Thanks a million to Devolver for joining in the Game Gauntlet to support indie devs!
SIM Jam Starts Sept 23. I'm excited to see what you build. Compete for prizes and exposure! Game Gauntlet brings together community, mentorship and funding.
Free Sign Up
https://itch.io/jam/game-gauntlet-sim-jam
Ziad
SIM Jam participants get FREE Farclip Playtest access for the duration of the jam. Winners and finalists get subscription prizes.
Many thanks to Farclip for their $500 Patreon prize pool sponsorship and platform access prizes! Works with Unity, Unreal and Godot to run a spatial analysis of your scene to get answers on flow, pacing, sightlines and more.
Signup for free Farclip access using this link: Game Gauntlet SIM JAM Free Playtest Access
September 8, 2026 SIM Jam is now entertainment simulation only. We've removed the applied/serious-games track. Building a training tool and building a tycoon game are different disciplines with different publishing paths, and judging them against each other was never going to be fair to either. The Best Entertainment Simulation and Best Applied Simulation categories have been removed.
As promised, I have been working with our sponsor Player Found to invite influencer / creators into the Game Gauntlet community. Their feedback is extremely valuable and provides a different perspective than game industry professionals, playtesters and other developers.
Influencer / Creator Judges are listed as co-hosts of the jam. They have access to reviewing the full field of games so their votes contribute to determining the Finalists for the panel of Judges to review and vote on. To be clear the judging panel can only vote on the Finalists not the full field of games, only Participants and Infuencer / Creator Judges have that privelege.
Please welcome our very first Influencer / Creator Judge: cyclicaz
Thanks for joining!
Itch.io username - cyclicalz
YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@cyclicalzgaming
Please check out and support the channel!
As promised, I have been working with our sponsor Player Found to invite influencer / creators into the Game Gauntlet community. Their feedback is extremely valuable and provides a different perspective than game industry professionals, playtesters and other developers.
Influencer / Creator Judges are listed as co-hosts of the jam. They have access to reviewing the full field of games so their votes contribute to determining the Finalists for the panel of Judges to review and vote on. To be clear the judging panel can only vote on the Finalists not the full field of games, only Participants and Infuencer / Creator Judges have that privelege.
Please welcome our very first Influencer / Creator Judge: cyclicaz
Thanks for joining!
Itch.io username - cyclicalz
YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@cyclicalzgaming
Also post in jam connector, https://itch.io/jam/game-gauntlet-sim-jam/topic/6876900/looking-for-a-team-team-...
A bunch of team connections were made in the last jam.
I'm excited to share that Game Gauntlet scored some recent wins in support of indie game developers! The mission is to provide community, mentorship and funding. Jared Yeager will be joining the SIM Jam judging panel alongside indie games expert Jason Della Rocca. Jared is responsible for leading FRAME1GAMES, CAA's newly launched indie game accelerator and investment program. The Frame1 Games portal is open for applications.
Please join the Game Gauntlet SIM Jam to compete for prizes and potentially receive 1:1 mentorship from Jared Yeager and Jason Della Rocca.
You can find more info and official bios on the GameGauntlet.gg website and please consider joining as a Patreon member.
I'm excited to share that Game Gauntlet scored some recent wins in support of indie game developers! The mission is to provide community, mentorship and funding. Jared Yeager will be joining the SIM Jam judging panel alongside indie games expert Jason Della Rocca. Jared is responsible for leading FRAME1GAMES, CAA's newly launched indie game accelerator and investment program. The Frame1 Games portal is open for applications.
Please join the Game Gauntlet SIM Jam to compete for prizes and potentially receive 1:1 mentorship from Jared Yeager and Jason Della Rocca.
You can find more info and official bios on the gamegauntlet.gg website and consider joining as a Game Gauntlet Patreon member.
Hello Game Gauntlet Jam Participants and Members!
Our guiding mission is to support indie game developers with community, mentorship and funding. So I'm super excited to announce that Unity is sponsoring again by providing a mentorship prize to the top team who built their game with Unity. The length of mentorship time is being discussed.
Z
Starts Sept. 23rd
$1,500 in cash and other prizes.
Confirmed industry expert judge Jason Della Rocca
Other judges and influencers to review in the works.
https://itch.io/jam/game-gauntlet-sim-jam
More information about Game Gauntlet: Where funding, mentorship and community meet.
https://www.gamegauntlet.gg/
Are you looking to join a team, or a team in need of a member with a particular skill? i.e. Game Designer, Sound Design, Composer, Developer etc. You can post here to make connections. You're also welcome to connect and chat on the Game Gauntlet Discord team-connecter channel:
https://discord.gg/6kjDxGs7Ba
Congrats and cheers to everyone who participated! Will be in touch Monday to distribute prizes.
https://youtu.be/F9vcmxYo0Y8?si=6oCTpckgMo0TPrqr
A special talk from guest speaker Henry Lien for the jam participants to inspire story and design ideas based on the East Asian 4 act structure. The talk is based on his book Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird. Also, comments from Ziad of Cosmic Forces to participants of the Game Gauntlet Jam.
https://www.youtube.com/live/RLQ9_eI12vI?si=2VYcfNadWqpZ7YLw
1st Place Normie Apocalypse
2nd Place Slug Outta Hell
3rd Place Agent Amaretto
Finalists
Starpopulator
Vector One
Hello, please see this official message to everyone participating in the Game Gauntlet Jam:
Our team organizers have determined that we need to leave more time to communicate with the finalists in order to get ready for Reviews with Judge Jason Della Rocca on June 19th at 4 PM Mountain.
We will announce the 5 finalists and several runner ups as soon as the ratings period closes June 18th at 4 PM Mountain (previously 9 PM Mountain). Runner ups will be promoted to finalist if a finalist is disqualified during the review.
If you are announced as a finalist or runner up please DM @Cosmic Forces (Discord). right away to schedule a time to demo your game for Jason on the 19th starting at 4 PM Mountain. If we don't hear from you or you are not available at that time one of our team members will do our best to play your game during Jason's review. Tune in for the livestream on YouTube. Link will be shared on GameGauntlet.gg
We're requesting that all finalists make a short video around 1-3 minutes long and share it with @Cosmic Forces by DM (Discord).
Video structure
1. Introduce your team.
2. Give the game title.
3. Describe the game and what is currently in the game, how it's played etc.
4. Talk about where you want to take your game next.
The videos will be played the at the Awards event and promoted on social media. If you are local and are able to make it to the Awards event Saturday June 20th at Vanessie Hotel in Santa Fe that would be awesome! Doors open at 3pm, Awards will be around 6pm. Tune in for the livestream on YouTube. Link will be shared on GameGauntlet.gg
If you have any questions or concerns please send a DM to @Cosmic Forces (Discord).
Thank you again for your participation!
Ziad
Discord Invite: https://discord.gg/cZ6sJ59FwD
Inviting you to join The Game Gauntlet Jam which kicked off this week. We're so excited to announce sponsorship from Unity - Top finalist team using Unity will receive mentorship directly from Unity. Thanks to all our sponsors!
Professional Judging & Mentorship Guidance, expertise and hard-won lessons.
Judge & Mentor Indie games veteran Jason Della Rocca, former Executive Director of International Game Developers Association (IGDA). Jason was honored for his industry building efforts with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the Game Developers Conference. In 2009, Jason was named to Game Developer Magazine’s “Power50,” a list which profiles 50 of the most important contributors to the state of the game industry.
