This is a beginner friendly Playdate game jam with prizes organized by Uncrank'd, the Playdate magazine created by fans for the Playdate community. We're excited to see what you'll craft during this smaller winter game jam! 

Create and submit a unique and interesting game for the Playdate following the themes of the jam period.

• Game must run on Playdate Simulator.
• No pre-made games allowed.
• AI Art is not allowed (Refer to question 4 in the Q & A section for details.)
• Teams of any size are allowed.
• Credit pre-made assets if used.
• Follow the themes.
• No NSFW or Discriminatory content.
• You may use AI to help with coding & writing.
• Majority of your game needs to be crafted during the jam.

Follow at least one of the themes given. Judges may give you bonus points for implementing all the themes; however, implementing one theme well is preferred over implementing every theme hastily.

https://youtu.be/VoYjMfnxGrg

The three themes are live. Check out the YouTube video.

To win any of the prizes included in this jam:

1. You must have reached the legal age of consent or provide us with written approval by your caregivers.
2. Winning prizes in contests like this one needs to be legal in your country.

All devs/teams who submit a game will receive a certificate and wristband. If a participating dev would like to reserve a copy of Uncrank'd #7, reach out to Xania and she will put you on the issue seven list.

Prizes include:

1st prize: A custom made Playdate item, a Hello Playdate Podcast T-shirt, Uncrank'd issue 4 signed by Don, Nick & Ryan.

2nd prize: A choice of Playdate covers (Aqua, Pizza or Purple), a tote bag, blanket or t-shirt along with art from your game immortalized as a 3d printed art piece.

3rd, 4th & 5th prize: A copy of Uncrank'd Magazine of your choice (Issues 1 to 6).

All game jam devs will be in issue 7 of Uncrank'd and have the option to be a part of the Uncrank'd Playdate Atelier.

Winners will be announced on Saturday March 1st.

Our panel of judges are from within the Playdate community will review and rate your submissions (out of 5) based on the following three categories:

• Originality
• Enjoyment
• Bonus points

Points in the bonus points category will be given out based on accessibility, great implementation of one or more of the themes, and generally being outstanding. 

Join the Uncrank'd Magazine Discord server to stay connected with other participants and discuss everything from theme predictions to development hurdles. 

Link: https://discord.gg/hQ76Xx833H

It's a great place to find teammates, share resources, and get inspired.

Got questions? We've got answers! Let us know your questions in the Discord server and we'll post the answers to the most common questions here!

Q1: May I use libraries for my game? 

A: Most definitely!

Q2: How do the prizes get split up amongst the winners?

A: If a team wins, please discuss who will receive the main prize. Xania will make sure that everyone gets something (aside from the certificate & wristband) for all the hard work that has been put into the games.

Q3: May I use Text-to-Speech for the game?

A: Absolutely, as long as there's no copyright infringement and you mention the tool used when submitting your game.

Q4: Why is AI allowed to help with coding and writing, but not for art?

A: Great question! We believe that certain tools, such as ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot, are great for accessibility and will become normalized as helpers in day to day work. Using these tools will assist you in creating the game and not fully replace your own creative input. Simply asking ChatGPT to code your game, or write the story, will not get you to a winning product with the current state of technology. However, it can be very useful to get you started on a product, which you can then improve with your expertise. We think of text based AI as being similar in spirit to how the use of autocorrect and googling coding questions has been normalized. There's a great article regarding this in Uncrank'd Magazine Issue 3.

As for AI Art: We feel as though using this technology in a game jam can potentially undermine the spirit of creativity and individual talent that are central to these events. We hope to foster a place of collaboration between creative people, and therefore see AI art as a hindrance to this goal.

There are of course deeper ethical questions behind why one should or shouldn't use AI in general, as well as copyright issues depending on the usage, but to simplify our stance:

We believe that using AI for coding and writing is a tool which assists developers and can help a lot with accessibility, while using AI art actively incentivizes not teaming up with artists and could potentially replace them in this jam scenario, which would be against the spirit of what we're going for.

Check out last year's game jam victory lap video:

Good luck and remember to have fun!