A few people have asked how to actually DO alakajam recently, particularly wanting to know how to submit their game, so here's a basic guide:

1. Sign up for a free account on alakajam.com! That's this website, you're already there 👍!
2. Pick which category you would like to enter. Your choices are:
   • SOLO: 🧑‍ The traditional gamejam where you work ALONE to make a game within 48 hours, creating your assets from scratch.
   • TEAM: 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Identical to SOLO but you can collaborate with teammates to create your masterpiece within 48 hours.
   • UNRANKED: 👽 A whole extra day gives you 72 hours to make your unranked game. Almost anything goes, and you can even continue work on a project you previously started.
     The full details of what's allowed in each category is available on the rules page.
3. 🚦 When the jam starts, the theme will be announced here on the website, in the discord channel, the irc channel and on the alakajam twitter account.
4. Make your game, adhering to the 📜 jam rules 📜 and incorporating the theme into your game in any way you like. If you're entering the SOLO or TEAM categories, your use of the theme will be one of the categories your game will be judged on.
5. Submit your game before the deadline! ⚠️You don't upload your game to alakajam.com ⚠️. Instead, you need to host the game somewhere else, such as dropbox, google drive etc. My recommendation is itch.io, which lets you create a free store page for your game, hosts the game for you and can even accept payments if you decide to charge for your game later on. Once your game is uploaded, you link to it from your game entry page on alakajam.com.
6. Vote! Making a game for alakajam is only 51% of the fun. Once the jams have finished, the voting and feedback phase begins and typically lasts for a couple of weeks. Your game will be played by other entrants and they will be able to rank it on various criteria, such as graphics, audio, etc, as well as leaving feedback comments 👍👎. You can do the same for their games too, and the more games you vote on, the higher your karma score. The higher your karma score, the nearer to the top of the entry list your game will be displayed, which means more people are likely to play it. If you don't vote on other entries, your game is not likely to receive enough votes to get a score in the final step.
7. Ranking results! After the ranking period has ended the votes are all added up and a score is given to your game. If your game places in the top three for any of the category you will receive an amazing 🏆 virtual trophy 🏆 and be the envy of all your friends.

I'm back for another Alakajam! I'm looking forward to jamming with everyone again!

Follow me on Twitter to keep up with my progress!

Check out my previous entries too:

4th Alakajam: Falling in Love

3rd Alakajam: Hunk Hustler

2nd Alakajam: You Can't See Everything at Once

Last one I didn't plan for and ended up kind of half-assing. Got my buddy doing art joining this time, gonna make something weird!

It's that time again boys! Really looking forward to taking part in this awesome community again.
Can't wait to play everyone's games, let's do this!

Gentlemen start your engines

My last game, Falling Squares, was an unfinished and pretty awful game for Alakajam 4. Now, I have learned more, and I am ready to make a semi-decent/decent game!
I voted Capture for this one because it seems the easiest.

I have never competed in an Alakajam! before, so I decided to try it out as I had some time this February. I've competed in some different game jams before, and they went pretty well in my perspective.

Tools and Tech I will use

• Python and Pygame for Programming + Game Engine. I might try to Learn PyTMX and Tiled over Presidents Day Weekend if I need to build separate levels.
• Adobe Photoshop for Art, as well as Adobe Illustrator for Graphic Design if I need it.
• Bfxr for sound effects, though I might use Garage Band if I have time.

I'm really excited to get started next week, so I'll be preparing a lot in the meantime. Good luck to all who are competing!

READY TO RACE. Actually I might have to work that weekend but I'm pulling out all the stops and doing whatever it is you do with the nitro to get everything done in advance.

Haven't decided what technology I'm going to use but I'm hoping to put together some basecode so I can get off to a 'ROLLING START'

My only tip to everyone is to have your development environment set up in advance to avoid any stress or chaos during the jam.

Finally, I'm looking forward to a fair, sporting and above all, FRIENDLY competition between the entrants with lots of cooperation and constructive feedback

Hello Alakajammers, it is your host TimBeaudet!

If you haven't yet, START YOUR ENGINES! 🚗🚘 It is now time to sort the top-10 themes into the order you most wish them to be.

Joining us this weekend? Then write up your very own "I am In" post. Let everyone know who you are, what tools you use and what theme you wish to win! 🏁

Drive safe, have fun and good luck!

Hi everyone, I've always liked the idea of making games and have played around with some engines but never managed to really complete a project. I figure it's time to get serious and see what I can put together from start to finish in 48 hours. I'll be using Phaser to make a web based game. Probably Inkscape or Gimp for the art. Not sure what I'll do for sound yet, probably something simple like BFXR. My avatar represents one of my first attempts at original game art lol. Looking forward to seeing everyone's games!

Hello! A first-timer game jammer here! I'm joining with two other friends as a team and we will try our best in 5th Alakajam.
We'll be sharing roles as much as possible and the goal is to practice and learn. And who knows what can happen?