Do you want to use your gaming talent to make a difference in society?

Do you want to hang out with other developers who also want to make a difference?

Are you tired of games that are the same old same old world building / battle royale / etc., etc., with no real connection to making a better world?

Oh yeah – and do you want a chance for part of over $12,000 in total prizes - plus thousands of dollars in full marketing support to help generate buzz and revenue for your game?

Then this is the Game Jam for you !

Announcing the “Commercially Viable Game” (CVG) $12,000 Prize Pool Social Justice Game Jam #1!

Why Social Justice themed games? So glad you asked.

The story for this jam was developed for several reasons:

• I wanted to create games that developed skills that people can use outside the game (Intuition)
• I wanted a game that developed a skill that can be used to advance the cause of social and racial justice (also Intuition)
• I wanted to begin to envision what the future might be, so that we are not marching solely to remove something, but we are also marching towards a beautiful vision of the future (a little sci fi-ish, but still beautiful)
• I wanted some fun. Some joy. Warriors cannot last long without joy.
• I thought the game would be easier to develop if there was a blueprint for it. Kind of like a director creating a whole movie based on a short script.
• I luuuv fun games.

So I created this jam to put some cool new games into the world that radiate fun, that a cool vison for the future, and that develops valuable skills for the player.

Also I intend that the games give love to the social / racial justice movement by emphasizing the power of Intuition, because a successful movement is vulnerable to interlopers who might start doing bad things that harm the work everyone else is doing. Leaders needed firm, reliable Intuition, and this takes practice.

That’s what the story is about and that’s why the Jam exists.

Please see the docs in the link below for details, but the summary is that the Jam pays $5,000 to the Grand Prize winning team and another $5,000 to that team when the game is launched. I’ll also cover marketing, promotion, and user acquisition costs, and we split the revenue. Go ahead and Google typical mobile game acquisition costs and you’ll see that the winning team is getting a significant investment in their game. The revenue share is ‘from the first dollar’; in other words the core deal has no “withholding of royalties until I recoup my expenses” type stuff.

Mobile games only (see below for why).

The rest of the prize money goes to “Best Game from School X.” School X has to submit a minimum of 5 games, and be certified as a legit school, for the submissions to be eligible.

For all the entrants whom we don’t publish / invest in, you will have a game that’s designed to be commercially viable, which is very good for you. You have to change the names and stuff, but you’ll be free to market the game on your own. I hope it makes a ton of money for you, even if I don’t publish it. At the moment I have budgeted to invest in one game at a time.

Finally, please don't join the Jam for the money. The money is good, and I want you and everyone who joins to be successful. But please: read the story and see if you’re down with the vision. If you are, then go form a team and make a super fun game based on that vision – one that makes a difference - and good things will happen, I’m convinced of it.

Why mobile only?

This was a tough decision and I hope I made the right one, but mobile games are growing faster than PC ones, and I want talented developers to focus on making an amazing mobile experience. The market for console games is just too crowded, and I thought it would cost a fortune to break in there. But if we start with mobile and expand from there, we can hit the PC market with a robust and popular game. You also get a better game, imo, if you start at mobile and expand to PC than if you start at PC and shrink to mobile.

Cool - I love it! How do I join?

Docs are here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/5/folders/12LQqkqHaaby2SDUHKy9Ry67P6NjxW6kZ

Fill out the Competition Agreement doc even if you're not on a team yet, and send it to me at:

marc.stephens.cvg2020@gmail.com

You can change the names on the team of that doc before you submit the final game, and a person can be a member of several teams. But when you submit the final game, you MUST ALSO SUBMIT AT THE SAME TIME THE FINAL ROSTER of who’s on the team, and that roster is final, so that if you win, I know whom to pay, and there’s no team-member-payment drama.

I reserve the right to check in with you to see how things are going. You can ask me questions, ask me for advice, whatever, at any time. I’m pulling for you.

Ok. Much love and peace and good luck to you all.

Best and be well,

Marcus

 

 

More deets about the game, if you like reading:

• This is my first jam, and I’ve made apparently every conceivable mistake. Thanks for your patience!
• The story is called Six Words, and provides the framework for a number of types of game. Characters, powers, back story, weapons, defenses, enemies, story arc, and emotional needs are provided. You can’t use the story for any reason except to make a game based on it for this Jam.
• Your challenge is to imagine a game version of that story.
  • You can take liberties with the story.
  • You can base your entire game on one paragraph of the story, or one level, or one scene, if that works for you.
  • What you can’t do is change the race, gender, etc. of the characters. This is a Diversity and social justice jam, after all.
• You can create any kind of game or combination of games you want – RTS, FPS, Story-based, Tile Match, Puzzles, FPS + puzzles – literally anything; but you must preserve the spirit of the story: LGBTQ and BIPOC friendly, strong female characters of Black and other ethnicities, etc.
• We need to make a difference in the world right now. So I’d like for the game to be ready for the app store in the I-know-I-know-it’s-impossible-everyone-says-it-can’t-be-done-it’s-unheard-of! time of 11 weeks from the completion of the Jam. So keep the game simple but super-engaging and highly re-playable.
• Get a good team: team effectiveness is part of the judging criteria!
• Winning is judged on other criteria as well, including:
  • Adherence to the spirit, though necessarily the letter, of the story
  • Commercial viability – how well you understand how mobile games make money. For ex:
    • How cleverly you work in opportunities for rewarded / incentivized ad viewing that does not disrupt game play;
    • How well you integrate opportunities for In App Purchases without making the game pay-to-win (research shows that players will pay for cool furniture, clothes, avatars, etc., but dislike it when they can’t enjoy the game without paying a lot of money)
    • If you decide to create a free-to-play version with a vision for a pay-to-play upgrade, how compelling is your vision of the pay-to-play version will be assessed
• So consider: if your game has a spaceship whose interior looks like a rich person’s mansion, maybe have basic free furni but paid exotic furni. Or consider awarding jewels / coins / stuff-that-advances-game-play for watching a rewarded ad; or bonuses for watching two ads in the same day, or an ad per day for a week, etc. Or cool fashions for the player’s avatar. Show that you understand that the game must be commercially viable and still be fun to play.
• Start work on your game whenever you want, but the game, along with the final list of team members, must be submitted by 9:00 am Monday October 19th.
• Prize money will be divided evenly amongst the final list of team members (unless your team submits, in writing, a different dispersal requirement) so you must submit the list of team members when you submit the game.
• This might be the only time we offer a jam like this, with a large first prize and marketing muscle. We have no idea if this will generate any interest or any cool games. So please sign up, tell your friends, and do your best. As one game developer put it: “I don’t want to create games that just waste time. I want to contribute something to the player for spending the time to play my game.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

 

 Ok, that’s all for now. Go get your teams. Check back often for updates. Questions? marc.stephens.CVG2020@gmail.com.

Let’s make a game, make some royalties, and most of all, let’s make a difference!

Thank you so much!!! And good luck!!!

Best,

Marcus