The Alakajam! competitions let people make a video game from scratch in a week-end, then play and rate each other! All games are made around a theme chosen by the community.

Divisions

Anyone can enter in any of the following divisions:

• Solo, in which you make a whole gamalone 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, or feel like the rules are too restrictive for them, or simply did not finish their game in time.

The jam always starts on a Friday, 7pm UTC.

Rankings

After the jam, Solo and Team divisions will be ranked separately through community voting: any person who entered the event will be able to play, rate and comment other people's games for two weeks, until the final results are released. On each game you play, you will get to rate six aspects of game making:

Rating category	Description
Overall	How much you liked the game in general.
Graphics	Your appreciation of all the visual aspects of the game. This can be opted-out if you want to (e.g. text-based game).
Audio	Your appreciation of all the sound-related aspects of the game. This can be opted-out if you want to (e.g. silent game).
Gameplay	Your appreciation of the gameplay, contents & balancing.
Originality	How original you found the game, its art and sound.
Theme	How well and how interestingly the game fit to the theme.

Unranked games won't get ratings but can expect as much plays & feedback as the others.

What is allowed?

Solo/Team divisions

• Tools: All software is allowed without restriction. It is recommended though that your game engine supports targetting either HTML5, Windows or Linux, to make sure most contestants can play it.
• Code reuse: You are allowed to use/reuse any outside library or personal code made prior to the event, or code bits found from sources like StackOverflow or blogs. You can also prepare your project by initializing the sources in advance. However, you cannot work on a game you started before the event.
• Graphical asset reuse: You must make all your graphical assets during the event, even if you opt-out of the graphics category. Derivative work of existing assets (ie. you used some existing assets but significantly transformed them) is acceptable, as long as you list the original assets in your game page for the raters to appreciate. You are also allowed to use:
  • Third-party fonts and brushes ;
  • Procedurally generated assets ;
  • Your engine's default appearance for UI elements ;
  • Pre-made game author & engine splash screens.
• Audio asset reuse: You must make your audio assets during the event, even if you opt-out of the audio category. However:
  • You can reuse existing sounds for SFX. You can also reuse short samples for music (including drums and other sampled instruments), but reusing whole music tracks is not allowed ;
  • You can create assets from sound generation or speech synthesis tools.
• Post-jam changes: From the minute the jam ends, you are not allowed to add any features, assets or contents to your game. While you're supposed to have properly tested your game, stuff happens, so we do allow to:
  • Package or improve the packaging of your game ;
  • Port your game to other platforms ;
  • Fix bugs ;
  • Fix balance issues or annoyances but only if they're so terrible that people can't properly finish your game.

Those third-party assets exceptions are only allowed as long as you have the license to use them. Please check the licensing terms and in doubt, consult the author.

Unranked division

Since there is no ratings involved, the rules are much more relaxed. While the ranked divisions are only made for video games, card & board games are allowed here. The only rules are:

• All third-party assets are allowed as long as you have the license to use them.

There are additional rules if you submit an existing project of yours. These are fuzzy rules only aimed at preventing abusive self-promotion:

• You must spend a significant part of your week-end working on the game ;
• Use the game description to let people know what you did/did not make during the jam ;
• Make it easy to play the parts you worked on (eg. don't make testers play the full game to try your final boss!).

In case of doubts…

Obviously, the rules on post-jam changes don't cover every scenario (for instance you may realize the music volume is super low, or in-game instructions are wrong, etc.).

…So in those cases where you want to do something but it's unclear if you can, or not doing it seems unfair, do it, and mention what you did in your game description. After all, this is a completely informal competition, there's no prizes involved, we're just here to make games and have fun!

Hi everyone, don't mean to be spamming with non jam stuff, but thought it might be of interest to a few people here.
The company I work at is looking to hire 2 roles, A programmer (C# Unity), and an artist (mainly pixel art), more details on the website
https://www.cutenewt.com/
and reddit post with original ad https://www.reddit.com/r/gameDevClassifieds/comments/bccws3/paidrevshare_c_developer_for_new_indie_game/
its on site only in offices in London, UK, so no remote only I'm afraid.

Seems weird to have to say it but, just in case it's not obvious, Both roles are paid in actual real money, that can be used in exchange for food, shelter and other basic necessities, just like a normal job :)
Well thanks for reading

Ohhhh boy was I having trouble with the theme this time.

I was a 90's kid but too young to really remember what it was like, and I didn't even have games until the early 2000s. I missed out on a lot of game culture back then :(.

So I google games from 96 and told myself: I will make a version of the first game that pops up!

"Pokemon Red"

Oh…Ohhhhh noooooo!

I am super intimidated :| but dedicated to my word. This is going to be an interesting project…
(and if I were a better coder I'd use the posted GameBoy stuff ><)

Wish me luck folks!

Welcome to the 7th Kajam!

From the 1st of April until the 28th of April, everyone is invited to create a game! There are only a couple of rules, covered here.

Details of the theme are in the announcement video above! I encourage you to make a game that can be played on genuine hardware of the era, but that's completely optional! Interpret the theme however you like, just remember to have fun.

Some suggested resources for anyone interested in making a game for genuine 1996 hardware:
Gameboy development
PlayStation 1 development
Tapegro: write DOS games in javascript!
Nintendo 64 SDK
Sega Saturn Jo-Engine

The tournament is over!

We hope you all had fun (we certainly did). So a huge thank you to the brilliant people who created the games, and as ever, congratulations to the very talented winner, @M2tias, the runners up, and, well, all you magical chums who joined in too.

So what now? I'm hungry for more…

Starting tomorrow we have the 7th Kajam, hosted by our very own @voxel! Then from 31 May-2 June we have the 6th iteration of our flagship event, the 48h jam known as the 6th Alakajam! Join us all tomorrow for more gaming magic :).

The tournament enters its final weekend

What better time to hone your skills and smash some records? The leaderboard is tight and there's everything to play for. Come on people! You have until 23:59 on 31st March to submit your scores!

After the 5th Alakajam in February and a tournament in March, April 1st will be the start the next Kajam, this time under the presidence of the venerable @voxel!

But what is a Kajam?

Kajam competitions are month-long events in which people make a small video game focusing on a specific aspect of game making. For instance the previous jam was about "Hyper-casual gaming". Kajams are perfect to learn, experiment and improve your gamedev skills! Detailed rules here.

The topic of the 7th Kajam will be chosen by its host @voxel and announced upon the start of the event.

Follow us on Twitter or Reddit to stay updated!

Sound effects, UI improvements and a teeny-tiny change to the rules… That's what a quick post-jam version is made of.

Try it here

The 3rd AKJ Tournament begins!

It's time for the 3rd AKJ Tournament, folks! From the 15th to 31st of March 2019 we'll be playing and competing at six games which have been submitted to jams on this very site. You can see the tournament rules here.

Quiet! Gimme the games!

Below you'll find the games we'll be playing this month, along with their owner and the jam they were entered for. We have some real gems this time, so make sure you don't miss out and play them all! :)

Game	Author(s)	Genre	Jam
Nonomino	thomastc	Dynamic puzzler	6th Kajam
The Lost Beans	dollarone	Caffeinated platformer	Coffee Jam
Illustrious Escape	M2tias, Juutis, bradur	First person teleporter	5th Alakajam!
You are the Grimoire	Aurel300	Rapid-fire genre mashup	5th Alakajam!
Shinobi Blocks	dwemthy	Tetris/platformer love child	4th Alakajam!
Electric Tango	laaph	Shocking Olypmian apple picker	6th Kajam

For the next couple weeks, Alakajam! is not hosting a gamedev event. Instead, we will play jam games! (omg)

How it works

For two weeks, everyone will get to play on a selection of 6 games (mostly from the last Alakajam! events) on which they'll try to make the highest scores/best times as possible. Using screenshots as proof, players will battle to enter (and remain in) the leaderboards.

Leaderboards points are awarded to all players that enter the top 10 of a game. At the end of the event, on March 31st, the player with the most points wins the tournament! Check the 2nd tournament winners to see the current title holders :)

As usual, there's no prizes to be won other than bragging rights. We're just here to have fun!