Welcome to the MSOE Game Development Club's 2023 Winer Game Jam!

This is a three-week-long game jam, focused on making games about our favorite aspects of the winter season.  This jam is one game, and every week a new element to be included in your game will be released.

Rules for the Jam:

1. All submissions are due on February 5th at 11:59 PM.

2. Nothing NSFW or overly inappropriate, just use common sense on this one, and if common sense isn't as common as I hope it is we'll just remove your game. 

3. You may work in teams, but at least one of the members on your team has to be a student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering

4. All engines are welcome!

Winter Elements (Released weekly):

Piece of Winter Clothing: GLOVES

Winter Creature: WOLF (January 21)

Winter Event: SNOWSTORM (January 28)


Judging Criteria:

Mechanics: How smooth your game feels to play. Bonus points if the mechanics you incorporate are famously difficult to incorporate

Aesthetics: How enjoyable your game is to the senses. Graphics, music, general beauty, or deliberate lack thereof. How good is its general vibe?

Implementation of Theme: How strongly you incorporate the elements announced each week. It's part of the challenge to not have the entire picture until a week away from the deadline

Fun Factor: How fun your game is to play. Does it have that "Just five more minutes" feeling to it?

Uniqueness: This one is almost impossible to appropriately quantify, but you understand when you see that someone has done something really special.

Here's a quick rundown of how this Game Jam works:

This jam is a three-week period in which you make one game, but for the first three Saturdays at noon, a new component that you must include in your game will be announced.

For example, the poster said that the first item would be a "piece of winter clothing", and today it's revealed that it's GLOVES. Therefore, you would need to include gloves in your game somehow. As more and more elements are announced, they must also be included.

At the end of the jam, you submit the game that includes all of the themes specified.


Here are the answers to a few questions you might have:

What is a Game Jam?

Great question! Game jams are Video Game making contests, normally placed under a time limit. In other words, you have a set amount of time to make a video game, and your goal is to make it better than all the other people who are trying to make a game during the same time period, all competing for a prize

Why would I want to do a Game Jam?

Another great question! One major reason is for the fun of it, and some people do it for a chance to build their skills under a timed environment. If you're on the hunt for an internship, it also serves as a great opportunity to work on an Independent project, as there is not only a structure built around it, but there are also actionable rankings and you could list a winning game as such on your resume!