I do not expect to finish since there are other demands on my time this weekend, but I at least want to put in some effort, so maybe I have enough of a portfolio to join a team next time around.
Not a seasoned game developer by any means, but I have some solid all around IT knowledge plus a bit of an artistic streak that I plan on neglecting a little less in the future.
I plan on using Godot for the engine and any tools that I can get my hands on during the weekend to create my assets.

Good luck, everyone and may procrastination strike at some other time.

@thrainsa and I will be back for the upcoming jam! We'll make our game with Unity as usual. Heres our last few entries:

Regarding the ChatGPT thing, I've been experimenting a bit with it to see how it could work as our creative director of the jam. Honestly it could be fun to leave the AI in charge of all big decisions while we do the dirty work :,-) I have pasted below my current version of a prompt, feel free to play with it! Here's an example exchange I managed to get. Not sure if we'll actually use it during the week-end but it's tempting.

We are going to role play a team trying to create a video game from scratch in a week-end for an Alakajam event. You will be GPT, the team leader and creative director of the project. The echange format will be as follows:

Wan or Thrainsa: <a question>

GPT: <your answer>

You will only write GPT's answers and their eventual followup questions, while I will write messages from team members Thrainsa & Wan. GPT will offer good advice taking in account the skills of Thrainsa & Wan, the limitations of making a video game in a week-end, the current progress and obstacles, and the remaining available time. GPT will make sure the game scope remains reasonable. GPT may ask relevant and pragmatic questions (but only one at a time) to gain better insight on the situation, and will take decisions accordingly. GPT is full of imagination and has creative ideas to share about game ideas & game design.

Wan: The Alakajam has just started, and the theme is "XXX". Any idea what kind of game we should make?

Hi,
I've got a bit of experience in Python, which is the language I plan on making this game in, with pygame as my main "engine".
I hope to pick up some useful skills (although, let's be honest, I'll probably crunch to the last minute) and finish a project for once.
Good luck!

I've been a bit disengaged from AKJ but I'm looking forward to participating in AKJ17, which will finally be the jam where GIANT ROBOTS is chosen as the theme

Lately I've been dabbling in NES assembly programming, so that's probably what I'll use. I've done a (not great) NES entry using C before, but I've honed my 6502 assembly in onehourgamejam to the point where I can definitely cause some trouble in a jam timeframe.

The 17th edition of our 48 hour game jam starts on Friday February 24th 2023!

The event is about making a game, from nothing, in a weekend. Teams or solo devs, beginners and professionals are all welcome to participate. If you opt-in to the competition, you will get to be ranked against every other contestant! Or if you prefer a more relaxed setting, maybe even work on your current hobby project, the unranked jam will still give you an opportunity to get plays and comments.

Schedule

Dates	Phase	Description
February 10, 7pm UTC	Theme submission and voting	You can submit theme ideas for the jam and vote for all other submissions.
February 20, 7pm UTC	Theme shortlist	Only the best 10 themes are kept. Rank them by order of preference in this final phase of theme voting.
February 24, 7pm UTC	THE JAM!!!	Start making a game solo or as a team, and simply submit it before the deadline!
February 26, 7pm UTC	End of ranked jam	The main competition ends here, exactly 48 hours after the start time. Submissions will remain open for an additional hour after the deadline.
February 27,10pm UTC	End of unranked jam	If you want to go for a relaxed weekend - or need more time - you can create a game in the 72 hours of the unranked jam.
March 12, 7pm UTC	Results	After two weeks during which all entrants are invited to play, rate and comment on other peoples games… The results are released and the winners crowned!

Rules

There are three divisions:

- Solo, in which you make a whole game alone in 48 hours
- Team, in which any number of persons can gather to make a game in 48 hours
- Unranked, a more open division which grants about 72 hours to finish the game. Useful for those not interested in the competitive aspect of the event, want to work on an existing project of theirs, or simply did not finish their game in time.

See the full rules for the Alakajam.

How to enter

All you need to do is:

1. Create an account on this website
2. Publish your game before the deadline

A lot of participants also post an "I am in" blog post presenting themselves or their team before the event. Describe what tools and frameworks and engines you will use to create your awesome game! Which themes do you like? Let us and the community know!

If you can, feel free to spread the word about the jam - the more we are, the merrier! glhf ;)

We have played the games! We have crowned the winners! Go see them here!

Our next Alakajam will come in February! Come join our traditional game jam format with 48 or 72 hours to make a game! We can't see what you make, and keep in mind that if you make a high score feature (and you click the box to give us permission), your game migjht appear in the next tournament! Even games not made in Alakajam are eligible to be in tournaments, so if you make such a game, let us know!

See you all in February (or maybe even in January as theme selection and such will start sooner)!

The 8th Alakajam Tournament is now live!

You all now have till December 11th to compete for the highest scores/times on the following games:

Aerial Blast by Bklyn - A Timed, Fast-Paced Platformer where you must destroy the crystals in each level while avoiding or shooting the plants that are firing back.

Pirate Dilemma by pimkeomi - A Resource management game where you must collect as much loot as possible while maintaining enough food to keep the crew alive.

Robocalypse Now by bradur, Juutis, M2tias - A Action-Packed top down Shooter where you must manage building robot allies to help you survive against the oncoming hordes of evil Robots.

Rise of Island Nations by DiningPhilosopher, Anni - A turn-based puzzle game about getting the highest approval of islands by controlling and terraforming the land they sit on.

You can submit your high scores with Image/video proof on each of the game pages, and will earn more points for the higher up you are on each leaderboard. Good Luck, and happy Score Hunting!

The beginning of the 8th Alakjam Tournament is fast approaching!

When the tournament begins, we will announce the 4 games that have been chosen, and you'll be able to start competing for high scores!

In the meantime, feel free to get to know the games from the recent Alakajam events, as any of them could be picked.

The Tournament begins November 20th at 7PM UTC

See you all there!

Did we forget? Don't we host events here? Isn't something happening in November?

Why yes! There will be a November AKJ Tournament! Don't you want to play some games!

Those who have made games and want them in the tournament: either tell us in the comments below (I'll be watching), or on Discord, or if you have said "consider my game for the tournament" when submitting an AKJ game, we will pick from the games available to us to have in the tournament. The only real rules are that there must be a way to show a high score, and that people can play for free. Of course be good and polite and not awful rules still all apply.

For those who just want to play: When the tournament begins, we will announce 4-6 games and you can play and compete for high score! There will be scoreboards!

We are running about to make this happen! Come join us!

There will be a meeting to talk about upcoming events happening on Alakajam. If you would like to be involved, would like to host an event, would like to let us know how to make AKJ better, or just want to attend, you are more than invited! The main purpose of this meeting will be determine the schedule of upcoming events, and assign responsible people to host them. There will be other things to discuss, as well. The more people we have volunteering to run events, the more events we can host!

The meeting will be held on Discord. You are always welcome to join our discord server, it can be found here: https://discord.gg/6XzN7BUs8z

I hope everyone can join us!