Good luck to all! Plus a few words about the pandemic 2 4

The 4 web games we'll compete on for the next couple weeks are revealed! Featuring the two winners from the last Alakajam, I hope you'll enjoy our selection.

If you've been part of a tournament before, you may have notice a decrease in the number of games: it's an experiment to see how featuring less games may impact event participation.

How the event works

Until April, Sunday 5th, everyone is invited to play and post high scores on our selection of 4 games from the 8th Alakajam. Using screenshots as proof, you can compete in those games' leaderboards for points.

For each game, players are awarded a number of points for being in the top 10, as per the table below. The players with the highest total scores are shown on a global leaderboard throughout, and at the end we'll announce the winner and runners up!

About the ongoing pandemic

Don't worry, this won't be a note saying that "Alakajam will continue its activities despite blah blah", nor a reminder to wash your hands with soap regularly.

With the containment now in place in a lot of countries, it seems like quite some people are fighting with anxiety about the whole situation. To be honest, in my case I'm now a week into containment and I haven't slept that well since it all started. With sudden unemployment (hopefully temporarily), I'm currently spending my days at home with a young kid to entertain and take care of. On the plus side, being a full time parent may keep me too busy and tired to fully realize the situation :P

I would just like to take this chance to remind you that it's perfectly normal to experience stress in this situation, as we're facing a lot of uncertainty with what's going on, and of course what's left to come. Hopefully for a large majority of us this will be remembered as a few months of worry, boredom and maybe a few days of flu. In the meantime I'd just like to share some valuable advice I've found and felt like sharing. If you would like to read more, see this for instance for a more detailed read.

• While it's important to stay informed, don't spend too much time checking the news and social media. I feel those can be a big source of anxiety. Honestly, if you already know how to limit risks of getting infected/infecting others, there's no point in spending all day reading about the virus - nor reading people talk about it on Twitter.
• Stay in touch with family and friends, preferably with actual phone & video calls.
• Put some exercise in your daily activities, and if you have a balcony or private yard, spend time in it.
• Consider looking for ways to help people. Helping includes sharing useful information, clearing up rumors and bad advice that gets spread around, and calming things down when friends & relatives start to panick about stuff.
• Finally, don't forget that there's only so much we can do about the situation. Beyond doing our best to follow local health recommendations, the most valuable skill is just patience.

Best wishes to you all, take care and keep jamming!