FINAL UPDATE: "Awards of Actual Value" 29 October 2021

With a bit of an extended voting period behind the scenes, we're going into (and out of) Halloween Weekend with our final awards announcements! Keep an eye out for an email with details on claiming your award.

SUPER MEGA UPDATE OCTOBER 7TH: THE THEME IS....

"HAUNTED"

Global Game Jam, Ostara: Games for Spring, and Insert Game [Here] have grown exponentially as access points to game development in the winter, spring, and summer, but what if you still have an itch in your skeleton to make something new this fall? The UNO Criss Library Creative Production Lab and RHO Interactive are serving a heaping stack of fun with a Halloween-flavored game jam event dedicated to easing new designers into the challenge of game design.  

Anyone interested in talking with other participants to form a new team or get tips can join our Discord server. The Discord community is your lifeline to all things Spoopy Jam.

NEW FOR 2021: Every board game that completes a print-and-play version or a complete box-set will have their creation printed in the CPL and added to the Criss Library Board Game Collection for patron checkout. Any video game made to the specifications of our arcade machine will get added to public play rotation.

OCTOBER 5TH UPDATE: MUTATORS AND AWARDS!!!

This year Blacks in Technology Omaha are sponsoring AWARDS OF ACTUAL VALUE! These will be emailed to the first listed contact for the chosen game after the event.

Mutators are entirely optional challenges intended on getting your creative juices flowing while guiding developers towards making new design decisions during the event. Feel free to let these inspire you to go in any direction you want!

Developers are free to make any kind of game or experience they want so long as it can be posted in a digitally playable/accessible form here on itch.io. This includes web games, downloadable executables, mods within existing games/engines, or even links to active GoogleDocs or shared printable documents. The theme, mutators, and Awards of Questionable Value are jumpstarting points, NOT boundaries. Including existing assets and code are absolutely welcome to make your game move along a lil faster, just make sure you have the appropriate license/copyright to distribute them as part of your game. All we ask is that your game is new and unique to this jam and not a repost, classic-hack, or spam.

The secret theme is announced via live video drop on October 7th.  Everyone is given 10 days of prep before the final rush weekend and presentations. 

PROJECT PITCH & TEAMBUILDING: On Sunday the 10th from 2pm to 5pm, everyone is given an opportunity to pitch their idea or budding project via Discord Live to assemble a team or find help for the work crunch.  

UPDATE: On Thursday October 14th everyone is invited to the monthly Omaha Game Developers Association Meeting at Do Space.  While we would normally do the theme drop for the 48 hr version at this meetup, this time around it'll be an open teambuilding event for folks looking to add some muscle to their dev team for the final weekend. This will also be available for remote participation on discord! You can find out more information about the OGDA meeting from Meetup, and at the DoSpace Calendar.

Members of the UNO community are welcome to come into the CPL and utilize any computers or equipment on hand for development, including our new Board Game Kit Bash Case. This rolling cart unit includes a plethora of supplies for getting your board game started and playable.

We welcome first time game developers! Designers, artists, musicians, programmers, voice actors, hobbyists, educators, anyone and everyone is welcome to try their hand at making a game. If video games aren't your thing or access to hardware is an issue, you're encouraged to test the waters by making a board game! To help everyone have remote access to creative software, CPL staff have compiled a list of open-source options HERE.

Anyone can participate, as long as they are over the age of 18. More information and registration can be found at insertgamehere.org

Schedule (US Central Standard - Chicago Timezone)

Thursday October 7th

7:00  P.M.: Theme announced via Discord, YouTube Live, and here!

Sunday October 10th

2 P.M. - 5 P.M.: Team-building and project pitch meeting via Discord.

Thursday October 14th

7:00 -8:30  P.M.: OGDA Monthly Meetup and Final Countdown Teambuilder via discord and...IN PERSON!

Saturday October 16th

12 A.M. - 11 P.M.: Spoopy Crunch Time. Everyone is given the entire day and evening to work on their games alongside a fully active Discord. Chat. Check in. Eat candy.

Sunday October 17th

12 A.M. - 3 P.M.: Final Development Time!

3 – 5 P.M.: Presentations of final projects via Discord

7 P.M.: Deadline for itch.io game submissions online.