Welcome to Winter MelonJam 2023!
In this game jam, we are inviting both beginners who have little to no major game development experience, especially high schoolers, and more advanced developers through 3 different categories.
The theme of the game jam will be announced with the official start on December 27th 4:00 PM PST (12/28 12:00 AM UTC), and the jam will end on December 30th 3:59 PM PST (12/30 11:59 PM UTC), with a short grace period.
We recommend visiting our website for a recommended schedule and more information here! https://gamedevclub.tech/melonjam/
We will also be posting most of our updates on our Discord server, so join here: discord.gg/uYmNuZymJ2
Current (CASH) Total: $1400
NOVICE DIVISION 
| 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place |
| $120 cash/gift card | $100 cash/gift card | $80 cash/gift card |
| 1 license to any Wes Bos course | 1 license to any Wes Bos course | |
| 1 Aseprite key (worth $20) | ||
| Wolfram One Personal Edition & Wolfram Alpha Pro per team member (worth $375) | Wolfram One Personal Edition & Wolfram Alpha Pro per team member (worth $375) | Wolfram One Personal Edition & Wolfram Alpha Pro (based on # of team members of other winning teams) |
| Taskade Starter Plan for 3 years (worth $36) | Taskade Starter Plan for 3 years (worth $36) | Taskade Starter Plan for 3 years (worth $36) |
| 1 PyxelEdit key (worth $9) | ||
| Zorin OS Pro (worth $39) | Zorin OS Pro (worth $39) | Zorin OS Pro (worth $39) |
INTERMEDIATE DIVISION
| 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place |
| $150 cash/gift card | $120 cash/gift card | $100 cash/gift card |
| 1 license to any Wes Bos course | 1 license to any Wes Bos course | 1 license to any Wes Bos course |
| 1 Aseprite key (worth $20) | ||
| Wolfram One Personal Edition & Wolfram Alpha Pro per team member (worth $375) | Wolfram One Personal Edition & Wolfram Alpha Pro per team member (worth $375) | Wolfram One Personal Edition & Wolfram Alpha Pro (based on # of team members of other winning teams) |
| Taskade Starter Plan for 3 years (worth $36) | Taskade Starter Plan for 3 years (worth $36) | Taskade Starter Plan for 3 years (worth $36) |
| 1 PyxelEdit key (worth $9) | 1 PyxelEdit key (worth $9) | |
| Zorin OS Pro (worth $39) | Zorin OS Pro (worth $39) | Zorin OS Pro (worth $39) |
ADVANCED DIVISION
| 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place |
| $250 cash/gift card | $200 cash/gift card | $150 cash/gift card |
| 2 licenses to any Wes Bos course | 2 licenses to any Wes Bos course | 1 license to any Wes Bos course |
| 1 Aseprite key (worth $20) | ||
| Wolfram One Personal Edition & Wolfram Alpha Pro per team member (worth $375) | Wolfram One Personal Edition & Wolfram Alpha Pro per team member (worth $375) | Wolfram One Personal Edition & Wolfram Alpha Pro per team member (worth $375) |
| Taskade Starter Plan for 3 years (worth $36) | Taskade Starter Plan for 3 years (worth $36) | Taskade Starter Plan for 3 years (worth $36) |
| 1 PyxelEdit key (worth $9) | 1 PyxelEdit key (worth $9) | |
| Zorin OS Pro (worth $39) | Zorin OS Pro (worth $39) | Zorin OS Pro (worth $39) |
PARTICIPANT PRIZES 
Raffle
- 1x Aseprite key (worth $20)
- 5x $15 cash/gift cards
All Participants
- 30-day Interview Cake pass (worth $83)
- 1-month access to Premium plan for Echo3D (worth $99)
- 1 coupon for any PlusMusic music (+ tool) (worth $25)
- 1 Free Game Jam Soundpack
- In order to be eligible for each division's prize, you must fulfill the requirements for those divisions (can be found in our website).
- To be eligible for a prize, you must provide an adequate explanation for how your game fits the theme when submitting your game.
- Any digital project that is not malware may be submitted. Keep in mind, however, that the judging criteria may limit your success if you do not submit a game that fits the theme announced at the beginning of the jam.
- All submissions must be developed during the allotted time slot. However, you are free to use any assets (music, 3d models, etc.) and tools (game engines, graphic design programs, etc.) that you made yourself or are given permission to use by the creators, such as through a creative commons license, an open-source license, or a purchase. If you choose to do so, you must mention this in your submission. Judges may take points off or award points based on pre-made assets.
- All games submitted to MelonJam are uploaded under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Creative Commons license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). Participants retain ownership of any projects they submit, though the Cupertino Game Development Club reserves the right record media of those projects and to publish said media.
- Participants may work alone, or form teams of up to 4 members in order to work on their submission. Participants can unofficially be in multiple teams, but cannot win prizes more than once per jam-- participants must choose one team to sign on with.
- The Cupertino Game Development Club reserves the right to not consider any uploaded games for prizes if the content does not follow the theme or is offensive or unsuitable. This includes but is not limited to: games with harmful or prejudicial themes related to gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, appearance, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship, or religion.
- You may use any engines or tools at your disposal except for generative AI. No AI art, code, music, or any other assets is allowed apart from sponsored AI products (i.e. PlusMusic).
- Participants who do not adhere to the rules above may have their submission canceled, or even banned from all future game jams hosted by the Cupertino Game Development Club.
Your game will be judged by professionals under the following criteria:
- Gameplay, or how well the game squeezes out value from its mechanics/how appropriate and appealing the controls feel (snappy platforming, impactful heavy attacks, or the like). This may differ depending on the genre of game.
- Graphics, or how impressive the project looks, sounds, etc.
- Innovation, or how “new” a concept in the game is (new graphics, new gameplay, new interpretations of old concepts, etc.)
- Theme, or how interesting the game's interpretation of the game jam's theme is.
- Polish, or overall polish/how complete the game feels.
Our judges are:
- Mirek Stolee, COSMOS game development instructor and PhD student at University of Central Florida
- Patrick Wang, SWE at Roblox and Cupertino Game Development Club co-founder
- Ethan Soo, AR & VR Developer and Cupertino Game Development Club co-founder
- Manu Bhat, former Cupertino Game Development Club president
- Anooj Vadodkar, Webmaster at SGDA
All games are judged by as many judges as possible to ensure fairness. We wish you the best of luck and are excited to see your creations!