Welcome to the raylib Slo-Jam!
This is a low pressure game jam with a focus on quality and polish, using the raylib library!
GameJam Goal
The goal of this gamejam is to have participants all make the same kind of game, using raylib and not be rushed by short time constraints. The focus is on quality and polish, not scope and features. We want you to make the best game you can based on the theme.
Theme
Everyone who participates in the jam will be building the classic arcade game.
Asteroids
Every entry must be based on the core concepts of the asteroids game, and have the following basic requirements.
- Player must move.
- Forward and Rotation at a minimum.
- Player must shoot something.
- There must be some kind of moving obstacle/target that can be shot
- Some way to lose
- Lives
- Health
- Etc…
Recommended Features
- Obstacles of different sizes
- Some kind of score system.
- Increasing difficulty over time
- Additional Enemies that shoot back
Be innovative, expand and extend the base game concept, try it with different themes or settings (does not need to be in space). Add powerups and challenges, or anything you can think of.
Games to get inspiration from
- Asteroids (obviously)
- Sinistar (Run coward!)
- Blasteroids
- Subspace/Cosmic Rift
- Maelstrom
- Lunatic Fringe
Constraints
It would not be a gamejam without some constraints.
- The game must be compiled to WebAssembly, it must be uploaded to itch.io and must run on the browser. This is simply so that all games can be judged on the same footing.
- Game resources package (.data) MUST be under 64MB
- Work must be done between December 4th 2023, and January 8th
- High quality end product with lots of polish.
Recommended requirements
- Use the provided raylib template (highly recommended)
- Game should be playable with Keyboard/Mouse and Touch
- Game should be open source and available in GitHub
REMEMBER: A GitHub raylib game template for has been created, everyone is free to use it! It’s a great starting point
Rules
- An itch.io account is required to join the jam and submit your entry.
- Team submissions are acceptable for teams of 4 members or less. (Prizes are awarded for each submission, not the individual contributors)
- All the content used in the game must be free and public for use. In case of doubt is highly recommended to ask the content creator! Music/Fonts must be royalty/copyright free and properly credited. A list of resources is provided at the end of this file. Any art/music/resources from copyrighted properties will result in a disqualification.
- Game must not contain illegal, hateful, derogatory, NSFW or bigoted content. It won't be tolerated any kind of racism, sexism, or any other form of discrimination. If there is any case, the game will be disqualified.
- Game must be created and submitted within the gamejam time frame.
- No late entries will be accepted.
Rating
Games will be rated with a 5-star system in three different categories:
- Innovation: How does the game innovate and expand upon the base game?
- Fun: Is the game enjoyable to play?
- Polish: What is the overall quality of the game, and was the time well spent?
Games will be rated by a panel of judges.
The jury for the gamejam will be disclosed the same day the gamejam ends. All of them are experienced videogames/software developers.
The rating period will be 1 WEEK after the gamejam ends, in that time people and jury can play and rate all the submitted games.
Prizes
The experience itself is way more valuable than any other prize! Actually, finishing a game under the constraints of this gamejam is a BIG achievement on itself... but prizes are nice too.
60$(USD) Steam card 100$(USD) Blizzard Card
AND 
The prizes will be given to entries, one for each category.
- Best overall
- Most innovative
- Most Polished
The winner of each category gets the same prize. An entry can only win in one category, so there will be 3 winners. Additional prizes may be awarded for honorable mention based on the submissions
Tips
- You can use the provided GitHub raylib game template, it includes automatic game building on every commit for Windows, Linux and WebAssembly!
- Join raylib Discord server, for any notifications about the jam and to meet other participants and hype yourself up before the event! After the jam starts you can also share your progress in the #raylib-gamejam or #madewithraylib channel or ask the community any issue that could arise.
- Prioritize quality over quantity. This jam is all about polish and producing a quality game that you can be proud of.
- Try to make your game easy to understand for new players, avoid complicated game schemes.
- It's recommended that you keep your game difficulty low for the players, too difficult games could frustrate the players.
- A gamejam is a great opportunity to try new game mechanics, new controls, new graphics style... consider that!
- Remember to tag raylib your itch.io game: Edit Game > Metadata > Engines & Tools > raylib
- Feel free to tweet your game progress with the hashtag #raylibslojam or just #raylib
Recommended Timeline
Since the game Jam will be 4 weeks long, it is a good idea to structure your time accordingly.
Week 1
Planning and Design. You make a basic design document or write up with the features in scope. At the end if this week you know what you want to make and have started making it.
Week 2
You code, you have made a web build with something, just to make sure you can do a web build. If not, you ask for help and solve that issue immediately. Trying a web build should not be the last thing you do.
Week 3
Finish main coding, you should be feature complete at the end of this week.
Week 4,
Polish and bugfix. You spend this week not adding new features, but tweaking and cleaning up existing features until they are perfect.
Resources
Essential resources (mandatory to check):
- raylib webpage - To download raylib Windows Installer for easy setup
- raylib github - To download raylib source code or release packages
- raylib game template - A preconfigured GitHub template to use as the base for your raylib game
- raylib Web Compilation Tutorial - A detailed Wiki tutorial to compile your raylib game for web
- raylib games collection - A collection of games running on web and made with raylib
Additional resources (recommended to check):
- ASSETS: Kenney Assets - An amazing collection of free game assets
- ASSETS: Kay Lousberg free Game Assets - A great collection of free game assets
- ASSETS: Open Game Art - Another collection of art assets (LICENSE)
- TOOL: Piskel - A free online editor for animated sprites & pixel art
- TOOL: Photopea - A free online photo editor
- TOOL: Paletton - A free colour scheme designer
- TOOL: Colormind - A free colour scheme generator
- TOOL: rFXGen - A simple and easy-to-use fx sounds generator
- TOOL: ChipTone - A free tool for generating sound effect
- TOOL: Bosca Ceoil - A free, easy to use tool for creating music!
- TOOL: BeepBox - An online tool for sketching and sharing instrumental music
- TOOL: JummBox - An online tool for sketching and sharing chiptune melodies
FAQ
Can I use stuff that I already made?
You can use previous material created by you but the spirit of the jam is to make something new. Also note that game MUST follow the theme proposed for the jam that is disclosed in the moment the jam starts.
Do I have to do everything myself from scratch?
Not really, you can use free/public art/audio assets, some Resources are provided for that. Make sure the assets you use are free for use or in the public domain. Also note that you can team up with other jammers up to 4 people if desired.
Is there any template to start working on the gamejam game?
YES! There is a GitHub raylib game template available to use as a GitHub template and start working on the gamejam game, everyone is free to use it! The template includes automatic game building for Windows, Linux, WebAssembly on every commit!
Can I update the game during the voting period?
No, once the gamejam is finished is not possible to update it. If there was any special situation, please contact me on Discord. I will review each case individually. Please, be careful when submitting your game.
Is there a Discord I can join to meetup other jammers?
Yes, you can join raylib Discord, there is a specific #gamejam channel to talk about the gamejam.
Legal
Game creators retain all rights of the game jam submitted game.
Good Luck and Have fun! :D
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