A new year means new material entering the public domain! From January 1st 2022, works from 1926 are free to use and remix.

This is the fourth annual jam in the 'Gaming Like it's 192X' series. You can see submissions from the 1925, 1924, 1923 jams. This year, we're continuing the tradition and celebrating works from 1926. Let's make games that are about or inspired by these works.

The Winners

We're excited to announce this year's winners:

• Best Analog: Nude on a Yellow Sofa by Nora Katz
• Best Digital: A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle DECODED by Anna Wu
• Best Adaptation: The Wall Across the River by Perrin Ellis
• Best Remix: Dreaming the Cave by David Harris
• Best Deep Cut: The Obstruction Method by Jason Morningstar
• Best Visuals: Mr. Top Hat Doesn't Give a Damn by Josh of Dirtbug Games

They are all worth checking out! You can read more about the winners in this write-up on Techdirt.

The Works

There are plenty of interesting works to draw on, including:

• Novels, short stories, and poems by Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, T. E. Lawrence, A. A. Milne, and Dorothy Parker
• Art by Alexander Calder, Hannah Höch, Frieda Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, René Magritte, and Norman Rockwell
• Films including silents Beau Jest and The General plus the first feature length Vitaphone films with Don Juan and The Better 'Ole
• Music by Louis Armstrong, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Al Jolson, Jelly Roll Morton, Victoria Spivey, and Sophie Tucker

Also – sound recordings from before 1923 are also entering the public domain so feel free to use those, too!

Check out Duke's detailed overview of works entering the public domain the Public Domain Review's Countdown for more great works!

The Games

This jam is open to both digital and analog games – choose the medium that excites you!

For digital games, we’ll only be judging games that are playable in the browser. This includes interactive fiction using frameworks like Twine. and storytelling game platforms like Story Synth. You can submit desktop or mobile games but we won’t consider them for prizes.

For purely analog games, we’re looking for tabletop RPGs, larps, board games, and everything in between. We encourage you to design something short and quickly playable. Our judges are only committed to reading the first four pages of your submission. Golden Cobra and Game Chef contain great examples of brief, compelling games.

Don’t worry about making a highly polished game! We’re more interested in your ideas and how you use the public domain. For analog games, a simple PDF or even Google Doc is totally acceptable – past winners have included clever games with simple designs. 

The Prizes

We’ll be awarding prizes in the following categories:

• Best Analog Games
• Best Digital Game
• Best adaptation of a 1926 work
• Best remixing of multiple sources (at least one has to be from 1926)
• Best “Deep Cut” (use of a work not listed on any of the round up articles)
• Best Visuals

You have until the end of January to submit your games. We'll be judging the submission in the first two weeks of February and awarding prizes soon after.

This jam is organized by Randy Lubin of Diegetic Games and Mike Masnick of Techdirt and we’re contributing prizes. Every winner will get to pick one of:

• The Working Futures anthology of speculative fiction
• A deck of Working Futures Cards which you can use in scenario planning
• Our board game CIA: Collect It All (a remake of the public domain CIA training game)
• A Techdirt t-shirt (e.g. Copymouse)
• Digital copies of Behind the Magic and Premise

Code of Conduct

We will not tolerate sexism, racism, or discrimination of any kind. Some works from 1926 may contain offensive stereotypes. Either avoid these works or address the problematic material in a responsible manner.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use public domain material from another year?

Yes, but at least one work from 1926 (or a pre-1923 sound recording) must be included in your game in some form.

Can I submit multiple games?

Yes!

Can I submit as a team?

Yes!

Do I need to license the game in any way?

No, and by default you’ll retain all rights to your game. However, we’d love for you to publish under a Creative Commons license. CC0 would add your game into the public domain!

Can I set a price on my game?

You can, though we will ask for a free version to share with our judges.