Living and Fighting in the Cold and Dark is the Ukraine Winter game jam theme!

Make a game based on a specific theme over the course of a month! After submitting your game it will be rated by judges and you will be entered for a chance to win a prize.

Submitted jam games will be judged by some of the top game devs in the world, such as Tamara (of Tamara Makes Games), Jason Storey (a leading software architecture expert), Jason Weimann (expert dev and the author of top dev courses and tutorials) and Oleksandr Sienin of Starni Games and dev of "Ukraine War Stories."

Many of the submitted games will be reviewed by our judges during a live stream.

Regardless of your level of experience, all are encouraged to participate. Even if you don’t complete a game there is a lot to be said about the experience earned during the attempt.

While jamming you can support Ukraine by donating to the groups below.
Razom for Ukraine supports civilian humanitarian projects in Ukraine.
Ukraine Drone Warriors buys and builds drones for Ukrainian combat drone teams.

This game jam is dedicated to our fellow game developers in Ukraine who inspire us with their determination, creativity, and inspiring works in the face of the current hardships they’re living in.

We would like to take a moment to honor these developers : 

- Tamara from the “Tamara Makes Games” youtube channel where she provides viewers with both dev logs and game dev tutorials.

- Oleksandr Sienin, of Starni Games, lead creator of the video game "Ukraine War Stories" available free on Steam. Here's a link to Oleksandr talking about developing the game.

- Volodymyr Yezhov was one of the developers of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video game series.
He was killed fighting in Bakhmut on December 22nd. Here's a video memorializing him.

-  Martian Teapot game dev team is a group of kids continuing to do game dev in Sumy despite frequent missile and artillery strikes. In July they released on Steam the game Trash Is Fun. 

We hope you will join us on Discord on January 27th when we will announce the Theme of the jam!

Living and Fighting in the Cold and Dark

You're welcome to use any assets you have the legal right to use commercially.  It's polite to always credit asset sources in your games. You may use any game engine or programming language you wish to produce your game.

• Submissions must be fully playable
• Submissions must be made during the jam period specifically for the jam.  No previous works may be submitted.
• Individual & Team participation are allowed at your discretion.
• Multiple submissions are encouraged!
• Your jam games must be released as free for the duration of the jam to be considered eligible for a prize.

The games must not include offensive, discriminatory, or NSFW content of any kind. This is an event for anyone and everyone! So don’t be rude. Also, your game must not contain anything that breaks itch.io ToS or local laws.

Games will be judged on the following criteria : 

1. Game Design: Are the elements of the game’s design cohesive?
2. Fun: Is the game enjoyable, do we want to continue playing/play again?
3. Innovation: How does the game do something unique?
4. Theme: How well does the game follow the given theme?
5. Graphics: Do the graphics flow well to create an atmosphere that goes well with your game?
6. Audio: Do the sounds of your game bring your world to life? 

The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place winners each get one of the four prizes. 1st place chooses a prize first, 2nd place chooses second, 3rd place chooses third, and 4th place gets the remaining prize.

Jason Weimann's "Full Path Bundle" of beginner to advanced game dev training courses, worth $997. 

Nature Manufacture's "Environment Bundle - Dynamic Nature" worth $343. 

A 1-year Pro subscription to the Codecks game dev online project and community management platform worth $118. 

"Now We're Talking!" adds automatic mouth movements to low poly characters synchronized to voice clips, worth $25.

You must provide us with an executable or an online playable version of the game on or before the submission deadline so your game can be evaluated by our game jam Judges.   

Remember to create a poster image and write a description of your game:  indicate the software used, and the programming language, and remember to explain how your game is played, especially if it is not explained in the game. You need to upload your game to itch.io for scoring to take place.  ;

Publishing on itch.io is a requirement for this jam.