itch.io

https://ludonaut.itch.io/borb-the-birb

yes you did! :) we announced it on twitter and in our discord

@Baku good effort, thank you!

I've updated my offline mirror too but I just realized I never posted the link to it anywhere oops:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1y8YJ3dWrZdugFT1GXNOwKY_5nacA88io?usp=sha...

Everything completely uncompressed as-is. The "2020 only" (at ~180MB) mirror only contains this year's carts. Just open START_HERE.html with your Browser. I've modified the html a little here and there but only to remove the unnecessary JS (the lightbox, facebook and twitter buttons, google analytics).

hey, thank you and welcome :)

we have no intention of stopping.

https://ludonaut.itch.io/borb-the-birb

HORMF

that

CRONCH

Yes! Thank you, I forgot to mention that here :)

(just stealing most of my own thread from last year here, yet again)

One of the goals of this jam is to give the incredible annual My Famicase Exhibition the attention it deserves. Unfortunately, their website is a little slow, and can be hard to navigate. Here are a couple of ways to help you choose a cart to base your game on:

#1: Download the archive for faster offline browsing

Just download this file (about 352MB), unzip it and open START_HERE.html in Chrome or Firefox. If you run into any issues, please let me know.

... In case you're on a traffic quota, there's also a much smaller archive containing only the 2019 entries.

#2: Browse famicase.com

This is the obvious one. Of course, their site is a little slow and I'm a little worried we might eat up their entire bandwidth quota and their webhost might take it down or something (hence #1 above). It isn't immediately obvious and they don't seem to link them anywhere, but you can browse prior years all the way back to 2008 by changing the year in the URL. For example, to check out the 2010 collection, change the 19 in http://famicase.com/19/index.html to a 10, like so: http://famicase.com/10/index.html.

Years prior to 2008 can be found here. There is also animated thing containing everything (I think) (warning, this one takes a while to load and can be a bit heavy depending on your machine).

Also, my pal @krystman made this gallery containing all the high-resolution versions of the 2019 Famicases for easier browsing. This is a good fast alternative if you don't want to download the archive above.

#3: Let RANDOM FAMICASE decide for you

Pyrofoux made this neat little tool (now updated for 2019) to randomly browse through the Famicase collection. This one is helpful if you have trouble picking a cart out of the hundreds and hundreds of great designs. Warning: Right now this tool hotlinks images from famicase.com, which makes it just as slow as browsing the site directly.

I hope this helps ✨

Happy jamming everyone :)

Short version:

Question: Can I-

Answer: Yes.

But: Be nice and respectful. Don't be hurtful or harmful. Breaking this rule will get you banned.

Long version:

Will there be voting/judging/ranking/prizes?

None of the sort. Just people making games and stuff :)

This jam is 100% non-competitive. There is enough crunch in the world already, and we believe prizes and competition are terrible motivators. Taking part and making something is a reward in itself.

Wait, what's Famicase anyway?

It's the annual My Famicase Exhibition, organized and hosted by Super Meteor in Japan. They accept submissions for fictional famicom-style game cartridge designs and descriptions every year and then display them in their shop and on their website. This jam is meant to a) bring attention to this amazing little thing and b) to turn these fictional cartridge designs into real little videogames! 

Can I start early?

Yes! Feel free to start early if you like. This is supposed to be a very relaxed jam with very few restrictions.

Is there a deadline?

Submissions are open all through July. Maybe longer, we'll see.

Can I work on an old project?

Yes!

You can work on anything even if you didn't start it during the jam.

Does my game have to follow the Famicase entry's description?

No! You're free to adhere to the provided description, but you don't have to.

Do I have to name my game after its inspirational Famicase entry?

Nope.

Do I have to pick a cart from 2019?

No, you're free to pick any Famicase design regardless of year. This is the 2019 exhibition. They also have this cool page listing every Famicase design ever made, they call it Chronicle. (If you're having trouble picking one, try this handy randomizer)

Can I call dibs on a design?

No reservations. And yes, there can be multiple games based on the same cart. There have been some in the past, and it was always super interesting to see different interpretations of the same theme.

Do I have to work solo or can I work as a team?

You can work however you want to!

If you're looking for collaborators, check out the Teams part of the jam community or the #teamfinding channel of our discord server.

Where can I share my progress?

This jam community has a section where you can share your progress. If forums are not your thing, you can also join our discord and post in the #progress channel.

You're welcome to share your progress anywhere else as well. If you're on Twitter, use the #AGBIC hashtag so people can find it.

What about copyright? / Is it legal to use these covers as inspiration? / Can I use parts of the graphic in my game? / Can I turn this into a commercial project?

These questions come up every year, so:

(IANAL) First of all, you always should try to look up and contact the original designer of the Famicase cart you've picked. We know that isn't always easy or might even be impossible, but you should make an effort anyway, because it's the Right Thing To Do.

Copyright unfortunately is A Thing and there is something called Fair Use (at least in the US) but, if a famicase designer should ask you not to turn their design into a game, please respect their wishes and choose another cart. This jam is all about a relaxed atmosphere and there's nothing chill about legal issues.

This is obviously a grey area, like fanart. At the end of the day, you are definitely working off of someone else's work, but if it doesn't develop into a commercial project that just straight-up uses their assets, you should be ok.

OK but how do I contact the Famicase artists?

Krystian (@Krystman) has done the work for us this year and has prepared this big spreadsheet.

--

If you have any other questions, please ask below.

I hope you'll have a great time jamming! Stay hydrated and take regular breaks!

Thanks! You are not late at all, there are still 16 days until the deadline (which we might extend anyway), so sure go for it!

That's a great way to look at it.

You don't have to. Feel free to try though, if you think it might be a fun design restriction then go for it!

Nah. Talk to the original designer, see if they're OK with it.

Also there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work but again, copyright law is weird and no fun.

Hey, thanks for reminding me! I've updated the offline archive I set up last year and made a new thread:

https://itch.io/t/268084/how-to-browse-famicase-and-pick-a-cart

(just gonna steal most of my own thread from last year here)

One of the goals of this jam is to give the incredible annual My Famicase Exhibition the attention it deserves. Unfortunately, their website is a little slow, and can be hard to navigate. Here are a couple of ways to help you choose a cart to base your game on:

#1: Download the archive for faster offline browsing

Just download this file (about 317MB), unzip it and open START_HERE.html in Chrome or Firefox. If you run into any issues, please let me know.

... In case you're on a traffic quota, here's a much smaller archive containing only the 2018 Famicases. (about 49MB)

#2: Browse famicase.com

This is the obvious one. Of course, their site is a little slow and I'm a little worried we might eat up their entire bandwidth quota and their webhost might take it down or something (hence #1 above). It isn't immediately obvious and they don't seem to link them anywhere, but you can browse prior years all the way back to 2008 by changing the year in the URL. For example, to check out the 2010 collection, change the 18 in http://famicase.com/18/index.html to a 10, like so: http://famicase.com/10/index.html.

Years prior to 2008 can be found here. There is also animated thing containing everything up to 2017 (warning, this one takes a while to load and can be a bit heavy depending on your machine).

Also, my pal @krystman made this page that hotlinks(!) all the high-resolution versions of the 2018 Famicases for easier browsing. Loads just as slow as famicase.com (since the images are still being loaded from their servers), but it's a good alternative way to browse this years' entries.

#3: Let RANDOM FAMICASE decide for you

Pyrofoux made this neat little tool (not updated for 2018 yet) to randomly browse through the Famicase collection. This one is helpful if you have trouble picking a cart out of the hundreds and hundreds of great designs. Warning: Right now this tool hotlinks images from famicase.com, which makes it just as slow as browsing the site directly.

I hope this helps ✨

Happy jamming everyone :)

Your safe bet is to disable payments. In some countries even no-minimum-PWYW counts as commercial as far as I know.

Can I-

Yes.

But: Be nice and respectful. Don't be hurtful or harmful. Breaking this rule will get you banned.

Will there be voting/judging/ranking/prizes?

None of the sort. Just people making games and stuff :)

This jam is 100% non-competitive. There is enough crunch in the world already, and we believe prizes and competition are terrible motivators. Taking part and making something is a reward in itself.

Wait, what's Famicase anyway?

It's the annual My Famicase Exhibition, organized and hosted by Super Meteor in Japan. They accept submissions for fictional famicom-style game cartridge designs and descriptions every year and then display them in their shop and on their website. This jam is meant to a) bring attention to this amazing little thing and b) to turn these fictional cartridge designs into real little videogames! 

Can I start early?

Yes! Feel free to start early if you like. This is supposed to be a very relaxed jam with very few restrictions.

Is there a deadline?

Submissions are open all through August. Maybe longer, we'll see.

Can I work on an old project?

Yes!

You can work on anything even if you didn't start it during the jam.

Does my game have to follow the Famicase entry's description?

No! You're free to adhere to the provided description, but you don't have to.

Do I have to name my game after its inspirational Famicase entry?

Nope.

Do I have to pick a cart from 2018?

No, you're free to pick any Famicase design regardless of year. This is the 2018 exhibition. They also have this cool page listing every Famicase design ever made, they call it Chronicle. (If you're having trouble picking one, try this handy randomizer)

Can I call dibs on a design?

No reservations. And yes, there can be multiple games based on the same cart. There have been some in the past, and it was always super interesting to see different interpretations of the same theme.

Do I have to work solo or can I work as a team?

You can work however you want to!

If you're looking for collaborators, check out the Teams part of the jam community or the #teamfinding channel of our discord server.

Where can I share my progress?

This jam community has a category where you can share your progress. If forums are not your thing, you can also join our discord and post in the #progress channel.

You're welcome to share your progress anywhere else as well. If you're on Twitter, use the #AGBIC hashtag so people can find it.

What about copyright? / Is it legal to use these covers as inspiration? / Can I use parts of the graphic in my game? / Can I turn this into a commercial project?

These questions come up every year, so:

(IANAL) First of all, you always should try to look up and contact the original designer of the Famicase cart you've picked. We know that isn't always easy or might even be impossible, but you should make an effort anyway, because it's the Right Thing To Do.

Copyright unfortunately is A Thing and there is something called Fair Use (at least in the US) but, if a famicase designer should ask you not to turn their design into a game, please respect their wishes and choose another cart. This jam is all about a relaxed atmosphere and there's nothing chill about legal issues.

This is obviously a grey area, like fanart. At the end of the day, you are definitely working off of someone else's work, but if it doesn't develop into a commercial project that just straight-up uses their assets, you should be ok.

--

If you have any other questions, please ask below.

I hope you have a great time jamming! Stay hydrated and take regular breaks!

tldr: depression and crippling anxiety

try it on your phone

sorry

small is good

I'm glad not everyone shares your particular worldview.  Not everything has to be a competition you know. Global rankings especially (which nobody benefits from except maybe the top percentage of developers here) tend to drive amateurs and hobbyists away in my experience, marginalizing creators even further, which would be a huge loss to itch.io from where I'm standing.

"Steam does it" is generally a good reason not to.

Ah, sorry about that. I'm working on it.

Yes, the Winnitron launcher accepts any Windows executable. As long as you export your game maker project to Windows and adhere to the requirements you're good.

Yes! We plan to run this jam at least once per year for the forseeable future. :)

There isn't any newsletter yet, but you can follow @AGBICjam on twitter for updates for now.

Well done. Thank you!

well,

Have you never made a game before, or is this your first time participating in a game jam? Here are some links and tips just for you:

(Relatively) Simple (But Great) Game Making Tools

Check out sortingh.at. It's a great interactive resource for zero budget first timers who don't know where to begin.

Here's a bunch of tools I've worked with before and that I can recommend for game jams:

Twine is for text-based choose your own adventure style games that run in your browser. Twine 2 completely runs in your browser as well. Here's their documentation on getting started.

Bitsy is a tiny pixely tile-based game making engine right here on itch.io! It's great for making small exploration based games and simple scenes. You can find all the instructions inside the app itself.

Construct 2 is a HTML5 game engine (that means the games will run in a browser!) that's very beginner-friendly. The documentation is great and there are a lot of tutorials. The editor itself is Windows-only but Construct 3 runs right in your browser and might be worth a try also.

PICO-8 is cool if you already know some programming (it's lua based). Paid, but well thought out and includes a code editor, sprite editor, sequencer, everything you need to make a tiny game. There's a fanzine to get you started.

PuzzleScript is for simple rule-based puzzles. Kinda like Sokoban, but also capable of much more.

Vertex Meadow is a tool that renders 2D images as explorable 3D terrain. It runs right in your browser. And it's based on a lua framework called Amulet, which gives you a PuzzleScript-like interface and tons of more options, if you're into lua.

FlickGame is for tiny vignette games. Think MS Paint meets Powerpoint, but wayyyy simpler.

RPG Maker is for making JRPG-style games. There are a lot of versions and most of them are paid, but the older ones are cheaper.

Also, here are some great audio tools:

• Bfxr (sound effects)
• Chiptone (needs Flash)
• beepbox (sketch and share little chiptune melodies)
• Bosca Ceoil (create music, tracker-style)
• Little Sound DJ (for the Game Boy, but works in an emulator, too!)
• SunVox (modular synth and music creation)

General Game Jam Advice

I recommend you read Christer McFunkypants Kaitila's great article (which he wrote with Ludum Dare in mind, but it applies here and to every game jam nonetheless), How to Get the Most Out of a Game Jam. Our friends over at My First Game Jam also wrote this huge thread with a ton of advice and links for getting started.

To keep yourself motivated I recommend keeping the game small as you possibly can (and then expand on that later, if you still have time/energy) and to take care of yourself. Take breaks, don't forget to hydrate and eat well. Stuck on a problem? Take a short walk around the block and the solution might come to you.

You can also try to keep a log of your progress (with the devlog tag right here in our forums), show people in the #show-and-tell channel of our Discord, or post your progress (screenshots, gifs, little videos, whatever) on twitter with the #AGBIC hashtag.

Do you know a simple game making tool that's beginner friendly? Do you want to share some advice for newbies? Tell us in this thread, and don't forget to join our Discord.

Updated the FAQ with some new links.

Hey everyone. In addition to the Winnitron stuff I thought it would be fun to set up some jam diversifiers this year. Feel free to follow any of these, if they speak to you. All of the below is of course 100% optional as well:

@SegaCDgames

Famicase covers are not your thing? Check out this fine twitter account for some more inspiration: https://twitter.com/SegaCDgames/

Fuck This Jam

Hey, remember this jam? It was about making a game in a genre you hate, which turned out to be a great idea because ignoring conventions means more interesting results. If you decide to do this, don't forget to bug Rami on twitter about bringing this jam back on itch.io sometime.

Turn in your homework... TWICE!

Ever turned in a book report multiple times? This is the diversifier for you. Participate in a second jam and their restrictions in parallel and submit your game there as well (as long as their rules allow for it) https://itch.io/jams

A Game For A Gurl (or Boi)

Make a game that your cat/dog/pet can play!

glitch lyfe

Easy: If you encounter a bug that is silly but not game breaking, don't fix it.

Remember to FLOSS!

Free as in freedom? Make uncle rms proud and publish the source code of your project under a free license.

There will be checkboxes in the submission form. Just check any that may apply.

Happy jamming!

A Game By Its Cover 2017 kicks off... and the secret challenge is revealed:

Make your game compatible with WINNITRON arcade machines!

Aaron and Marlon have been working hard on the new launcher and a new and improved version of the Winnitron Network, which now consists of a couple of custom built arcade machines around the world. Each of these machines is capable of running your game - if you follow these guidelines and make sure to restrict your controls to four directions and two buttons per player, as described in this document.

If you need any help or run into any issues, post them here or in the #winnitron channel of our Discord thing.

One of the goals of this jam is to give the incredible annual My Famicase Exhibition the attention it deserves. Unfortunately, their website is a little slow, and can be hard to navigate. Here are a couple of ways to help you choose a cart to base your game on:

#1: Download the archive for faster offline browsing

Just download this file (about 250MB), unzip it and open START_HERE.html in Chrome or Firefox. If you run into any issues, please let me know. (alternate link in case the above doesn't work)

7Soul also made this .rar that contains the 2017 exhibition only.

#2: Browse famicase.com

This is the obvious one. Of course, their site is a little slow and I'm a little worried we might eat up their entire bandwidth quota and their webhost might take it down or something (hence #1 above). It isn't immediately obvious and they don't seem to link them anywhere, but you can browse prior years all the way back to 2008 by changing the year in the URL. For example, to check out the 2010 collection, change the 17 in http://famicase.com/17/index.html to a 10, like so: http://famicase.com/10/index.html.

Years prior to 2008 can be found here. There is also this flash based, 3D-animated thing containing everything between '05 and '16 (warning, this one takes ages to load).

#3: Let RANDOM FAMICASE decide for you

Pyrofoux made this neat little tool to randomly browse through the Famicase collection. This one is helpful if you have trouble picking a cart out of the hundreds and hundreds of great designs. Warning: Right now this tool hotlinks images from famicase.com, which makes it just as slow as browsing the site directly.

I hope this helps ✨

Happy jamming everyone :)

I'm on it.

I don't know! But I think it would probly be cool to load all submissions onto a usb drive each year, put it into a custom Famicom cartridge shaped enclosure and mimick one of those wonderful "300-in-1" pirate carts.

FREQUENTLY ANSWERED QUESTIONS

Update at the top because of its importance:

What about copyright? / Is it legal to use these covers as inspiration? / Can I use parts of the graphic in my game? / Can I turn this into a commercial project?

(IANAL) First of all, you always should try to look up and contact the original designer of the Famicase cart you've picked. We know that isn't always easy or might even be impossible, but you should make an effort anyway, because it's the Right Thing To Do.

Copyright unfortunately is A Thing and there is something called Fair Use (at least in the US) but, if a famicase designer should ask you not to turn their design into a game, please respect their wishes and choose another cart. This jam is all about a relaxed atmosphere and there's nothing chill about legal issues.

This is obviously a grey area, like fanart. At the end of the day, you are definitely working off of someone else's work, but if it doesn't develop into a commercial project that just straight-up uses their assets, you should be ok.

Can I start early?

Yes! Feel free to start early if you like. This is supposed to be a very relaxed jam with very few restrictions.

Can work in a team?

Yes! You can also work solo of course.

Wait, what's Famicase anyway?

It's the annual My Famicase Exhibition, organized and hosted by Super Meteor in Japan. They accept submissions for fictional famicom-style game cartridge designs and descriptions every year and then display them in their shop and on their website. This jam is meant to a) bring attention to this amazing little thing and b) to turn these fictional cartridge designs into real little videogames! 

Does my game have to follow the Famicase entry's description?

No! You're free to adhere to the provided description, but you don't have to.

Do I have to name my game after its inspirational Famicase entry?

Nope.

Do I have to pick a cart from 2017?

No, you're free to pick any Famicase design regardless of year. There's a couple of ways to browse the entire collection. If you're having trouble picking one, try this handy randomizer.

Can I call dibs on a design?

No reservations. And yes, there can be multiple games based on the same cart. There have been some in the past, and it was always super interesting to see different interpretations of the same theme.

What's this Winnitron stuff about?

See this thread

Will there be voting/judging/ranking/prizes?

None of the sort. Just people making games and stuff :)

You're free to do either! Basically you can pick and choose. If you want to restrict yourself to the description, you totally can, but you don't have to.

No and no.

Hello everyone,

(I hope it's OK to self-promote here)

I've given up on my entry but I'm releasing this little trick I found (back during GBJAM 3) to easily switch between different color palettes. I thought this might be useful to anyone who's making a GBJAM game using Construct 2.

https://ludonaut.itch.io/palette-swap-template-for-construct-2

It's super easy to do really. Feel free to use this in your projects, you don't need to credit me or anything.

Nice idea!

Maybe ask @Jupiter_Hadley if you could use her AGBIC footage:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYKU1lvSF85...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYKU1lvSF85...

You could also submit a placeholder now and just update it whenever. I personally don't like crunch, but unfortunately the game jam format in general implicitly expects people to crunch (because of the very limited time frame). I wanted to avoid this a bit, so I made the jam a month long, and even extended the deadline.

Really, don't worry. Just make something and submit whatever. This is supposed to be relaxing and fun.