Get ready to ignite your game dev engines, you're competing for $10,000 in prizes!

We're looking for the best arcade-style games you can think of - that's short gameplay loops, simple control schemes, and high scores. All games MUST include a leaderboard of some kind to be eligible for prizes!

In addition to the huge prize pool, we'll be keeping an eye out for excellent games and talented developers, and we're open to chatting about game publishing to anyone who submits.

You must JOIN DISCORD to be eligible for prizes. You need to have a WEB BUILD for your game, downloads are ok so long as your game is also playable in a browser.

We’ve got another huge prize pool for you - $10,000 and plenty of chances to win.

• $1,500 for the community favourite game (as ranked here on itch.io)
• $500 for the participant who refers the most submitted games
• 5x $100 in a raffle for anyone who refers another participant to the jam

SPONSOR PRIZES

To be eligible for these prizes, your game must USE HYPLAY LOGIN. Check out the developer documentation!

• $4,000 for the jam winner, as judged by HYPLAY
• $2,000 for 2nd and 3rd place, as judged by HYPLAY
• $1,500 for the best use of HYPLAY, as judged by HYPLAY

Now, you're probably thinking "hey, where is this money coming from" - we have a WIP suite of free developer tools, and candidly we want more people to be aware of them. But it's not just that! We want to foster a cool game dev community with regular game jams and feedback sessions. In my opinion, the best way for us to make a great set of useful tools is to have an active community: using our tools or not, developers are our priority and we want to see and help you do cool things!

ASTRO LANCE

$10,000

PONGUP!

$5,000

AIGAM

$5,000

CLICKDASH

$2,500

SUPER ANIMAL SOCCER

$2,500

To be eligible for prizes:

• Your game must include HYPLAY login. This requirement is only for prizes that are judged, not the community favourite game.
• Your game must have a leaderboard, either local or online.
• Your game must follow the theme in some way. The theme will be announced when the jam starts.
• You must join the Discord server.
• Your game must run in a browser.
• Games that receive fewer than 7 ratings will not be eligible for prizes. This number may be lowered based on submission count.
• You must own the code and IP for your submitted game.
• The game you submit must not have received funding from external sources or other prize pools/events.
• Your game must not include any profanity, nudity, racism, sexism, homophobia, hate speech, or drug/alcohol use.

Participants may win multiple categories, and will be eligible for multiple prizes in that scenario.

There is no limit on the number of games you can submit, the number of people in your team, the number of teams you can join, or the number of jams you can submit your game to.

You may use any tools, frameworks, boilerplate code that you have a valid license for. This includes generic character controllers, menus, health systems, tweening, that sort of thing.

To enter the referral raffle:

• Join the Discord server
• Create an invite link to the discord server
• Give that invite link to someone who will join the jam
• That person must submit an eligible game to the jam

Anything you make during the jam is your property. HYPLAY claims no rights or ownership of your game but maintains the right to use it for marketing purposes.

HYPLAY offers a suite of free developer tools, and has an active developer community. We offer live feedback for your games every week, hosted by Dom - our resident indie dev who has been making games professionally for a decade, and regularly hosts game jams like Bullet Hell Jam!

For the jam, you'll probably be using HYPLAY login & leaderboards, which you should be able to get up and running with in less than half an hour. We've got an extensive quickstart guide in our docs, including easy-to-use instructions and plugins for Unity and, shortly, Godot.

When the main event (the “submission period”) is over, you’ll get the chance to rate other games in the jam. You’ll have two weeks to play and rate as many games as you can - your game must have at least 7 ratings to be considered for a prize. The best way to get more ratings is by giving more ratings! Your game shows up below any comments you make, so prioritise giving high quality feedback and your game will be seen by more people.

You’ll be rating each other’s games based on the following categories:

• Fun
• Originality
• Presentation (art/audio)
• Score Chasing
• Theme

Alongside this, the HYPLAY team will be judging games. The top prizes will be based on judge’s scores.