Queer Communist Game Jam is an international online game jam organized from Cuba dedicated to experimental games, interactive works and playable prototypes that imagine queer, collective, anti-capitalist and non-normative futures.

This jam is not only about making finished games. It is about using games as a space for imagination, solidarity, critique and experimentation. We are interested in games that explore queer life, collective care, class struggle, memory, desire, rural and peripheral experiences, chosen families, post-capitalist dreams, failure, tenderness, rage and possible futures.

The jam welcomes polished games, rough prototypes, interactive poems, visual novels, walking simulators, playable archives, tabletop games, text games and unfinished but meaningful attempts.

Theme

Queer Communist Futures

Participants may respond to the main theme or to one or more of these optional prompts:

• Collective care
• Abolition of work
• Chosen family
• Queer rural memory
• Love after capitalism
• The archive as a weapon
• Ghosts of failed revolutions
• Bodies that refuse productivity
• Games as mutual aid
• The future belongs to the tired

The theme can be approached politically, emotionally, humorously, poetically, critically or experimentally. Participants are encouraged to interpret it freely.

Who Can Participate?

Anyone can participate: beginners, students, artists, developers, writers, filmmakers, musicians, activists, researchers and people who have never made a game before.

You can join alone or as part of a team. No previous experience is required.

We especially welcome participants from queer communities, the Global South, Latin America, the Caribbean, migrant communities and people working with limited resources or unstable access to technology.

What Can You Submit?

You can submit digital games, browser games, visual novels, interactive fiction, tabletop games, Twine projects, Bitsy games, Unity, Godot, Unreal or custom engine projects, playable prototypes, experimental interfaces, interactive archives and short unfinished games, as long as they are playable or clearly experienceable. The project does not need to be perfect. It only needs to be honest, playable and connected to the spirit of the jam.

Approach

This game jam focuses on collective experimentation, mutual support and the creation of a shared online archive of queer communist games, prototypes and interactive works. All submissions that follow the rules of the jam will remain available through the itch.io jam page as part of this archive. The goal is not to decide which game is “the best,” but to create a temporary space where different people can imagine, test and share other ways of making games together.

The project also includes an open call for collaborators who may want to support the jam through communication, streaming, writing, translation, moderation, workshops, documentation or institutional connections.

Rules

1. Your submission must respond to the theme or prompt of the jam.
2. You can work alone or in a team.
3. You can use any engine, tool or format.
4. Previously made assets are allowed if you have the legal right to use them.
5. You may start from an old idea, but the submitted work should be created or significantly transformed during the jam period.
6. Submissions must not include racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist or fascist content.
7. NSFW content must be clearly marked.
8. Participants keep full ownership of their work.
9. The organizers may share screenshots, trailers, links, titles and creator names for promotion, documentation and archival purposes, always crediting the creators.
10. Late submissions may be accepted for the archive, depending on the settings of the itch.io jam page.

Community

The jam will be promoted and shared through its main online channels: itch.io jam community, Discord, and Instagram. The itch.io jam page will work as the central space for submissions, updates and the online archive of games. The Discord server will be used as a community space where participants can ask questions, find collaborators, share progress, exchange resources and support each other during the process. Twitter/X and Instagram will be used to share announcements, reminders, open calls, participant updates, submitted games and general communication around the jam.

Open Call for Collaborators

This project is open to collaborators, streamers, sponsors, institutions, collectives, artists, educators, writers, translators, designers, moderators, curators, cultural workers and anyone who wants to help the jam grow. Support can take many forms, from basic but essential tasks such as moderating the Discord, sharing the jam, helping with communication, translating texts, answering questions or organizing resources, to more complex forms of support such as streaming submitted games, writing articles, offering workshops, connecting the jam with communities or institutions, sponsoring the project, providing tools, funding, micro-grants, scholarships, prizes or other opportunities for participants. This open call is an invitation to anyone who feels connected to the spirit of the jam and wants to help build a more accessible, experimental and collective space for queer, anti-capitalist and non-normative game-making.

FAQs

Who is organizing this game jam? This game jam is organized by Héctor Almeida (MizuMiaw), a Cuban filmmaker, film editor and artist whose work explores family memory, notions of home, queer identity, personal archives and experimental forms of storytelling. His practice moves between documentary cinema, audiovisual experimentation, community-based archival work and, more recently, experimental games. He is currently developing El niño de fuego que no pudo volar, an autobiographical art game about queer childhood, rural memory and family archives in Cuba. The jam is being organized from Cuba, independently, without institutional funding and with many material, technological and economic limitations.

Is this game jam affiliated with any institution, government or political organization? No. This game jam is an independent community-based project. It is not affiliated with any institution, government, political party or organization that promotes communism or any related ideology. The title and theme of the jam are used as a creative, artistic and critical framework for experimental game-making, not as institutional, governmental or party propaganda.

Can I submit a paid game? During the jam, submissions should be free to play so that participants and visitors can access them without barriers. After the jam ends, creators are free to decide what they want to do with their games, including making them paid, donation-based, private, expanded, removed, or released elsewhere. Creators keep full ownership of their work.

Can I use AI tools? Yes. AI-generated material is allowed, but it must be clearly disclosed in the submission page. Participants are encouraged to use AI critically and responsibly, not as a replacement for crediting artists, writers, musicians or collaborators. Submissions that use AI to imitate living artists without consent, generate hateful content or avoid proper attribution may be removed from the jam.