Sure thing!

There are 12 themes. Each theme consists of three randomly picked emojis and may be interpreted in any way you like.

People are encouraged to pick one theme per game, but they remain entirely optional. 

All themes are listed on the game jam page here: https://itch.io/jam/make12-2025#Themes

You'll see in the "Themes" section a list of 12 items, each one corresponding to a theme. Although they are numbered, you may choose them in any order. Next of each trio of emojis, the names of the emojis are written in plain text to help comprehension. I added because of some particularly unclear emojis, such as the "Notepad with decorative cover".

What is Make12?

By the end of 2025, I will have created 12 new games. 

I know how to makes games, I've made them for over a decade, but still, I don't make enough and I still have a lot to learn, even in my field of expertise. I challenged myself to make 12 games in 2025, and to learn something new in each one of those. Networking, 3D art, actual sound design, you name it.

This challenge is inspired by Joel Haver's goal of making 12 feature length films in 2024, which he successfully completed on December 31st.

Why Join?

You want to surpass yourself surrounded by like-minded people. You want, one year from now, to look down from climbing Game Dev Mountain et be proud of how much you've learned and accomplished.

Your one-year journey starts here: Make12 - 2025 - itch.io

Let's meet on Discord: Make12 Discord

Tell Me More

Everything you need to know should be on the jam's page. Things are kept simple to be more manageable. You are more than welcome to choose your own layers of constraints and complexity on top of what is suggested.

I've been asked whether there is a Discord server for the jam.

There wasn't, now there is, right here: https://discord.gg/FYJc5sbSQW

It's fully optional.

When you submit games to the jam, they won't be bundled together as being your games.

To give a better feel of how your own personal Make12 challenge is doing, you are welcome to create a post on the jam in which you share your games along with any information you deem relevant as the year goes on. You don't have to if you don't want to, but I'd love to hear about your progress.

Very nice game, thanks for sharing it!

For future players, I would recommend going through the entire game without interruption.

I had to leave at some point and couldn't pause, so I just left the game running. When I came back, all that was left were two little fire blobs. No trees, no house, nothing else but grass, dirt and the two blobs.

I can only agree with that.

I'm glad you love it! Thank you for the kind words :)

Isolation

{"c2tilemap":true,"width":15,"height":15,"data":"94x0,4,2,4hd,0,4,2,4hd,8x0,2vd,3,2hd,0,2vd,5,2hd,8x0,4vd,2hv,4hv,0,4vd,2hv,4hv,94x0"}

Glad you noticed! :D

I know that feeling.

Nice!! Well done! Is there an upgrade you liked more than the others?

This is something to be proud of. I salute your ability at using, and having, teeth. 

It would be so eerie if the game was cursed and you'd be eating actual minutes of your life in it.

Thank you for the kind words! It's truly appreciated.

I think it happened to me too... Shaking it around may help fix it. Also, not real medical advice, so if you broke your real life jaw, shaking it around may not be a good idea.

We used this awesome asset in our game jam game, Feedback Loop, and we love it. Thank you for sharing it!

Turns out the throw feature was crappy. I improved it and I made it so if the throw has 0 strength (can happen even when it shouldn't because lag and stuff) the phone is not thrown and you can try again. Also, you should have more control over the angle and distance. I suppose you have no time left to lose with this game, and that's ok. Just wanted you thank you for your feedback and tell you it was taken into account.

Only the Windows version has been updated at the moment. Other versions may follow (depends on my teammate).

Or it can be used as inspiration for another game :)

Thanks for the feedbakc! We think the same. The aiming up and down part is semi-functional: the angle at which you drag the mouse influences the angle. But again, a UI would have helped make that more clear.

Oh cool, I'll give it another try, thanks!

As Radlas said, excellent aesthetic and game premise. They give the game a lot of potential and the end left me wanting a bigger game with more "updates". Thank you for making this game :)

I really feel the theme. I tried a few times to get to the phone power up, but playing with a trackpad made me die quite quickly. Very cool game, and even though I couldn't use the phone, I think the idea of calling someone with it is awesome. Excellent implementation of the theme and special feature. Thank you for making this game!

Clever name, clever design. My buttonless trackpad is probably not the best input method, but I'm pretty sure it plays well with a mouse. If you ever think of changing the inputs, I'd suggest arrows to move, ASWD to attack and space to scan. Thank you for making this game!

(spoilers ahead)

Couldn't make it to the end since game restart on death. Would have loved a few checkpoints, but that's very personnal. Nice game, I liked the way things became progressively more glitchy. The telephone looked really pasted over an existing feature of an existing game though and didn't make much sense, but the gravity feature was still fun to use.

When in "throw mode", press and hold the left mouse button, then give the mouse a good hard swipe right and quickly release the mouse button. I hope it works!

You just have to throw you phone at people. We didn't have time to add in a tutorial before the jam's deadline, sorry about that!

I see from your rating that you didn't like the game. Sorry for wasting your time. Do you know what kind of warning I could give people with similar tastes to avoid wasting their time too? Thanks!

This feels like a memory I'm trying my hardest to remember but fail doing so.

Thank you! I really like how you just added multiplayer to games that can perfectly be played alone. Adds a nice depth.

Apart from the fact that this gem of a game has been overlooked, I was wondering about what you use for online gameplay.

Please tell, if you don't mind :)

I thought the game had been uploaded 6 days ago (itch only shows last update, not original upload date). Nevertheless, it's still awesome <3

I love how it was submitted to the Indiepocalypse, but not the Game Off (for which the theme is "Bug"). Makes it feel more real.

Please make it optional! I liked to learn as I go and deciphering the game was part of the fun (at least to me).

Those pixel art teeth are so small! Well done and thanks for the fan art :)

As this was intended, thank you. Got two go, I really need to feel like raw bones.

😬Always more teeth

That's what my mom said to the doctor the moment I was born.

Thanks man, glad you enjoyed!

Where am I?

The aesthetic (graphics+audio) is beautiful, and the difficulty is just right. Thank you for this pleasant experience :)

I encountered a small bug with a "hurt" sound playing endlessly when I beat the final boss, but it didn't affect my appreciation of your game.