Game designers talk shop a _lot_. We have discords, twitters, zoom calls, blogs private messages, the list goes on. What we don't have is centralized place where people can find and share that knowledge easily. Sure, there are things like GDC, where people are pumped for money to learn how to make micro-transactions better at pumping people for money, and there are academic games conferences where people talk about games in a conceptual way.

For some people those are fine. But for people who want to hear other designer's ideas, there isn't a great way to find cheap reading material.

Enter: Game Design Essay Jam

The prompt here is straightforward: write about any aspect of game design that strikes your fancy. It could be a concept that you want more people to hear about, it could be a specific mechanic from a specific game. I don't care! Take that good, juicy thought, and turn it into something that people can read, watch or listen to. Essay is a very loose term. 

Some potential submissions:

• A Zine
• A Voice Recording
• A Powerpoint or Presi
• A Game
• A Video
• A Website
• A Really Insightful Napkin Sketch
• A Series of Tweets, converted to a .txt
• A Plain old Essay, I guess!???

Seriously, go ham.

Guidelines:

The goal here is to have a bunch of accessible, democratized thoughts about design, so please keep the following in mind:

1. No Fascists, Racists, Homophobes, Transphobes, Bigots, etc. or any material supporting the preceding will be allowed. If I find out you or your essay is causing harm, I reserve the right to take anything off the jam page without warning.
2. Give Trigger Warnings if you're showing or quoting distressing, graphic, or intense material.
3. MAKE YOUR ESSAY FREE, PAY WHAT YOU CAN, OR RELEASE IT WITH COMMUNITY COPIES. I know we're all trying to eat, but hoarding knowledge only stratifies the industry and slows us down. We don't need another Jstor or GDC. Linking to your paid projects inside your essay is totally OK.