What is a GameJam?

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. Game Jams are a great way to test ideas, build on your skills, and meet other awesome creative people. Do them. Future you will thank you for it. Pirate Software runs Game Jams two times a year and all of our jams have prizes!

Our jams, like most others, have a theme the final game must include. Previous themes include: "You are the Weapon", "Shadows and Alchemy", and "It's Spreading"

Can I make a game?

Yes you can.

Learn more here: https://develop.games/

Theme

To be determined...

The theme will be voted for on Twitch and then announced when the jam starts!

How to Participate

(click each step to expand)

Join the official Discord

• Select the "Compete in Game Jams" option when joining to get access to the Game Jam area of the server!

Form a team or run solo

• We always recommend getting together buddies or finding other artists, programmers, musicians, designers, testers etc. on the Discord to form your team of up to 5 people. Running solo is a great challenge too! We've had winners with every team size from 1 to 5.
• Be sure to come up with a team name!

Get ready for day one

• Familiarise yourself with your teammates if you aren't already. Have a game night or two! Look at everyone's past experience and plan team roles based on each others strengths and what everyone wants to learn.

Make your Game and GDD

• We require two parts to your submission: Your game, running in-browser on itch.io, and a Game Design Document, containing your original plans for the game.
• Your GDD can be anything from a scrapbook of inspiration to a meticulous plan of broken-down tasks to complete throughout the jam. Regardless, it will be key to defining your game and kickstarting your team's organisation.
• More details about the rules and required submission formats can be found below.

Submit before the deadline

• Pay careful attention to the submission guidelines below!
• Be sure to at least test uploading and publishing a build of your game at least 48 hours before the deadline. Every year, we get people who don't realise the number of technical hiccoughs which can happen if you wait until the last minute.

Get feedback

• A prime feature of Pirate Software Game Jams is that every single game will receive a written review from a judge as well as feedback from others in the community playing your game.
• The judges ensure that each game gets considered, regardless of its popularity, and gets solid feedback to help you continue expanding your game after the jam.

Tune into the stream for the final results

• The winners of the jam, as decided by our judging team, will be announced live on https://twitch.tv/piratesoftware on the 15th of August (the day after feedback is released)

Rules

(click each rule to expand)

Teams can be a maximum of 5 people

• Any number less than this is fine. A team member is counted as anyone who significantly contributes to the project's success. This includes QA and Designers. They can be as important to a game's success as any other role.
• You are allowed to send your game to friends to get feedback during production. If they're testing regularly or becoming strongly involved in writing lots of detailed feedback, then they're QA and need to be a team member.

Your submission must include BOTH a game and a Game Design Document

• For more details, see the Submission section below
• You must adhere exactly to the required submission format
• You cannot submit your game to multiple jams
• Your submissions must be in English

No AI-generated content

• Game Jams are about learning to make things yourself and being creative. AIs do not help with that. It is forbidden to use generative AI to create any part of your project, including art, music, code, and your GDD.

You can only use assets you have the commercial license for

• Some asset packs only allow non-commercial use - be careful of this!
• Make sure you know the licensing limits for anything you use.
• The intention is for you to build your own stuff and learn from it. Don't overthink this or try to find a way around it.
• "The game jam is a flex of personal skill not personal wallet." - Zafaroth

Keep content sensible and PG-13

• You must follow the [itch.io Terms of Service](https://itch.io/docs/legal/terms).

• Your game cannot contain any:

  • Pornographic content or nudity
  • References to illicit drugs
  • Real world politics or religion
• If your game is handling heavy topics, please be careful in how you present them and always include a content warning.
• We reserve the right to disqualify any game we believe is insensitive or inappropriate. If you're concerned about this for your game, feel free to reach out via a mod ticket on the Discord.

Be cool to each other

• Game jams are friendly competitions about learning and making cool stuff.
• Do not attempt to sabotage other teams.
• If you need to leave your team or will be unavailable during any of the jam period, let your team know in advance.

Submission

Game Design Document

• This is a planning document that details what your game will be.
• This is a required part of your submission and a best practice so don't forget it!
• You MUST submit your GDD as a document on Google Drive which does not require download or sign in to view.
• Be sure to test your document is viewable in a private browser window before submission.
• You can read a sample GDD here!

Prototype

• This is a very limited working copy of your game.
• Focus on playability over anything else.
• If it doesn't run, it won't win.
• Your Prototype MUST run as a browser upload here on itch.io.
• The reason this is required is for ease of judging and reduction in malware.
• Be sure to test that your prototype works when uploaded at least 48 hours before the deadline so that you have enough time to iron out technical issues and browser-exclusive bugs.
• For judging, it should not take more than 5 minutes to get to the main content of the game.

Judge feedback will be released on the 14th of August.

The winners will be announced on stream on the 15th of August.

Judging

The jam winners will be decided by our team of judges, who will be giving written feedback on every game in the jam. This jam, however, we are also enabling community voting, meaning that if you submit a game to the jam, you will also be able to rate and give feedback to other people's games!

While the ratings and comments are useful metrics for judging how your game is received, the judges choices will decide the winners. The judges consider the categories below as well as their subjective opinion, allowing games which have something special to them to receive extra weighting.

Playability

• Are the systems in your game clunky or polished?
• Does the game trip over itself when played?
• Focus on playability and make sure your build works.
• This is the most important category and counts for a lot.

Theme Implementation

• Does your game follow the theme?
• Was the theme entirely ignored?
• Did you implement the theme in a clever and interesting way?

Cleverness

• Do you have an ingenious mechanic in your game?
• Maybe you told a story with a very interesting or unique twist.
• The more clever you are the more likely you are to win.

Artistic Style

• Everyone has a style that they like or enjoy.
• Style is not bound only to Triple A assets from major studios.
• Pixel art, music production, foley work and more all ooze with artistic style.
• Make something YOU think works and run with it.

Prizes

Socials