This time, we will join in quite a large group. Our team consists of
Adkiem, Aneira, DiggiPander, Laguna, Thunraz and xxBloodyOrange. So obviously we will submit for the team session. We have worked in the same setup for the FrankenGameJam 2021 and it worked out great there!

For the tools we will use C++ with a custom JamTemplate that allows to deploy on windows, linux and web. Under the hood it uses SFML and SDL. IDEs will be Visual Studio, clion and visual studio code.
For graphics, aseprite will be used and the sound effects and music will be done in Cubase and Garage Band.

So from my side, I wish everybody already good luck and a great time!

Hi everyone!

The 14th Alakajam is coming up on the next weekend! While everyone gets their engines ready and thinks about some concepts for the shortlist themes, there are two important anouncements:

Opening Stream

Before the jam starts, we will have the ever so awesome Opening Stream by @Aurel3000 and @DanaePlays.

• What? Get even more hyped for the 14th Alakajam and join for the shortlist elimination.
• Where? On DanaePlays' Twitch Channel -> Click
• When? One hour prior to the jam -> February 25, 6pm UTC

Upcoming Alakajam Tournament

Closely after the Alakajam ends, the next awesome event will start! This will be the Alakajam Tournament, running from 2022-03-25 to 2022-10-04. You can find some details about it here.
When submitting your game for the 14th Alakajam, you can opt in to have it as a possible candidate for the Tournament. So if you have a highscore to crack, some ingame-timer to beat or some other mechanic to competetively play your game, this is a great opportunity! Make sure to plan ahead and join us on that event!

Preparation for the Jam

But back to the 14th Alakajam: If you are wondering how to prepare for the jam, you can

• Share a "I am in" post here on the website, talking about your team, tools and ideas for the themes (cat pictures are appreciated as well)
• Join the community on discord, follow on Twitter or on reddit
• Take a look at the rules

Now the second round of theme voting starts: Shortlist voting! This means theme submission is no longer possible - instead, the ten most popular themes from the first phase will be available for everyone to rank. Drag and drop the themes into a ranked list in order of preference.

If you have not done yet, also feel free to create an "I am in" Post. What tools are you using? What is your setup like? Did you take part in previous gamejams? Tell the community a little bit about you and your goals for the upcoming 14th Alakajam!

Finally, in one week, the jam kicks off! Exciting!

The long-awaited moment has arrived. A post-jam version of Ghost Heart (AK13) is now available:

G H O S T * H E A R T * V 2

It features music by Daniel Birch, a better story, and a new character.

Music:

Daniel Birch:
In The Distance, Final Steps
The Shape of Nothing

Derivatives:

Natasha’s torso was inspired by a model in Winds of Autumn, a fashion video by Hervé Demers et al.

Two of the derelict robots are derivatives from Towards the Infinite: Twenty Drawings by Kahlil Gibran.

The 14th Alakajam is happening from February 25nd to 27th. But first we have to find a theme! You can now submit themes you like and vote for the themes of other participants. All you have to do is to create an account and start to submit and rate themes.

The Best themes are those that help you get started but also can be interpreted in wild and interesting ways!

The voting process
For one week (starting February 11th) you can submit up to three theme suggestions and rate theme suggestions from others either positively or negatively. After one week, on February 18th, theme submission will be closed. The top ten themes will then be made public and everybody can rank them in order of preference

The final theme will be announced with the launch of the jam (at Friday February 25nd, 7pm UTC), live on stream.

Things to do right now
Create an account if you don't already have one
Write an "I am in" blog post - tell us who you are, what tools you use or what themes you like!
Check the detailed rules and the support thread
Join us on Twitter, Reddit or on Discord

The 14th edition of our 48 hour game jam starts on Friday February 25th!

As always, 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, the unranked jam will still give you an opportunity to get plays and comments.

Schedule

Dates	Phase	Description
February 11 , 7pm UTC	Theme submission and voting	You can submit theme ideas for the jam and vote for all other submissions.
February 18, 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 25, 7pm UTC	THE JAM!!!	Start making a game solo or as a team, and simply submit it before the deadline!
February 27, 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 28,10pm 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 13, 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 ;)

Thank you to everyone who has submitted and played the games! We are now at the end of Feedback Fortnight!

As always, just because the event is over does not mean you can't still play the games, and leave meaningful feedback on them. It does mean that you will no longer be able to submit new games. Don't worry, there will be another FF coming soon -- usually in about 6 months but the schedule is not set yet!

Making a game is hard work. Showing a game can be fraught with emotion. There was a quote in a magazine I read recently that struck me:

"Anything beautiful or meaningful now seems like a miracle when I consider how easily it might not have been made, and I imagine the odds it had to beat just to exist."

--Aaron Cometbus, from Cometbus #59

One of the reasons I do the things I do here at Alakajam is to promote new beautiful and meaningful things. While it is easy to throw your hands in the air and decide it is not worth it, or there will not be an audience, or that we can't make it beautiful enough for our discerning critics, I feel it is worth to let the insanity carry us and try to make new artworks anyway.

With that crazy thought, Alakajam #14 is coming soon! Try to make something wonderful! Don't despair if it doesn't come out beautiful, and remember we only get better with practice!

Hi everyone,

this Saturday (11th December), 20:15 CET BloodyOrange would like to play the games of the feedback fortnight on her twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/oobloodyorangeoo Would be nice if you join. 🙂

It's time to play games! If you haven't submitted your game yet, do not despair! We will leave the submission window open until the end of the event.

Go! Play the games! Give the authors of these games your ideas, your constructive criticism, and your feedback! Try to answer specific questions they may have, and try to give them new ideas so that they can come up with new questions!

If you didn't submit a game, that's okay! Anyone can play these games and give their feedback!

Remember, there are no ratings. Please, remember that there is a person who is showing their craft who will be reading your comments, so please do not be mean with no other value. Instead of saying "this game sucks!", try "I am not enjoying this game because …. , but maybe it could be improved by making changes like ……". There is a lot written on the topic of giving criticism, and I can not rewrite it all here. But please try to be considerate while still giving good feedback!

After some short delays (we love you Kajam!), we now begin the second edition of Feedback Fortnight! We know that you have been working on something, perfecting it, but it just needs, it just needs someone else to play it! And tell you if it is fun or not! And tell you if you succeeded in doing the awesome things that you have been prepping for!

All you need to do is take your project - any project - and submit it. It can be your Sekrit Prodject Made In Your Basement with glowing lights, it can be something from a previous game jam, or it can be a future commercial game - and submit it to our ruthless, but very kind, game players. Then, you also become a game player, and play everyone else's game. Leave constructive and kind feedback, there are no ratings or scores of any kind.

If you do submit a commercial game, we require that you make it freely available to the other game players during the time of Feedback Fortnight. After all, if I am playing a game for you for the purpose of constructive criticism, would you really ask people money for that?

Games can be submitted in any state of development - anything from "buggy mess I can't play this to" to "almost done" or even "I just have screenshots and some ideas!" We can't guarantee everyone will look at everything, but the easier you make it for us, the more likely we will!

With all that introduction, let the Feedback begin!