SA GAME JAM is an annual competition proudly sponsored by Free Lives with the aim of encouraging more South Africans to make games!  The jam will run here on Itch.io from 18-21 October 2024.  We invite game devs of all levels to enter this exciting competition and stand a chance to win a share of over R70 000 cash!

You can enter as an individual or team.  You are 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.

Whether you're a pro game developer or just starting out, SA GAME JAM is for you. The competition is open to South Africans at any level of experience so enter NOW!

Please indicate in your submission what level you're participating in (student, hobbyist or professional), and whether you would like to be considered for the diversity prize.

Overall Winner: R20 000

Student (currently studying in any field): R10 000

Hobbyist (not working in the game development industry): R10 000

*Diversity: R10 000

Best Art: R5 000

Best Audio: R5 000

Technical Excellence: R5 000

Best Narrative: R5 000

Best Humour: R5 000

**The Rohun Ranjith Prize: R5 (Open To Anyone)

WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT 12:00PM ON FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER.

1. Competition starts on  18 October 2024.

2. Deadline for entries:

20 October 2024, 18:00 SAST for 48 hour entries. 

21 October 2024, 18:00 SAST for 72 hour entries.

(Please note in your entry whether it is a 48 or 72 hour project)

3. You can enter as an individual or as a team.

4. To be eligible to win any of the prizes, your team has to play and give feedback to five other entries by Monday, 28 October 2024.

5. Use whichever language, tool or development system you are comfortable in.

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 only open to entry for South African residents. 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 and Maker's Massive take 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.

**Rohun Ranjith is a multi-SAGameJam-award-winning game developer. He is kindly sponsoring a prize of five Rand to the game that most pleases him.

Midnight Staircase 

The theory: "The “Midnight Staircase” describes a replayable storylet that increases a particular tracking quality, with each increase unlocking more and more appealing ways of resolving it but also an increased risk of failure." - Aaron A. Reed 

An example: Blackjack is a "midnight staircase". Every card you receive both increases your chance of success and at the same time increases the chance of the next draw resulting in failure. Importantly, in Blackjack, you can get off the staircase at any time, but there's always the temptation to try your luck. 

What we want from this jam, thematically, are games where the player is offered the chance to bet on themselves and try their luck against increasing difficulty, or worse odds, but with the chance of higher rewards or more interesting options. The stakes of the game should keep rising, mathematically or emotionally, and there should be a choice to get off of the staircase, or carry on into the unknown. 

The "midnight" part is not important. This does not have to be scary or grim. Imagine a dating game where every date you go on your avatar is more emotionally invested, and so the cost of failure is higher, but also with every date you go on you have a better chance of getting married, this could be treated as a comedy, and perhaps be hilarious. Or imagine having to clean a restaurant, which you can open at any time, having spent less on cleaning, but with a higher chance of poisoning a customer, and because you are clumsy, the longer you try to clean the increased chance that you break something. The looming "failure" part of the staircase need not be dark in nature at all, it only needs to represent a thwarting of the players' intent. 

There was a mobile game in 2011 called "One Single Life" where you had to complete a series of platforming jumps, the catch was that the game would end permanently if you died just once, the player could test run the next jump as many times as they pleased, but when they tried it for real they had to put everything on the line, and of course each jump got technically more challenging. This game had a form of midnight staircase, with the players' chances improving as the player gained more skill, and the challenge increasing every time they successfully make a for-real jump. Each test run was a kind of staircase, and getting off the staircase was when you tried it for real. What's weird about it is the stats that improve are not in the game itself, but inside the player. 

If you have questions, please ask on Discord!

OVERALL WINNER: Furtuno

Fortuno, well, this game is crack. It's wonderfully addictive, simple but polished, and the rerolling mechanic let's you try your luck (again) at a cost (adhering cleverly to the theme). It's a minimal masterpiece and deserves the overall prize this year.

BEST STUDENT: Señor Seagull

Senor Seagull is a cute platformer game that has a humorous interpretation of the theme. It's got a surprising meta game and solid aesthetic that had a room full of judges debating the beauty of Italian men.

BEST HOBBYIST: The Daily Paper

The Daily Paper provides short but sweet deduction-based gameplay experience, and the clear definitions of the characters' traits make it fun when narrowing down suspects. The high-stakes detective comeback story is also a good addition, and works well with the time-limited mechanics. The Daily Paper does a lot with a little - a desk and a phone and some newspapers is all a player needs to be immersed in an experience.

DIVERSITY: Bungee Smuggler

This game is great. Bungee Smuggler very easily could have been the "overall" winner in another jam

BEST ART: Spirit Box: A Midnight Seance

"Spirit Box" is a collection of wonderful assets arranged and composed brilliantly.

BEST AUDIO: Hocus Focus

Hocus Focus .... pretty decent gangster sounds... horns... trap beats... a little magical... rap battle = good. The sounds themselves are a little cheap.

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE: Super Dev Game Clicker

Super Game Dev Clicker has many systems working well together to make a simulation of what it feels like to develop games.

BEST NARRATIVE: The Daily Paper

The Daily paper managed to create a high-stakes environment while adhering closely to the theme and not relying too much on exposition. The simple mechanics really help entrench the feeling of being a detective and both endings are rewarding in their own way.

BEST HUMOUR: gameshow where you open boxes and say yes/no to selling your box

gameshow where you open boxes and say yes/no to selling your box is the funniest, most absurd entry we received this year. Well deserved winner for best humour!

THE ROHUN RANJITH PRIZE: Fortuno & Bungee Smuggler

So many great games to choose from but 2 games stood out for me because they scratched the itch of my need to gamble in games: Fortuno and Bungee Smuggler. And for that reason I am doubling the prize pool and giving R5 to each team.

BEST THEME INTERPRETATION: Bungee Smuggler

Market fluctuations and double or nothing?? Yeah, you understood the theme.

BE SURE TO JOIN OUR OFFICIAL TWITTER & DISCORD FOR SA GAME JAM!