The link to a competitive version of the jam: https://itch.io/jam/practice-jam-2025-4-ranked-version

You are allowed to enter the same game for both the ranked and non-ranked versions of this jam. You can enter both, or just one or the other if you'd like.

Theme: 

You have two themes.  You can use one or both.  For a challenge, since this jam is one month long, you can do two games, 2 weeks each, with a game for each theme.

1. Pirate

2. Start small

Bonus Objective: Replay value!  Find a way to encourage the player to play the game at least twice, hopefully more.

Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/XUpShgAtH2

This game jam, a continuation of our practice series, is a non-competitive jam that is meant to help encourage developers to practice their game-making skills.  Sometimes having an external deadline can help motivate us to practice and take action.  Consider this jam your opportunity to sharpen your game development skills, with no pressure.

We are doing something a little different starting with this jam.  We are going to follow the template laid out in the Game Jam Learning Plan.

So the idea is:

• You can use the lead-up time to the jam as your learning period, as specified in the learning plan.  The plan specifies two weeks to a month, depending on your experience with your chosen tool.  The jams will be announced with enough time before the jam so that you will have plenty of study time.
• The game jam phase will be one month now, longer than the previous two-week period that we were doing before.  Hopefully this will help more participants have time to submit and participate.
• You can use the resources in the plan and the resource pack (linked below) to help you with your preparation and your jam period.

If you want to join the competitive, ranked version, the link is posted at the top of this description.

Here is a good article to learn more about what a jam is and how to participate: https://intogames.org/news/game-jams-101-core-games/

I have also started creating a resource pack to help plan and track your game jam participation: https://cloudyheavengames.itch.io/game-jam-planning-resource-pack

The theme will be announced at the start date.  Feel free to use any development tool you would like. 

If you are going to submit a game, please keep it safe for work and non-political.

Anti-Spam Rules

To prevent people spamming games that were not made for this game, your game must meet the following guidelines:

1. You must only submit them to this current practice jam (you can still submit to both ranked and unranked).  

2. You must include in your game description a sentence or two explaining how your game implements the game jam theme.  I was hoping that players would be able to figure out from playing how the theme fits in, because I think that's part of the fun of creativity, but unfortunately, due to this low-effort spamming, I think this is a necessary step at this time.  Players are still free to NOT look at that part, if they want to determine the theme fit for themselves.

I think one of the problems aspiring developers face, especially if they have been doing a bunch of tutorials, is that they never actually put what they've learned to use.  My goal is to help provide an opportunity to practice the skills that you've learned.  All skill levels are welcome. It's ok if you don't finish your game, or even if you don't feel comfortable sharing your game with us here on Itch.io.  You can still follow along with the themes and work on a project on your own.  Although, at some point it is good to share and get feedback from others on your game. Feel free to join in if you'd like!