SideFX is proud to announce the first-ever Houdini Game Jam! Everyone is invited to participate in the jam and use Houdini to make games for a chance at winning awesome prizes!     

Details: Houdini Game Jam will take place over the course of one week from August 14th to August 21st, 2020. The game jam will begin when the theme is revealed via livestream on SideFX’s Twitch channel at 11am PST on August 14th. Game jammers will then have one week to build their games and submit them before the deadline of 5pm PST on August 21st. Game jammers are encouraged to use the hashtag #HoudiniGameJam20 for social media posts about their game development. Finished games will be entered via the Houdini Game Jam page on itch.io. The eligible game entries will be played by the judges and prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winning teams. 

Houdini Indie Game Jam Licenses:

SideFX is providing temporary Houdini Indie licenses for game jammers to use for HGJ. You can request a license here.

Substance Licenses:

Adobe is providing 1-month Substance licenses for use during the Houdini Game Jam. You can request a license here.

Game Jam Assets & Resources:

SideFX has built a set of procedural game art tools into a "Game Jam Starter Kit" that can be used in the Unreal and Unity game editors 

-Game Jam Starter Kit

Training & Resources:

-Getting Started with Houdini
-SideFX Labs Overview
-Game Tools
-World Building

Join the Game Jam channel in Think Procedural Discord Server here.

Judging:

All of the eligible game entries will be played and judged by a panel of Houdini, 3D art, and game dev professionals. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winning games will be chosen based on the following criteria:

-Art & Animation 
-Sounds & Music
-Gameplay & Fun Factor
-Use of the Theme
-Use of Houdini
  

Prizes: 

The winners will receive the following prizes from HGJ’s sponsors:

Hardware:
-1st place - Skull Canyon NUCs from Intel

Software Licenses:
-1st place - Houdini FX annual licenses from SideFX
-2nd place - Houdini Core annual licenses from SideFX
-3rd place - Houdini Indie annual licenses from SideFX
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - Substance annual licenses from Adobe 

Resources and Training: 
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - $100 in Unreal Engine Marketplace Credits from Unreal Engine
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - $100 in Unity Asset Store Vouchers from Unity
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - 80 Level RFP invite codes from 80 Level
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - Paid tutorials from MIX Training
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - Paid tutorials from Experience Points
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - Discounts on workshops from Rebelway
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - €100 in Codecks Credits from Codecks

Made-with-Houdini Games:
-1st & 2nd place - Game codes for Control from Remedy Entertainment
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - Game codes for Bizarre Barber from Synesthetic Echo
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - Game codes for Dodo Peak from Moving Pieces Interactive
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - Game codes for Nanotale Typing Chronicles from Fishing Cactus
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - Game codes for The Morrigan by The Pixel Mine
-1st, 2nd, & 3rd place - Game codes for Curious Expedition 2 by Maschinen-Mensch 

Sponsors:

Intel - 80 Level -- Unreal Engine -- Unity -- MIX Training -- Synesthetic Echo -- Moving Pieces Interactive -- Fishing Cactus 

Remedy Entertainment  -- Maschinen-Mensch -- Rebelway -- Experience Points -- Adobe Substance -- The Pixel Mine -- Codecks

Rules:

-Houdini Game Jam is hosted online and open to anyone anywhere in the world. No physical locations are planned for HGJ. 

-Houdini Game Jam will begin at 11:00AM PST on August 14th, 2020 and will end at 5:00PM PST on August 21st, 2020. Game entries must be submitted during this period to be eligible for judging and prizes.

-Houdini must be used to develop the HGJ games. Use of other art, animation, and game dev tools are permitted but they must be used in conjunction with Houdini. 

-Working in teams is allowed, each team is limited to 5 people or less. 

-To be considered for judging and prizes, the following deliverables are required for each entry:
1. A working game build for Windows PC and/or Mac OSX. VR and mobile games are permitted but keep in mind that VR and mobile games will be more difficult for all of the judges to play. No unpackaged projects will be accepted.

2. At least one image or video showing assets from the game inside Houdini. Providing additional Houdini images and videos will be helpful to the judges. 

3. At least one Houdini .hip file containing assets from the game. Providing additional .hip files will be helpful to the judges.

-Participants are required to join Houdini Game Jam on itch.io and submit their entries there. The game judging will be run through itch.io’s game jam judging system.  You need to upload your game to your Itch.io account page before you can submit it to the Houdini Game Jam page. In order to submit your game to Itch.io, your .zip file must be UNDER 1GB. This won't affect most projects, but please be mindful of the size of your game once compressed. If your file is more than 1GB, you may utilize the Butler tool to upload your files to Itch.io. More info on Butler here. Also check out Blendo Itch Uploader, a GUI for uploading projects to itch.io.

-The contest portion of Houdini Game Jam is void where prohibited. Employees of SideFX or any of their agents may participate in the contest but are not eligible to win. The judges' decisions are final. SideFX is not responsible for submissions that arrive late or incomplete during submission. If the prize cannot be awarded due to unforeseen circumstances, no cash alternatives are available. Games created for HGJ must be created using Houdini products. All entrants will be asked to submit .hip files to verify that Houdini was used in the game’s development. If you do not submit the files you will be disqualified. All content must be the property of the submitter. If you are running Houdini on an employer or school computer make sure that this does not compromise your ownership rights. Entries that clearly infringe on the copyrights of another company will be disqualified. Entry in the game jam contest constitutes an agreement to allow SideFX unrestricted use and distribution of the games and artwork submitted. Participants will retain full ownership and rights to their game entries.