UPDATE: JAM DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 15 OCTOBER 2023

*** late submissions accepted ~ contact me on twitter (@toritruslow) or toritruslow@gmail.com ***

Make a game inspired by the River Thames!

The River Thames Game Jam is a month-long online jam for all experience levels, running until 15 October 2023. Groups and individuals are invited to make a digital or analogue game that responds to any aspect of the Thames.

This jam aims to be accessible and welcoming to first-time game makers, artists from other disciplines interested in games, and established designers alike. If this is your first jam, you might find the resources at the bottom of the page useful for getting started. Please use the Community tab to say hi and ask questions as well!

Why the Thames?

The River Thames is a rich, ancient and ever-changing site of ecology, archaeology, culture and industry, with signs of human activity reaching from prehistory to today. It's a wild tidal space cutting through a 2000-year-old metropolis, full of stories and life. It has featured in art of all kinds across the millennia, and this jam hopes to generate new creative responses to the river and our interactions with it.

Some places to get inspiration

• Thames Discovery Programme – a community archaeology organisation with great resources and blog
• Thames ecology and biodiversity information from the Port of London Authority
• Zoological Society of London's State of the Thames 2021 report
• Visit the Museum of London Docklands or browse their website for Thames history and heritage
• Explore the Totally Thames 2023 festival programme for talks, exhibitions, workshops and more

Workshops at Totally Thames 2023

This jam coincides with Totally Thames 2023, an annual festival celebrating the river that takes place across the month of September. 

As part of the festival, a series of river-inspired workshops is being hosted for anyone new to making games – come along for an introduction to interactive fiction, tabletop games or both: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/totally-thames-2023-river-games-2261189

FAQs and Rules

What's a game jam?
A game jam is an event where participants try to make a complete game within a time limit. 

How do I take part?
This is an online jam that can be joined from anywhere. You'll need an itch.io account. Click the 'Join Jam' button at the top of the page. Once your submission is ready, you can upload it to itch (here's a guide for new creators) and then submit it via this page.

What can I submit?
Any kind of game or game-related material! That could be a video game, interactive fiction, tabletop role-playing game, board game, asset, unclassifiable experiment or whatever else feels fitting.

What are the rules?

• Submitted games should be started and completed within the jam's timeframe
• You can submit free or paid-for games
• Adult content must be marked as such in keeping with itch.io's guidelines
• Hateful or bigoted content will not be tolerated
• Content generated by large-scale AI models is not allowed

Tools and resources

Free, easy-to-learn tools for making digital games:

• Twine – a tool for creating interactive text
• Bitsy – a minimal engine for little games
• FlickGame – a tool for drawing and linking scenes together
• Narrat – a beginner-friendly engine for creating narrative RPGs 

Advice and tips for starting out making analogue games:

• How to make a tabletop RPG from Dicebreaker
• Low-cost game design resource list from Dinoberry Press