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The Adventure Game Challenge is back — for its 10th year!

It's hard to believe I've been running this jam for a full decade, but the $110 Adventure Game Challenge will begin on September 13!

As always, you have two weeks to create a graphical adventure game based on a theme that will be revealed when the jam begins. Afterward, the entries will be judged on story, characters, puzzle design, visuals, audio, and overall funness, and the creator of the winning game gets $110.

This jam is specifically for adventure games. Point & clicks are always welcome, but you're free to experiment with the genre as long as the result is clearly an adventure game. Developers of all skill levels are encouraged to participate.

Over the past nine years we've had a ton of creative, funny, strange, clever, and completely unhinged adventure games made for this challenge. I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for year ten.

The $110 Adventure Game Challenge September 13–27, 2026

Come join the adventure!

https://itch.io/jam/110-adventure-game-challenge

Oh! You were right! Fixed now. Good catch.

The Discord link is here: https://discord.gg/fhrERYw

My name is Vance when you get there.

For the most part, they are not. But if you have a bug that just completely stops people from being able to play the game, contact me over Discord and explain the issue, and I may allow it on a case by case basis. 

The theme of the jam is You are the Wrong Person.

The protagonist must be mistaken for someone else. The game must entirely hinge on this mistaken identity.

For example, they could be mistaken for an old lover, a famous person, or a villain.

The mistaken identity must be the main driver of the plot and source of conflict, instrumental to the story and the goals of the protagonist, not just something that happens in one part. The situation could be resolved at the end or not.

Have fun with the jam!

That's why the main page says "Read the following closely for the specific rules"

Hey stop submitting this to game jams where it doesn't belong. That's scummy behavior.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is just a cute title. I know it doesn't completely fit. The full theme, as always, is in the post, not the theme title.

The theme of the jam is The Dunning-Kruger Effect.

The protagonist must be the smartest person in the game, but everyone including themselves believes they are the dumbest person.

For example, they could be a scientist who everyone considers to be incompetent, but is actually a genius, or the least moronic of a group of morons, etc.

The intelligence discrepancy must be the main driver of the plot and source of conflict, instrumental to the story and the goals of the protagonist, not just something that happens in one part. The character must truly believe themselves to be the dumbest person present, not just pretending to be. It could be revealed at the end that they are smart, but doesn't have to be and cannot be revealed before the end.

Have fun with the jam!

I'm afraid this is not an adventure game so I'm removing it from the Adventure Game Challenge jam. Best of luck in your future endeavors.

I played a decent ways into the game and it certainly looked like a fighting game to me. I saw no adventure game mechanics at all. I can reconsider if you can explain further what makes it an adventure game. "Finding new things" does not make it an adventure game by itself.

The judges are the only ones who can rate games. Anyone can leave comments. There are arrows next to the comment to "like" the comment. That's what the +1 means.

Unfortunately, this is not an adventure game, so removing it from the Adventure Game Challenge jam.

The stylized graphics here are great. Unfortunately, I see no attempt here whatsoever to follow the theme of the jam which is a requirement, so I am removing it from the Adventure Game Challenge jam. Best of luck on future endeavors.

There are three that people use most often although there are other adventure game specific tools as well.

-Unity with the Adventure Creator plugin

-Adventure Game Studio

-Visionaire Studio

All three of these have been used to make popular adventure games. It comes down to what you're specifically looking for, so research them and find which one is right for you.

Sounds fine to me

There is nothing in the rules against it. I tend to scrutinize a lot more closely games submitted to multiple jams just because most of the time, they are spam just people trying to get attention and not following the rules or theme of the jam. But if your game follows the rules and theme of this jam and is made within the allotted time frame and also fits in another jam, you can submit it to multiple jams.

The theme of the jam is Going Undercover.

The protagonist must be attempting to pass as someone they are not in order to achieve their objective.

For example, they could be a detective trying to infiltrate the mafia, a con artist trying to run a scam, etc.

The undercover operation must be the main driver of the plot and source of conflict, instrumental in achieving whatever goal they are trying to achieve, not just something that happens in one part. The character must be intentionally trying to fool someone or a group of people, not just mistaken for someone else or confused about their own identity.

Have fun with the jam!

One person will get the prize. But in a way everyone who successfully makes a game and submits it is a winner :-)

If it is something that can be easily bought and transferred online then that is possible, especially if it can be bought using Paypal. I will not mail anything like physical cards, and will not sign up for new payment services I don't already use. As the rules state the only way I can *promise* to be able to send the money is Paypal, but I will try to honor reasonable requests if the winner cannot receive money with Paypal.

It's not long now until the 7th annual Adventure Game Challenge begins! Make an adventure game in 2 weeks and the developer of the top ranked game wins $107!

We always get some great developers in this jam and have lots of fun, so come join us!

https://itch.io/jam/107-adventure-game-challenge

Yeah the hitboxes are deliberately wide to show that even getting close to a zombie is deadly. If I made a post-jam version, which I probably will not do, I would make them jump at you.

That's the struggle when working with voice acting indeed. Turns the jam into a who different sort of beast. I end up doing the whole first week with placeholder art so I can get design and voice lines finalized for voice acting and put art in the second week.

**SPOILER** When you find the zombie you are looking for, he is in the kitchen, so you can't interact with him yes. There is someone in town who should be able to open that door. ***MORE SPOILERS IF THAT DOESN'T HELP*** You need things from the music store, park, and coffee shop then find the sushi chef in the bar

Well, let's see. I never did figure out how the triangle moves. I just figured out the other shapes and then tried the triangle in every other space. Other than that, the cryptic puzzle was fine.

It took me a while to realize that I was supposed to record what actually happened to the best of my knowledge in the diary instead of just recording what people said happened. This might not be a big deal but maybe some indication that you are supposed to change their story to match the facts as you find out more.

As far as figuring out the time, I know how I was supposed to do it, and it's perfectly fair, I even found the guy with the watch set wrong. But I discovered it was just easier to use the messages about how many are right and how many are in the right location to deduce the order than to go around talking to people and looking at things again.

Interesting and challenging game as usual. I admit I brute forced a few things once I got most of it, but at least I didn't need a walkthrough or solution. Quite a solid entry as expected.

While the game is ultra simple (I never felt like I had any chance of losing), it's an interesting idea that has the potential to be fleshed out.

Great job with the setting and establishing the mood. It felt like maybe you were running out of time by the second half and just pushed through the bulk of the story with little interaction. The voice acting was good enough though that it kept that part interesting enough. It was a fun time.

Nice little game. Love the colors. Some issue with knowing what I want to do but trying to figure out how to tell it to the game, but that's par for the course. I quite enjoyed it.

There's a surprising amount to do for only two rooms. The art and animation is great. Some things take a little long when you have to repeatedly do them. All in all a great entry!

It's a nice concept for a game. Wish there was a way to have a little more control over the parts of the story to include but the game was quite original and fun

It was fun. I like stealth games. One big issue is that the enemies can see through walls. One of the primary fun things about stealth games is being able to plan to hide around walls and obstacles, but the enemies have X-ray vision and see you anyway.

The environment felt perfect for a remote cold war military base. The puzzles were reasonable and the game felt very solidly made.

This was a charming game. I like the intentionally lo-fi aesthetic. Unfortunately a lot of the things are off the side of the screen for me, probably you built it only to work with a specific monitor aspect ratio. But I was eventually able to find them by constantly pressing E while walking up and down the sides of the screen and complete the game.

The puzzles in this were remarkably well designed. You struck just the right balance providing a sense of accomplishment when solving them and a minimum of frustration. I particularly liked solving the substitution cypher.