This is a game jam hosted by some staff of The Programmer's Hangout, a Discord community. You can join our Discord server by clicking here.

Welcome to the first ever game jam hosted by The Programmer’s Hangout! This is a low-stress opportunity to try your hand at making a game, whether it’s your first time, or your twentieth. Even if you don’t manage to finish what you set out to do, it’s a great opportunity to work on an idea that you might not otherwise ever touch. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, just try your best!

As this is our first time hosting such an event, your feedback is welcome, and we’d appreciate your patience with any hiccups we run into along the way. 

Rules

• The content of the games must be in line with the rules of The Programmer's Hangout.
• All entries must be submitted via Itch.io, and are similarly subject to Itch.io's Terms of Service.
• Your game must be playable on Windows and/or Linux to be eligible for the Staff Favorite award. You can provide a build for one of those platforms, or both. Whether it be an executable, a web-based game, or something else, as long as it runs on Linux/Windows, we'll be able to judge your entry. One caveat is it cannot be a mod/implemented within another game. However, you're welcome to build for as many platforms as you feel comfortable doing so during the jam!
• Work on your submission must be done during the jam period. Small things may be done ahead of time, such as setting up a project scaffold, but we trust that you will keep things in the spirit of the jam!
• You must be a member of The Programmer's Hangout Discord server to be eligible for any possible prizes, as well as for us to contact you about any issues. You can provide your Discord ID as part of your submission.
• You may take part by yourself, or with a team. However, you may only make one submission. You cannot make a solo submission, and then one as part of a team.
• All assets in the game must be created by you, or assets you have the rights to use. If you need some art/music for your game, check out Kenney.nl, OpenGameArt, or the free game assets category on Itch! There's also this article with other options for a variety of assets.
• For everyone's safety, your games may be virus scanned. If we end up with any issues, we'll try to contact you to sort this out. If we can't resolve the issue, your game may be disqualified.
• Everything created by you for The Programmer's Hangout game jam will remain your property. We don't take any rights or ownership simply for submitting to this game jam.
• Video footage from your entry may be used in video content produced by The Programmer's Hangout without asking prior permission.

FAQs

Can I start making art/music/assets before the jam starts?

To keep things balanced between those using premade assets from sites like we've suggested above, yes. But, only to the point of the class of assets you'd find available on sites like Kenney.nl/OpenGameArt. E.g. Only a sprite sheet, not yet mapped to a characters in a game engine. Though, part of the reason we made the game as long as it is is so you wouldn't feel rushed.

How do I form a team?

You can try and form a team in the #game-jam channel on The Programmer's Hangout, but to add them as contributors on a game, you can use the game admin feature in your game page's dashboard. Below, you can see a GIF on how to find the page, and add an admin/contributor.

Are there any limits on the type of game I can submit?

While we encourage you to be creative, keep in mind that if your game requires an odd controller, it may be difficult for a judge to effectively play it. In addition, all entries for judging must be able to run independently of other software. Specifically meaning, it must be something that can be run without any games or tools other than a web browser. So unfortunately, no mods, no Roblox games, etc. Projects such as that would likely be better suited to a jam themed around those specific technologies.

Theme

Seeing as this is our first ever game jam, the theme for this jam is Firsts. We encourage you to be creative as to how that theme is represented in your game. Whether it be about the first time someone found gold, the first hamster on the moon, be creative!

Modifiers

If you’re familiar with the Godot Wild Game Jam, you may be familiar with their modifier system. In general, it’s a subset of themes that you can optionally use to spark your creativity. You can use all of them, or none of them. The choice is yours! If you do opt to include any of the modifiers, please be sure to note them somewhere easily seen on your game’s splash screen/menu.

You can pet the dog!

Include an interactable animal/companion into your game.

Scaled

Play with sizes!

One Wrong Letter

All it took was one wrong letter, and suddenly that crazy cat lady was controlling a whole swarm of bats!

Judging Criteria

Judging games is inherently subjective. We want this to be fun for all, so if you don't come out on top of any particular category, don't feel discouraged!

• Staff Favorites
• Representation of Theme
• Art style
• Gameplay
• Audience Favorite

Prizes

At present, we have the following prizes available.

2x $20 USD Steam Gift Cards
A grab bag of game keys/gifts from Steam and other sources.

One Steam gift card will be awarded to the staff's pick, the other will be awarded to the audience favorite.