An open ten-day game dev challenge to create a game which tells a story!

All skill levels are welcome from beginner to professional. New to this whole thing? Never made a game before? Play some jam-winning games to see where you can be after several jams of practice. 

Special thanks to Pixel Prophecy for the awesome logo!

Highlights

Keynote

About Us

Hosted by 8 Bits to Infinity: a game development community dedicated to improving creative and technical skills through rapid iteration and honest, critical feedback. Join us on Discord, check out our website, and take a look at our past jams and challenges.

The man behind 8 Bits to Infinity is Retro Indie Josh (aka Joshua McLean): gaming content creator and music producer. Check out his game music (free for you to use in jams and commercial projects!) and YouTube.

5 Ways to Tell Story in Games

Mechanical Focus (Required): Tell a Story

Make a game which tells a story.

At a minimum, this must include:

• At least one character
• At least one setting
• A beginning (setup), middle (turn/development), and end (resolution)

In addition, the following elements usually make a story feel more like, well, a story:

• Thematic elements
• Conflict and resolution
• Rising tension and stakes
• Character development (arc)

The story does not need to be told in words. Video games are a visual medium, so words are supplementary. As they say, "A picture can say a thousand words." Music can also be a powerful communicator of emotional development.

There are no limits on the type of game you make. While you're welcome to make narrative-focused games like interactive fiction, an RPG, or a visual novel, you're not required to do so. You could make an arcade shooter, block puzzle, racing, or any other type of game. Just make sure it has a story.

Suggested Tools

You can use any tool you like to make your game, but if you're looking to explore more narrative-focused game genres, here are some options:

• For terminal-style interactive fiction: Inform 7 uses a "natural language" syntax and offers an excellent testing/development environment and detailed help/tutorial documentation.. You can even easily release a web build of your game.
• For choice-based interactive fiction: Twine is the gold standard with an intuitive UI-based editor and support for all sorts of HTML and JavaScript magic. Plus, it automatically creates web games.
• For visual or kinetic novels: Ren'py offers its own simplified Pythonic syntax, but also supports to use of actual Python and even PyGame elements if you're adventurous. There's an HTML5/Web Assembly output option, but be careful - it's still in beta.

Theme (Semi-Optional): MAKE IT FLY!

The theme is optional, but remember Theme/Limitation counts for 1/6th of your Community Choice score. Also, the theme can be a great way to come up with ideas if you're stuck!

You are free to interpret the theme however you like. Try some variations on the meaning of make and fly. Of course, "it" could be anything. You could use the theme in your story, characters, or gameplay, or even center around the dialogue, "Make it fly!"

Remember that more creative options will generally score higher, but don't go too far that the theme is unrecognizable.

Judging and Prizes

You (contributors to any game entered into this jam) determine the Community Choice by voting on games after the jam concludes. Check out the Ratings Guide for how to interpret categories and tips on good star ratings.

RetroIndieJosh will create a highlights video including the winners, high-ranking games, and the best diversifier users.

The highest overall rated game will be the winner and placed in the list of 8 Bits to Infinity jam winners.

Rules and FAQ

See the Jam Rules and Jam FAQ for more details.

Jam Specific Rules

• No limitations on:
  • Graphics
  • Audio
  • Engine/library/framework, programming language, and other tools

Challenges/Diversifiers (Optional, but fun!)

Transcend Language: The only text in the game is the title and credits. This means no text in the game, menus, tutorial, cutscenes, etc. Not a single letter.

Educational: Do the impossible and teach the player real-world knowledge in the game. This can be history, literature, math, science, art, music, programming, psychology, philosophy, or even cooking. Whatever you like, as long as it's accurate to real-world information. Tell us on your game page what we're going to learn so we go in prepared.

Low Color: Use a maximum of four colors. If you want some ideas or to swipe a palette, check out lospec where you can search specifically for palettes of 4 colors or less. To qualify, specify your colors in the submission answers or on your game page. Preferably both!

Schedule

• RetroIndieJosh "Games and Story" Video: 7 January on RetroIndieJosh's YouTube channel
  
• Keynote Video and Development (Main Jam): 12 January (1pm ET)
• Midpoint Check-In Stream: 17 January (1pm ET) on RetroIndieJosh's Twitch channel
• Community Choice Voting: 22 - 29 January (1pm ET)
• Winners and Ratings Announcement: 29 January (2pm ET)
• RetroIndieJosh Highlights Video: 5 February on RetroIndieJosh's YouTube channel

Submitting

• WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU UPLOAD AND SUBMIT EARLY.
  • You are allowed to modify your game page, including files, until the deadline.
  • You are allowed to edit answers to your submission questions (through your submission page) until the deadline.
• Step 1: Click the Join Jam button at the top of this page.
• Step 2: Make your game.
• Step 3: Create a game project page on itch and upload your game files. See this documentation for help.
• Step 4: Submit the game to the jam. After uploading your game, return to this page and click "Submit Your Project" at the top.
  • Be prepared to answer a few questions about your entry when submitting. You must answer all of these questions honestly and completely before the deadline.
  • Submission time is a hard deadline. No late submissions will be accepted.
  • Although you cannot modify files after the deadline has passed, you are still free to edit your game page. But note it is a violation of the rules to link to an updated version created after the deadline, and your entry will be removed.