After more than a year of participating in game jams as Team Scripta, we wanted to host one that promotes open source games and game creation tools. That's why we're teaming up with Opensource.com to bring you Open Jam, a game jam dedicated to doing just that.

What is a game jam?

Game jams are hackathon-like video game creation events. They come in many shapes and sizes, but usually have a theme to base the games on, a set amount of time to complete them, and a judging process that helps creators get feedback.

How is Open Jam different?

Open Jam is all about open source games and open game development. While some jams require participants to submit source code for their games, not all of them require that code to be open source licensed. Open Jam encourages you to use open source tools and assets and to link them in your submission. Anything open source in your game creation process is encouraged!

How will it work?

The jam

We'll announce the theme on the jam page Friday, October 6 at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time (4:01 a.m. UTC). After that, contestants will have until Sunday, October 8 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (3:59 a.m. UTC) to submit their games through Itch.io. Open Jam entries can run on any platform, but must be playable on either Linux or the web and open source licensed.

If you're looking for open source game creation tools to try, we have a list of suggestions on the jam page. We encourage you to use openly licensed game engines, frameworks, and libraries, but it is not a strict requirement. For non-code assets like music and sprites, anything marked with Creative Commons is welcome! Make the greatest game you can by bringing together the best of the open world.

Judging

Once you've released your game and code to the world, it's time to play other participants' games and rate them! Judging begins immediately after the jam and runs through October 15. Playable demos of the three top-rated games will be featured (and playable!) at All Things Open.

Want to participate?

Set aside some time to work on your game October 6-8 and join Open Jam on Itch.io to receive updates and announcements from us. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Questions?