itch.io

Absolutely! In fact I highly recommend uploading your work as you go. I have seen so many people who missed the deadline because they had trouble with the final upload. Don’t let that happen to you.

There are only two ways you can use copyrighted materials that you did not create.

1. You have a license to use the material, usually by paying for it.
2. The specific copyright license on the material allows you to use it, for instance Creative Commons or others.

If you meet these requirements you still need to be careful about including the material in your code repository.

In game jams, you are usually allowed to interpret the theme very broadly. So, yes in a sense a lot of games have “secrets”.

If you are stuck, my advice is to start making something, anything, and keep thinking about how you can incorporate the theme. Something will come to you.

Yes, AI tools are allowed.

I swear this was on one of the main pages, either the FAQ or the Rules, but now I can’t find it.

You can use any game engine you want. Just make sure that you have your custom code in a public Github repository.

Yes.

Yes, VR is fine. But, it will probably mean that a lot less people will have the hardware to review your game.

Still, if that is what you want to do, go for it.

We really need to pin a message about adding assets to the repository or add it to the main FAQ. I have seen this come up half a dozen times, either here or on the Discord.

I’m pretty sure that would be fine. Four colors does not mean it should exclusively be old-school pixel art.

Look at a game like APE OUT. It isn’t exactly four colors, but it’s close.

There probably isn’t a lot of stuff to play yet, but if you want to see what people are up to the best play would be in work-in-progress on Discord. https://discord.com/channels/375590051767123968/375679421761323022

Are you expecting people to criticize you? If you are familiar with Scratch, then that will save you some time. Game jams are supposed to be fun, and if you have fun with Scratch then go for it.

However, you do need to have a Github repository with your custom code in it by the end of the jam so make sure that you use a tool that works with that requirement. I do not know if the browser-based Scratch tools make exporting the code easy.

It may be surprising, but game mechanics are the least protected part of any video game. That’s why there are so many clones of simple mechanics, for instance match-three games. The things you cannot copy too closely are graphics, sounds, text and trademarks.

IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer)

Github is a way to store your code. You should have one copy of your code in a local git repository and you should push that code up to Github at least once at the end of the jam. Experienced users push their code up much more often - basically every time they make any serious changes.

As for the tools for making a game, you can start with the list at the bottom of the announcement for this jam. https://itch.io/jam/game-off-2024#:~:text=New%20to%20game%20development%3F

This is a gray area. You can take college classes that are entirely dedicated to intellectual property, so I can’t give you a perfect answer just based on your question.

In general, if you are just imitating a particular art style, or using tropes from a specific genre then you are fine.

On the other hand, if you are planning on “copying” large parts of a specific work, like names, plot, art assets, music, etc. then you are probably be going to far.

When you say you “downloaded Github” can you be more specific about what you downloaded?

And what does “codes downloaded from the side” mean? Are you trying to download code from the site?

Yes, this is the Github Game Off, so that is a requirement.

Yes, if your game can meet the requirements of more than one jam then you can submit it anywhere you like.

IANAA (I Am Not An Admin)

No, that’s all that we could get done. I don’t usually do short jams and could only work on it when I wasn’t at my job or spending time with my family.

I made sure the mechanics were working and that we had the primary game loop, a win condition and some sound effects.

We only had time for one level, but we plan on adding more when the jam is over.

When playing this on a Mac, I was zoomed in so much that I couldn’t see anything until I was right on top of it.

Of course, a Mac build is not a requirement for this game jam, so it won’t effect your rating.

If the customers ask for things you haven’t unlocked yet, that would force the player to keep spending money.

This is really great.

It would be better if the weights were a little more realistic. A toothbrush does not weigh that much. Or, maybe you could label things like “pack of toothbrushes” to keep people guessing.

Also, there should be some indication when the weights become “known”. I was still guessing for a while before I realized that I didn’t have to.

But, for a four day game jam this is a well-polished experience. Good job!

Post your work in progress. Here is mine.

https://rolodmonkey.itch.io/moonshot/devlog/254110/release-020

Thank you.

Is there a Discord channel for this Jam, or will we just be posting here?

I started a game in a Jam last November and I didn’t get as much finished as I wanted. For this Jam, I hope to get it to the point where it to the minimum to be considered “complete”.

https://rolodmonkey.itch.io/moonshot

The code is on GitHub, and you can follow the progress here. Everything is open source.

https://github.com/RoloDMonkey/moonshot/milestones

https://itch.io/jam/game-off-2020/rate/836386

I have been rating by submission order, and this is the first game that I really wanted to play for more than a few minutes.

It would be really nice if there was an explanation of input, what the goal was and what each upgrade did.

I literally have no idea how to play this game. I figured out how to move and jump, but I don’t know what the goal is. Are you supposed to hit things, or shoot things?

There also isn’t any indication of how much damage you have taken, or how many points you have received.

It is not what was intended. But, I couldn’t fix it before the deadline.

I left it in debug mode, since it is just a prototype and everything is open source.

Unfortunately, no. I was working on that just before the deadline but the way I was trying to do it didn’t work.

Thanks for letting me know.

I didn’t realize that file was necessary. I have switched the Windows download to a ZIP file with both the .exe and the .pck. Please try again.

Lee,

Could I use the header image from the main Game Off page in my game? If so, who is the artist? I would like to make sure they get credit.