I've been pottering on an entry over the last two weeks, wasn't sure if I would finish it, but I think I will! A short adventure game in a row boat …

Hello Alakajammers!

Over the last month or so, we have been busy working "behind the scenes", submitting the appropriate applications to make Alakajam an NPO: a non-profit organisation.

Why a non-profit?

I wanted to try to explain why this matters to you all.

Initially, Alakajam was @wan's one-man project to set up a new site for running jams and creating a gamedev community. It was set up to be open source so that anyone can contribute, with a modern design and architecture.

Another goal from the get-go was to make the site in such a way that makes it easy for different people to run a jam, to help moderate and even fix the website when needed. Crucially, we wanted the community to maintain and run the site, with no single keymaster and single point of failure.

And this is where the NPO comes in. Alakajam is now an actual organisation, run by an elected board with transparent processes, finances and activities. Anyone who is interested can help out and contribute in various ways.

The Council of Jamicians

The initial organisation has been set up, and the starting elected officers are (for a period of one year):

• Scribe: @dollarone
• Master of coin, Lead developer: @wan
• Counselor, "Master of designs": @Aurel300
• Counselor, "Lord": @toasty
• Counselor, "Doctor": @Laguna

After a year, there will be a board meeting and an election, where anyone can nominate themselves for a role.

The sole reason for filing all this paperwork is that so Alakajam can be a community-owned site which can survive even if its founder decide to completely remove themselves from the process.

Hopefully Alakajam will continue on for many years and jams to come - as long as its community want it to run!

ALAKAJAM!
Registered in France on 11 August 2018, as an "association loi 1901"
RNA Number W691095617

pixel art platformer in pico-8 hopefully that ticks enough retro boxes

So far going pretty ok for a first time in pico-8, and its easy to export gifs too :D

They do say better late than never!

I wasn't planning on entering this Kajam but I've had a sudden change of heart and an idea.
Hopefully I can get something together in time that's decent enough to get people's interest.

All I have so far is a simple character but it's good to get the ball rolling.

Good luck to everyone else taking part and especially to those latecomers in the same situation as me!

In September, 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 3rd Alakajam) 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 September 23rd, the player with the most points wins the tournament! Check the 1st 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!

Submit your game to the event

Hosts @toasty and @wan will pick games among those that:

1. Have a game page on Alakajam!
2. Have enabled the "High scores" option on their page
3. Haven't been featured in a tournament yet

If you want us to check out an entry you made:

Submit your game here (Selection is over!)

I love retro games, so I'm totally joining.

I'm going to make a text adventure. I might add some RPG elements too, who knows. Hopefully I can get it done by the 31st.

With my holiday coinciding with Kajam 5, And the theme matching perfectly with what i would love to make. i wish that i owned a laptop. So i find myself writing a text adventure on my phone and with a story idea and a plan to send it to my self once i get home i have all the parts of my entry setout. I just need to write a convincing story and make a large branching path story which can be a winner.

Good luck to all other entrants in the competition, i wish you all good luck.

August is pretty hectic for gamejams! I want to Kajam, I want to do js13k again, there's LD and there's LowRezJam and A Game By Its Cover.

There are probably even more, but wow, that's a lot. I don't need to do all of them, but then I had an idea: maybe I can combine some of them? Especially with this theme, I should be able to join the Kajam and the LowRezJam! Maybe I can even find a cover for the name?

With this in mind, I started on an idea for my belated entry to yesterday's onehourgamejam. I went with the LowRezJam's resolution requirement, and used PICO-8 for that retro-feel.

In a couple of hours I have a prototype, which I think I will extend and submit for the Kajam and LowRezJam! It's pretty basic right now, but you can play it and win or just set things on fire: Wildfire

The idea is to extinguish fires with whatever tools you have at hand. I think if I make it turn-based it can become a nice little puzzler :)

Hey everyone, I've some time to spare lately so let's go with this kajam. I just have a question first: Can I use an entry that i'm developing for the LOWREZ JAM ? That's an oppurtunity for me to continue working on my LOWREZ JAM entry and I think that could fit the theme nicely with a bit of sup work. I've started the dev today so I don't have any overtime. I just want to be sure that I can enter. Good luck everyone and have fun !

Audio Keynote

Listen to the keynote on soundcloud Thanks to xXBloodyOrange for helping me with that!

The theme for this Kajam is “retro”

By definition “retro” means to consciously derive from or imitate previous creatings.
In gaming, everything started with retro games. Games like “Donkey Kong”, “Pong”, “Pac Man”, “Sonic”, “Super Metroid”, “Zelda: A Link to the past”, “Tetris” or “Super Mario Cars” are inherently linked to gaming.
Lately “retro”-games and consoles are having their rennaisance. Companies like Nintendo or Atari create new versions of old consoles, like the “NES Mini”, “SNES Mini” or the “Atari Flashback 8”. Original consoles and games can be found on almost every flea market.

All of those games feature a unique art-style or a piece of music that sticks in our heads forever. However, from the developer’s perspective, retro games are not just about art and style. They have one thing in common, which is a clear, simple mechanic. Because of the limited features of old consoles, the games had to focus on simple mechanics and tricks.

This Kajam is all about Retro games!

Make a game that derives from a previous creation!
Make a game for an old console!
Make a retro game!

For this Kajam you can work solo or as a team. You have the complete month of August 2018 to create and submit your entry. Every Framework or Engine is allowed. You can even use third party assets.

At the end of August you will be able to rate other participants’ games based on one single “retro” score.

So start your engines and join this Kajam!

Schedule

• 1. August - 2. September: Develop your games
• 3. September - 9. September: Rating Phase
• 9. September: Results