Special thanks to lilou_cormic for the nifty logo

An open challenge to create a game prototype involving an in-game time limit.

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.  

About Us

Hosted by 8 Bits to Infinity: a game development community 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): streamer, musician, and game developer. Check out his game music (free for you to use in jams and commercial projects!) and his other work.

Results

Community Choice: It Belongs in a Museum by CookingLapin and Lilikoiboy

Judge's Choice: One Minute to Build by Asdonaur 

Host's Choice: Clocked Out by greenman4890

See the full Community Choice results here.

Limitation (Required): Time Limit

Your prototype must involve a time limit which is clear to the player and related to the mechanics of the game.

Possibilities include:

• The game ends after X amount of time, and the player gets a score. (Wordament)
• The player must complete the task in X amount of time, or fail. (Prince of Persia)
• As above, but there's a way to reset the timer. (The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask)
• Each cycle is X amount of time long, but can be replayed. (Half-Minute Hero)

You may create your digital game prototype in any genre, with any visual style, using any tools.

Theme (Semi-Optional): STREAM

Interpret the theme however you like. Here are some possibilities:

• A stream of water
• "Don't cross the streams!"
• Stream (e.g. Twitch, YouTube) integration
• Narrative with stream of consciousness
• Anything inspired by the Wikipedia page for stream

The theme is optional, but remember Theme/Limitation counts for 20% of your Community Choice score.

Judging and Prizes

Three "Choice" awards are available: Community Choice, Host Choice, and Judge Choice. These Choice winners will be featured in a jam showcase video on YouTube among other high-ranking games and honorable mentions.

Community Choice

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.

Judge Choice

Our guest judge will determine Judge Choice. For this jam, our guest judge is lilou_cormic, sole member of game development company Purple Cable who developed the spooky point-and-click game Domino House, currently available on Steam.

Check out her streams on Twitch and follow her on Twitter.

Host Choice

Host Choice will be determined by the host and founder of 8 Bits to Infinity, Retro Indie Josh. He will stream games live and give feedback on Twitch during the ratings week.

All Choice winners receive:

• The jam-winner role on the 8 Bits to Infinity Discord server
• A place in our list of jam winners
• An additional secret prize

Rules and FAQ

See the Jam Rules and Jam FAQ for more details.

Jam Specific Rules

• No limitations on:
  • 2D, 2.5D, 3D, etc.
  • Use of audio
  • Engine/library/framework, programming language, and other tools

Challenges/Diversifiers (Optional)

Looking for additional challenge in the jam? You can use any number of diversifiers listed here.

Schedule

• Development (main jam): February 11 to 21 (1pm ET)
• Stream by Retro Indie Josh: February 21 at 8pm ET on Twitch
• Community Choice voting: February 21 to 28 (1pm ET)
• Winners and ratings announced: March 7 (1pm ET)

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.