics, and overall design.
• Sound Design (5 points)
  • The impact of music, audio, and sound effects.
• Theme Integration (5 points)
  • How well the game embraces and delivers on the theme.
• Presentation (5 points)
  • The whole package: your itch page, description, thumbnails, and overall polish.
• Accessibility (5 points)
  • Options, tutorials, and settings that make the game easier to pick up and play.

With each criteria having 5 points each (30 points total), the total score will be averaged and turned into stars, with 5 stars being the holy grail.

Judging

This jam is judged two ways:

• Community Voting — every participant rates games, surfacing the top-voted entries.

• Judges Panel — indie devs, creators, and troublemakers hand-pick their favourites.

• We will communicate judging through the itch email platform, but do out final wrap up via the Indieformer Newsletter.

• We will announce our judges once they are finalised.

Bonus Challenge

Fake Publisher Splash – Include a fake logo/publisher splash screen at the start of your game. No reward. No reason. Just vibes. You can find Indieformer & Patch Notes assets here, or come up with your own!