April 13th - 26th 2024

Gamedev.js Jam 2024

Let's build Web games!

Join the Jam!

Platinum Partner

OP Games

Gold Partners

GitHub Phaser Studio Arcadia

Silver Partners

Addicting Games Poki
Bronze Partners
Enclave Games js13kGames Web3 Gamedev School

If you'd like to become a Partner, please reach out via email!

When?

The Jam runs for 13 days: between April 13th and 26th 2024.

Where?

A globally available online event hosted at Itch.io.

Why?

Have fun building games and win some prizes at the same time!

Gamedev.js Jam celebrates Web games - build an HTML5 game within 13 days of the jam on a given theme, it runs between April 13th, 5 PM CET and April 26th, 5 PM CET 2024. Also, there are prizes!


Join the Jam!

Theme this year is Power. Remember that your entry will be judged based on how well you implement the theme, but you can interpret it however you like.

Join us no matter your skill level - this game jam is a perfect opportunity to create your very first game, or build a prototype for your next commercial hit. Almost two weeks of development time should be more than enough!

You can use #gamedevjs hashtag on Twitter to share your progress, ask for feedback, see what others are building and hopefully help them out if they need it. There's also a Discord server for direct communication!

Check out the previous editions to get the grasp of what to expect: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020.

This Jam is organized by Andrzej Mazur from Enclave Games, creator of the js13kGames competition.

Gamedev.js Shop

Challenges

There are optional Challenges in the Jam - entries submitted to those will be judged separately by the panels of dedicated experts, and each offer unique prizes for the best games.

You are free to take on any of them, selected few, or even multiple at once.

Open Source Challenge by GitHub

Challenger: GitHub

Description: Provide the source code of your entry on GitHub in a readable form to have a chance of being featured in a dedicated blog post on the GitHub Blog (see 2022 and 2023 for reference).

Prize pool: 10 GitHub Copilot licenses for 12 months and $600 in GitHub Shop vouchers

Expert: Michelle Duke

Build it with Phaser Challenge by Phaser Studio

Challenger: Phaser Studio

Description: Simply develop your game using any version of the Phaser game framework. You'll find docs, resources and guides on our web site to get started quickly.

Prize pool: $1000 and 10 Vampire Survivors bundles (game + 3 DLCs)

Experts: Richard Davey and Emanuele Feronato

NPC Challenge by OP Games

Challenger: OP Games

Description: The goal is to create a game that makes use of NPCs in a way that hasn't been seen before in most games.

Non-player characters (NPCs) have mostly been used as side characters, companions, quest givers, or enemies in games. But do they have to be limited to these roles? Now that we have the affordances of new technologies such as generative AI and blockchain, we should start to re-imagine the role of NPCs in our games.

To be considered for this challenge, your game must simply make use of NPCs. To win the challenge, your game must make use of NPCs in a thoughtful and innovative way. Subvert the traditional roles of NPCs in games and show us something new!

If you'd like to experiment with some of OP Games' new services and increase your chances of being published in Arcadia, check out the Spark and Arcadia bonus challenges.

Prize pool: 1000 USDC and potential publishing deal with Arcadia

Expert: Paul Gadi

js13kGames Challenge by Enclave Games

Challenger: Enclave Games

Description: Celebrate the upcoming thirteenth edition of the js13kGames competition by following its rules: create a web game that fits into a 13 kilobyte zip package!

Prize pool: 13 Badlucky t-shirts and 5 framed posts

Experts: Andrzej Mazur and Taufik Sani

Prizes

There are two levels of prizes: for all the entries, and for given Challenges.

Overall prizes

Those prizes will be given to the best entries of the overall ranking on Itch.io:

Places

Given prizes from the overall results assigned to specific places for the available criteria.

Overall
  • 1st-2nd places: Construct 3 Personal license for 12 months
  • 1st-3rd places: CodePen Pro Starter account for 12 months
  • 1st-5th places: WebStorm IDE license for 12 months
  • 1st-5th places: GDevelop Gold license for 12 months
  • 1st-13th places: CSS Battle Plus account for 6 months
Innovation
  • 1st-5th places: Zenva Academy subscription for 12 months
  • 1st-10th places: PlayCanvas Personal plan for 12 months
Theme
  • 1st-5th places: How to Make a Video Game All By Yourself ebook
  • 1st-10th places: Aseprite editor license
Gameplay
  • 1st-5th places: Athena Crisis game license
  • 1st-10th places: Jump Tracks game license
Graphics
  • 1st-5th places: Kronnect individual asset
  • 1st-10th places: Pyxel Edit editor license
Audio
  • 1st-5th places: Jsfxr Pro Solo lifetime license
  • 1st-10th places: World of Turtle game license

Open Source Challenge prizes

Build it with Phaser Challenge prizes

NPC Challenge prizes

  • 1st place: publishing deal and 500 USDC
  • 2nd place: 250 USDC
  • 3rd place: 125 USDC
  • 4th place: 75 USDC
  • 5th place: 50 USDC

js13kGames Challenge prizes


Winners will also be promoted via our Twitter, on the gamedevjs.com website, and in the Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter.

Experts

Panel of experts giving feedback to your entries (with their top5 picks each), or judging games from given Challenges.


Michelle Duke
@MishManners | mishmanners.com
Michelle is a Developer Advocate in the realms of innovation and technology. Known as the “Hackathon Queen” 👑 you'll often find her on stage MC’ing or speaking on a range of topics from artificial intelligence, to business, community engagement, the future of work, and esports. With a background in both science and arts, Michelle has a passion for gaming and combines this with her experience in a range of industries. Michelle brings a unique insight into gaming and is a gaming journalist and Twitch Streamer too!


Richard Davey
@photonstorm | photonstorm.com
Creator of Phaser and founder of Phaser Studio. If he's not wrangling code, he's working with the studio team to ensure the best possible experience and tools are made for Phaser developers. Was there at the birth of both gaming and the web and has loved the ride ever since.


Emanuele Feronato
@triqui | emanueleferonato.com
Emanuele "Triqui" Feronato is an avid gamer, editor at video game magazines, author of books about programming, and a full stack developer. He is publishing game development tutorials on his blog for nearly 20 years, from the early days of Flash to the latest in Phaser.


Paul Gadi
@polats | opgames.org
Paul is CTO ⁄ Co-Founder of OP Games, focused on helping game developers successfully create decentralized games. He also leads the KERNEL Gaming Guild, a fellowship of the most talented builders in Web 3. He loves exploring the intersection of new technologies with game design, and believes that decentralization and shared virtual economies will revolutionize how we play games.


Andrzej Mazur
@end3r | end3r.com
Creates games, runs competitions, sends out newsletters, fosters communities.


Taufik Sani
@gorilatictacs | linkedin.com/in/taufiksani
Taufik Sani combines his love for games with his expertise in game development, working with teams at Ubisoft and diving into web3 gaming with OP Games. Away from his desk, he’s likely getting lost in the latest game or finding inspiration in everyday moments. As a judge at the game jam, he's excited to see new talent and ideas emerge in the gaming community.

Submitting your entry

Submit an HTML5 game between April 13th and 26th 2024 through the Itch.io platform. It can be a solo submission, or a team effort. You can even submit more than one entry if you want to. Submitted games should have English as the default language.

Voting on entries

Voting will be open to all who submitted a game, and will happen via the Itch.io platform for 13 days right after the submission period ends - between April 26th and May 9th. Winners will be announced on May 10th, and challenges on May 11th.

Games will be voted on based on a given criteria: Innovation, Theme, Gameplay, Graphics, and Audio. The Overall ranking will be based on the summary of those.

Following the rules

The short version is: anything that can run on the Web in a browser without extra plugins is considered a valid jam entry. It's highly advised you create new content for the jam - submitting your old demos or already finished projects makes no sense.

If you have any questions or concerns please ask at the Community forums or join our Discord server.

Gamedev.js Survey 2023

Gamedev.js Survey 2023

Gamedev.js Survey 2023 is over, and the Report was already published! If you participated and submitted your answers - thank you! Feel free to view and use the results of the current state of Web Game Development in 2023 as long as you credit and link to the source.

Code of Conduct

All participants and judges of the Gamedev.js Jam are required to agree with the following code of conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the online event. We are expecting cooperation from all participants to help ensuring a safe environment for everybody.

Gamedev.js is dedicated to providing a harassment-free competition experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of competition participants in any form. Competition participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the competition at the discretion of the competition organizers. TL;DR: Be excellent to each other. For more details see Berlin Code of Conduct.

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