Welcome to another $200,000 Prize Pool Mega Game Jam

Creators of all types; we’re thrilled to invite you to take part in the Crayta November 2022 Mega Game Jam, and the Theme is…

“Unfinished Business”

TOP 5

Kingdom Fights - SylGames

Contract Assassins - Slaterbburn and Daigoro 

Minigame Mania - North Trail Studios 

Ad Infinitum - Daystiny & Tumbak7 

Critter Catchers - DryCereal 

Special Awards

Vision of Perfection
Talos - Vicentek, JebiAlex, Vargath and Thyris_Flare

 Sharing the World
Rancy Slime - LittleCreator 

Simple Clicks
Idle Armies - Korpiki1212 

Best Retention in an Action or Adventure Game
Obby Verse - Slaying 

Best Retention in a Puzzle or Abstract Game
Ultimate Cookie Clicker - Nenko14 

Player's Journey
Lost Region - Kay and Rosey 

Magic Moments
Asura's Tower - itsjacky 

Persistent World
An Honest Day's Work - Mr_Trixt3r 

Judge's Choice
Blazing Vengeance - IorekByrnison and SevenDos 

Honourable Mentions
Abadon's Quest - Czinczar and Lakwaai
Klone: A Cyberpunk RPG -
Varun Tiny Adventures - Iceland and Obazu
Cuboid Escape Game - Diversity
Avenge Your Hero - Verruckt
AreWeThereYet? - JonasBocek
Mini Champions - Elfwy
Boom Ball, Unfinishes Business - Sophophilia and Zyionn
Craft Arena - GODMODUS
Brick Heist - AlvisTheDev
Solar Farm - Idle Tycoon - Plasma
Broken Tower - Joseph_Quested
Black Jump - SCM
Unfinished Skeleton lord - PatatesAdam24
Norman's Escape - IceVan
Ghost Hunter World - Mokawler (edited)

This jam will run between:

21st November 2022, 11am GMT / 6am ET and 5th December 2022 11am GMT / 6am ET

Every gamer knows why we play games. But why do we come back to the same games time and time again?

As game creators, how can YOU ensure that gamers come back to your games over and over again? This is the meaning of Unfinished Business. Games that make you want to keep on playing, keep on achieving and keep on having a great time - by themselves or with other players.

Just remember the most important point of all!

• Finished Business! Just remember that it’s the player who needs to be dealing with unfinished business - your game must be completely finished and highly polished to be in with a chance of winning an award.

Here's some other thoughts to get you going.

• How can you play with Time as your retention mechanic? What is happening that makes you wait until later - or even tomorrow?

• How can you use timers and appointments to get players coming back to an action game, or a puzzle game, or a narrative adventure - or any type of game in the world?

• How long is a single session of your game going to be? Can you make a long game that can be played in short bursts? Or a game that you can complete in one minute flat - until you discover something new? Get creative with your play times!

• What about the people? How can your game involve social play? Can multiple players work together to make things happen faster? Or are those players working against each other to steal a little time back?

• In what other ways can you explore the idea of unfinished business? Is it just getting through a busy day? Is it life and death itself? Are you attempting to leave as much stuff unfinished as you can - and stopping other people from finishing their business?

That’s the boring part out of the way - now the fun starts! Get creating, be daring, let your imagination go wild, and give a wonderful, creative interpretation of Unfinished Business that even we hadn’t thought of. 

Good luck!

Prizes

The Mega Game Jam is Crayta’s biggest jam, and offers the largest prize pool - a huge $200,000 spread across 30 prizes. The prizes are structured in the following way:

• 5x Best Games - $20,000
• 8x Specific Awards - $10,000 (Criteria TBC)
• 16x Honourable Mentions $1,000
• 1x Judges Choice Special Award - $4,000

Want to learn more about the awards? Then read on…

5x Best Games

Awarded for excellence across the four main areas of Gameplay, Visuals, Technical and Crayta Experience.

• Gameplay is the overall quality of the game - taking into consideration elements such as game mechanics, originality, clarity, usability, and of course their overall adherence to the theme of the Jam.
• Visuals covers the overall consistency and quality of all visuals including use of voxels, meshes, lighting and UI.
• Technical is the overall level of technical expertise that can be seen in the game.
• Crayta Experience is the overall alignment with Crayta’s core values of high quality, positive gameplay experiences for the whole of our community.

8x Specific Awards

• Vision of Perfection

A game with astonishing, eye catching visuals and an expressive environment that enhances your gameplay and leaves us in awe. Your use of colour and composition, as well as your use of voxels, meshes, lighting and special effects, will be vital to earn this prize.

• Sharing the World

Bring people together and let everyone take part. This game will really encourage socialising and expression amongst your players. A shared goal with well crafted co-operation - or maybe even a little friendly competition - will help land this award.

• Simple Clicks 

We all love our mouse-and-keyboard and our dual-stick controllers - but how about a simpler way to play a game? This award is for games that reduce the number of buttons and controls needed to have fun.

• Best Retention Mechanics in an Action or Adventure game

Everyone knows that sims and tycoons are great for making you come back tomorrow. But how can you make an Action game or an Adventure game that has the same degree of urgent compulsion?

• Best Retention Mechanics in a Puzzle or Abstract game

Everyone knows that sims and tycoons are great for making you come back tomorrow. Now see if you can add mechanics to a Puzzle game or Abstract game that are just as sticky!

• Player’s Journey

This award is for the best UX (user experience.) This means helping the player learn how to play the game in a fun and accessible way. This includes making sure that the player knows what their short-term and long term objectives are - as well as all the controls they need to use. Great use of tutorials, guides and prompts throughout the game will contribute to this award - as will the use of a well designed UI.

• Magic Moments

Make the player feel truly special! This award goes to the game that makes the best use of super-satisfying moments of triumph. Sound, visual effects, animation, camera work - use everything at your disposal to make the player feel like a superstar - even for just a few seconds!

• Persistent World

What happens in the game when you are away? This award will go to the game that gives the best sense that the world is still working whilst you are not playing. This is not limited to just timers - what happens to the characters, environments or stories in that world?

Judges Choice Special Award - An additional award for this Mega Game Jam, the Judges Choice Award is a prize of $4,000 which will be awarded to the game which features ambitious or experimental concepts and moves forward the field of game design within Crayta.

We'll also have up to 16 $1,000 runner-up prizes for those honourable mentions that we just have to tell people about. 

It'll be possible to win more than one of these categories but we'd love to see as much variety as possible – SO GET CREATING!

What is Crayta?

Crayta is the game and world creation platform that anyone can use. It is a truly collaborative game creation platform built on Unreal Engine 4 - you and your friends can jump in and create games together in the cloud, regardless of your experience.

Play from an endlessly growing library of user-generated multiplayer games across a huge variety of genres. 

New to Crayta? Head to crayta.com  to get started - you could be playing and creating within minutes. If you need to know more, join our Discord and or Facebook Group to chat with the team and community to learn how you could take part in the Mega Jam, or collaborate with existing creators, you definitely don't have to make it alone!

Crayta run creative Jams regularly, so if you miss this one, or just don’t feel it’s right for you, then check back soon to find our the theme of the new Jam.

FAQ

Can I use packages from other creators in my entries?

- Yes, if they are useful for what you are making, but we will take into account how much of it is your own creation

Can I submit multiple entries?

- Of course, but you may be better off spending time to make sure one entry is as useful and perfected as possible!

Can I use any other game engine?

- No. All entries must be built in Crayta.

Once you’re ready to submit

First, hit publish, and put your game into the world of Crayta!

Second, create a Project Page for your game using THIS LINK. Then add your submission to this itch page, including the launch link for your game, which can be found on the Companion Site or in-game.

Feel free to create a forum page on Game Releases. This isn't necessary for the entry, but is a nice way for more people to see your game! You can also post on the Game-Releases channel on our Discord.

Note that once the deadline has passed, you can make no changes to the published version until we’ve announced the winners! Feel free to edit without publishing, but any games with publish dates/times after the deadline will be disqualified.

Competition Rules

A copy of the competition rules can be found here:

https://developer.crayta.com/jam-rules/ 

 NO PURCH. NEC.  Begins 11:00:00 AM GMT on [21/11/22]; Ends 11:00:00 AM] GMT on [05/12/22]. Open to individuals who are not domiciled in Quebec (CA), Crimea, Cuba, Sudan, Iran, North Korea, Russia,  Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, China, or Syria, or located in a country under any trade or economic sanction or on any program or country list designated by the USA Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or where the laws of the USA or local law prohibit participation or receiving a prize in any contest, 18+ and age of majority, and have an active Crayta account.  To enter Crayta $200,000 “Unfinished Business Mega Game Jam”, sign up to the jam, and enter your submission before the deadline with links to your forum posts and any other showcase you may wish to include.  [There are 30 prizes to be won, ranging from $20,000 to $1000, with a total of up to $200,000 being awarded].  SUBJECT TO OFFICIAL RULES [https://developer.crayta.com/jam-rules/]. Void where prohibited Sponsor: Meta Platforms, Inc. 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California 94025 USA.