We're back for the second fully remote Southampton Game Jam! We're hoping to be back to normal soon but for now we are fully remote and don't require travel to Southampton! We're working hard to ensure it still has the community feel of our regular jams. Everyone is welcome, whether or not you've been to the Southampton Game Jam before.

For the first 5 days we will be operating as a site for Global Game Jam 2021. If you're able to get your game together in that time you're strongly encouraged to submit your game to Global Game Jam (and we'll provide more detailed instructions on how to do that closer to the
time).

If you're not able to complete your game in that time, or want more time to polish, we'll be continuing on our own for two weeks - giving plenty of time (including two full weekends) to pull together your game. Feel free to spend the full two weeks, or just a few hours, making your game, whatever is comfortable for you. It's especially important at this time to maintain your health so make sure you exercise and sleep properly.

As with previous Southampton Game Jams we'll be hosting showcases where we are encouraged to play and review each other's in-progress and finished games, and at the end there'll be a winner of the Southampton Game Jam's People's Choice Award.

Join us on the discord to form a team, discuss your ideas, and share in-progress screenshots/videos/etc.

Schedule

Theme

Diversifiers

Diversifiers are optional constraints you can choose to include in your game. We hope they will inspire you.

A11yversary* - Celebrate 10 years of accessibility diversifiers at GGJ by copying the features of Team Epic Wedgie's game from 2011 - include a tutorial, no reliance on sound or color alone, and one button controls. 

*In 2011 the Orlando site ran an accessibility challenge, that was the first time accessibility had been properly considered at GGJ and was the precursor to the accessibility diversifier category. The game that won it was by a team called Team Epic Wedgie, so this challenge is to implement the same feature set that they did in their GGJ game 10 years ago

Kitchen sink - Players have a choice between at least three different types of input device (e.g. keyboard, controller, mouse, eye tracking, potatoes)

Spinal Tap - The game has separate volume sliders for different types of sound effects  (e.g. footsteps, gunshots, ambience, engine, tyres)

Are we ASCIIng too much? - All the graphics in the game must be represented by ASCII. 

Double Take - Have moments in your game that have a different meaning when seen from another angle (like an ambigram).

Photograbetry - Go for a walk, collect/photograph 3-5 found objects, incorporate them into your game. 

Get to the point - Your in-game artwork should be in a Pointillist style.

Theme Song - The tutorial for your game is in the form of a song

Wilhelm - The characters in your game can only communicate by screaming (Bonus points if dialogue options give varying degrees of screaming!)

Vocalise - Every element (UI + gameplay) in your game is voiced by synthesized speech or a narrator.

RNG - Randomize Something that traditionally would not be randomized (e.g. jump height, starting location, hat, zoom level, gravity)

LOLCODE - Write your game in an esoteric programming language.

Moving the goalposts - The win condition of the game changes in some way each time it is played

Murphy's Law - Design a game where the goal is to fail in as many different ways as possible

Duetto - Create a game of twos: for two players, playable with two keys, using 2 sounds, 2 colours, 2 shapes, etc.

Smells like Success - Design a game you can play with your nose 

How many of you are in there? - Make a game where the character is controlled by multiple players.

Fake News - Create a game that focuses on the topic of disinformation in some way; creating it, preventing it, managing it, etc.

Games are for Everyone - Give traditionally underrepresented group(s) a voice in your game through characters, narrative or design.  

Starlight - Your game world is inspired by stars and constellations.

On the safe side - Make a game alone or in a team where all members are at least 100km apart.

Tu B'Shvat has arrived! - In honor of Tu B'Shvat, which falls this year on the first day of Global Game Jam, create a game set in, on or around a tree

A-Party - Make a game that can be played during a video call

Next Slide Please - Your game is made entirely in Powerpoint (or other presentation software). 

Snail's Pace - Your game is designed to be played over multiple days and cannot be sped up.

Core Exercise - (Sponsored by Manticore Games) Use the Core Games platform to create your game and use at least one community content item from another GGJ jammer.

Unlikely Allies - (Sponsored by Virtuos) Your game must support multiplayer crossplay between Mobile and PC.

It’s You + Me, Kid - (Sponsored by Carina Fund) Create a game designed for families to play together that secretly features maths.

The Possibilities are Endless - (Sponsored by Endless) Create a fun-first educational game—a game that captures the attention of kids but also educates around a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) topic.

The Feels - (Sponsored by Sony Interactive Entertainment)  We would like to encourage projects to come up with designs that take advantage of controller feel, game feel, and/or an emotional and honest personal story. 

Elevate - (Sponsored by NextNav) Create a game that uses vertical location (Learn more about vertical location, watch the webinar for ideas, and get the NextNav SDK or Unity Plug-In).

Destination: Happy Place - (Sponsored by Unity) Make a game that includes the journey or process (a location, an activity, an idea, people, and so on) to get to a place or state of mind that makes you happy.

Creating a PlayFab-ulous Game Loop - (Sponsored by Microsoft) Identify the best strategies for your game loop using PlayFab Experiments. The PlayFab Experiments feature helps you identify the best strategies for your game by helping you run multiple concurrent experiments and ensure statistical trustworthiness.

Rules

• All games should be made during the two weeks of the game jam.
• Teams should not meet physically to work on the game - tools such as Discord, Google Docs, and GitHub should be used to coordinate development.
• We don't accept any discriminatory content based on gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, religion, etc.
• All participants agree to the terms of participation.
• Wash your hands.