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Hi everyone,

The judges need more time to review, therefor the ranking period has been extended to Friday, November 8th at 5pm PST / 8pm PST / (Nov 9) 2:00 CET.

Results and Awards Announcement will now go out Friday, November 15th at 9am PST / 12 Noon EST / 18:00 CET

In the meantime, it would be a huge help if each team could send a 30-60 second clip of their game to be included in the results video. Not a trailer, just game footage. Still images are also accepted. Please send these materials to apocalypsegamejam@gmail.com before next Sunday, November 10th.

-Bismod

Hi everyone!

The Apocalypse Jam submission period is officially closed. Congratulations to the 13 teams who submitted games this year!

The submitters, contributors, and judges now have just over a week to check out and vote on the games.

Ranking Ends: Monday, November 4 at 5pm PST / 8pm PST / (Nov 4) 2:00 CET Results and Awards Announced: Monday, November 11th at 9am PST / 12 Noon EST / 18:00 CET

Note: if you did not submit a game AND are not affiliated with one of the submitting teams, reach out to me if you want to join the judges! apocalypsegamejam@gmail.com

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Submitters and Contributors are to rank games on the following criteria:

AESTHETICS - This includes visuals, graphics, sound design, music, and VO. Consider quality, uniqueness, effectiveness, and how these engage with the intention of the game and the themes.

WRITING - This includes story, dialogue, and UI language.  Consider quality, uniqueness, effectiveness, and how these engage with the intention of the game and the themes.

GAMEPLAY - This includes game mechanics, gameplay design, and the overall experience of play. Consider quality, uniqueness, effectiveness, how engaging, fun, or enjoyable it is. Consider how these factors engage with the intention of the game and the themes.

INNOVATION - Consider how unique or innovative the game or the subject matter is.

THEME - How well does this game incorporate the main theme (Apocalypse) or any chosen subthemes?

SUBMITTER'S CHOICE - Your pick for top game overall for the jam. Consider the other criteria, whether it stands out, how polished it is, etc.

Enjoy the games!

-Bismod

Hi everyone,

As a reminder, you can join the Apocalypse Jam Discord to chat with other jammers, show off your progress, and share other apocalyptic games. https://discord.gg/JM4v6nQQbr

That said, anyone here on Discord is welcome to  look for teams or team members as a reply to this post.

-Bismod

“And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;” -Revelation 6:12

Gather round, doomers, Apocalypse Jam 2024 is upon us,

This game jam is about the end of the world in all its forms. The main theme is Apocalypse: it could be the collapse of modern society and nature, sudden disasters, post-cataclysmic survival scenarios, literal or figurative apocalypse, a historical doomsday, a pessimistic future, or some completely off-the-wall interpretation.

This year we have four optional subthemes. These themes are all up for their own voting category and can be seen as a jumping off point for your ideas:

• Bug Out Games related to emergency prepping, survivalism, prepper culture, and what you have in your bug out bag.

• Eschatology Games related to mythological prophecies about the end of the world such as Ragnarök in Norse mythology, the end of the Fifth Sun in Aztec beliefs, and the Book of Revelation in the New Testament, etc.

• AI Games related to how Artificial Intelligence might irrevocably change or utterly destroy humanity. These games can be about simulated minds, machines gaining true consciousness, or generative AI like ChatGPT that’s already making an impact on the world.*

• Cult This theme is for games about doomsday cults and ushering in the end-of-the-world through supernatural means or shared ideals.

*Using automation or generative AI in your game making process IS allowed, but use it minimally and in an interesting way. Make sure to disclose how you implemented AI in your submission. Learn about itch.io’s rules on AI here.

JAM DETAILS

Deadline: You have until Sunday, October 27 at 7pm PDT / 10pm EDT / (Oct 28) 3:00 CET to submit your games.

Constraints: You may use existing assets and already have a rough idea of what you want to make, but your game must be created and submitted within the timeframe of the jam to be eligible for the award categories. Every game should engage in at least one of the themes.

Discord: Join the Apocalypse Jam Discord to chat with other jammers, show off your progress, and share other apocalyptic games. https://discord.gg/JM4v6nQQbr

Resources: First-time jammers may want to check out IndieCade's jam resources (you can skip the Climate Jam specific parts), here is a list of resources to help you get started as well as additional "tiny game" tools here.

Voting and Awards: Submitters and Contributors will rank games on the following criteria:

• AESTHETICS - This includes visuals, graphics, sound design, music, and VO. Consider quality, uniqueness, effectiveness, and how these engage with the intention of the game and the themes.
• WRITING - This includes story, dialogue, and UI language.  Consider quality, uniqueness, effectiveness, and how these engage with the intention of the game and the themes.
• GAMEPLAY - This includes game mechanics, gameplay design, and the overall experience of play. Consider quality, uniqueness, effectiveness, how engaging, fun, or enjoyable it is. Consider how these factors engage with the intention of the game and the themes.
• INNOVATION - Consider how unique or innovative the game or the subject matter is.
• THEME - How well does this game incorporate the main theme (Apocalypse) or any chosen subthemes?
• SUBMITTER'S CHOICE - Your pick for top game overall for the jam. Consider the other criteria, whether it stands out, how polished it is, etc.

There will also be judge rankings for BEST OVERALL and BEST USE OF for each of the themes.

If anyone is not participating but would like to help us judge the games please reach out to apocalypsegamejam@gmail.com

Prizes: The Best Overall and the Submitter's Choice teams will each receive a 100% off discount code to submit one game to IndieCade 2025 (any game is allowed). All award winners will receive jam-branded patches, and a 20% off discount code to submit to IndieCade 2025.

Please reach out if you want to contribute something else as a prize!

Good luck on your games! Apocalypse Jam Team

Check out the Discord server as well, should start becoming active soon: https://discord.gg/JM4v6nQQbr

Check out the Discord server as well, should start becoming active soon: https://discord.gg/JM4v6nQQbr

It's up now! https://discord.gg/JM4v6nQQbr

Still need to make some updates but you can join the server.

This might have been answered somewhere, since it did get submitted, but is there still an issue?

Absolutely, any sort of game (or gamemaking tool) is allowed.

You can give them to someone else or we can give them to the runner-up in your category.

Congrats on winning Best Overall! 

Please contact me about your prizes. apocalypsegamejam@gmail.com

Congrats on winning Best Use of Theme: Transhumanism!
Please contact me about your prize. apocalypsegamejam@gmail.com

Congratulations on winning Best Overall at Apocalypse Jam 2022!

Congratulations on winning Best use of theme: Transhumanism at Apocalypse Jam 2022!

Yes, you can still participate! If you win we'll still send you your awards, it might just take a very long time to get there.

You are also welcome to join the Discord. It's quiet now but that's the best place for participants and potential participants to communicate.

October is still on! We are now going with October 21-31. It will be pretty low-key this year as I'm really the only organizer but I hope people participate!

There is now! Apocalypse Jam Discord
I just made it so it's extremely barebones, I'll work on filling it out over the weekend.

Apologies for the delay in responding! I have extended the dates so you now have Oct 21-31 to work on your project. For now the rules are that existing assets are allowed (including snippets of code pulled from other projects) but actually working on your entry should happen during the span of the jam. There's a (very basic) Discord now so as more people show up if there's a consensus that these rules should be changed I'm open to making adjustments. 

Things have come up for me that mean I will need to reschedule this jam.  I am looking at early to mid December, while keeping in mind that many people will be traveling during that month. Anyone have a preference? Related, do we want to stick to a one week jam or extend to two weeks? If we go with one week we could use the week after Christmas, leading up to New Years for some added thematic appropriateness. Let me know your thoughts

Any sort of game is welcome. I expect mostly video-games.

Thank you!

Hoping this reaches Hazel-Rah. I'm putting together a jam of this same theme and found yours. I'd like to also use the name Apocalypse Jam (with 2022 in this case) since this isn't being used any more. Is that alright with you? Do you want to be involved?