Cape Town based studio Free Lives is sponsoring a physics jam for all interested South African devs who are keen to explore the basics of physics based game design. We hope this jam encourages more developers to use this feature, as we have found our games that use physics to be relatively low budget, yet high profit generating IP's. The more people we have in our country that are honing their skills in physics, the more opportunities will become available to make a successful game development career possible. It's also a crazy fun way to make games!
We encourage you to join the Maker's Massive Discord community to meet and connect with other game makers.
The theme will be announced at 18:00 on the 21st of August 2026.
Please indicate in your submission your team's experience level (student, hobbyist or professional), if you have a mixed team then please detail the experience levels of the members and the judges will use their discretion. Please also mention whether you would like to be considered for the diversity prize.
Best Physics Gameplay : R10,000
Best Ragdoll Physics : R5000
*Diversity : R5000
Student : R5000
Hobbyist : R5000
Best Humour (aka Made Us Laugh The Hardest) : R5000
Greatest Post-Jam Improvement : R5000
Winners will be announced on Friday, 18 September 2026.
1. Competition starts on 21 AUGUST 2026 at 18:00 SAST.
2. Deadline for entries is 30 AUGUST 2026 at 20:00 SAST.
3. You may work for all 10 days of the jam, or either both weekends, as we expect many of you will have commitments during the week. (Physics gameplay can be a lot of work to polish, but often the best ideas are very simple, don't get too ambitious!!)
4. You can enter as an individual or as a team (as big as you want).
5. Use whichever language, tool or development system you are comfortable in. You’re allowed to use whatever tools you like, and use pre-existing code/sounds/art/assets where it helps you. But if you use assets you are required to disclose them.
6. Your game must contain all files needed for it to run and should not require other bulky systems to be downloaded or installed, exceptions are browser plugins like Flash and self-contained DLLs distributed with the game.
7. While any fixes post-jam will be taken into account, the version submitted at the time of the deadline will be played and judged, so make sure it is PLAYABLE WITHOUT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION NOT CONTAINED IN THE GAME.
8. Competition is open to entry for South African residents only. You must be living in South Africa and have an active SA bank account.
9. You retain all copyright to your work.
10. The illegal use of copyrighted material will not be tolerated. Do not steal!
11. All risk or liability in case of copyright infringement or other legal issue resides with the entrant, Free Lives takes no responsibility for entered games.
12. The judges’ decision is final and no negotiation will be entered into.
*This prize aims to reward devs from marginalised groups (women, people with disabilities, people of colour, LGBTQ+ folks, Indigenous people, etc). At least one member of your team must belong to such a group in order to qualify for the Diversity prize.
Winners will be announced on the 18th of September 2026.
Join the DISCORD community here.
