On January 5th at 8pm EST (January 6th at 1am GMT), I will announce the theme used for the first edition of SteemitJam!
What is SteemitJam and how does it work?
SteemitJam is game creation event where participants are required to create a game under 48 hours following a specific theme. The event will start on January 5th at 8pm EST (January 6th at 1am GMT) and will end on January 7th 8 pm EST (January 8th at 1am GMT). When the event starts, I will make a post announcing the theme that the participants will work on for the SteemitJam. I will use my open-source program trustless-random-generator to generate a random theme transparently (Because I will also be participating!).
Rules
I'm using very similar rules that the Ludum Dare Compo uses.
- No teams, this is done alone.
- You must own all the code, art and sound used for your entry. However, game engines, frameworks and libraries are permitted.
- You must share the code when submitting your entry.
- You must submit your entry before the end of the event (January 7th 8 pm EST or January 8th at 1am GMT).
- You must respect the theme.
Since none of these rules can be actually enforced, Steemit flags can be used to punish cheaters (Explained further below).
How do I join?
Simply wait until the theme is announced, then start working on your game! Once you are finished, you simply need to submit your entry and you are done!
How do I submit my entry?
Create a Steemit post with the following information :
- Title of your game.
- Description of your game.
- How to play your game/Controls (If it is not clear in the game)
- A download link for your game (I recommend supporting more platforms than Windows).
- A download link for the source code (Can also be a link to a GitHub repository).
- Include screenshots/videos (Optional, but recommended).
- Installation instructions (If necessary).
Publish the post with the tag #steemitjamsubmission
Modifying an entry after the jam
If you realized that you made a typo or you have found a game-breaking bug that makes the game crash, you can still change it after the event but please make your change clear. It should look like this in your submission post :
{{link}} Game v1.0
{{link}} Source Code v1.0
{{link}} v1.1 (Fixed typo "your" to "you're" after deadline)
{{link}} Source Code v1.1
Don't modify your entry to add features.
Voting system
The 'Winner' of the jam is the entry where the payout reward is the highest after 7 days (I think this is better than raw vote count, but the author should not upvote his own post). If you disagree on the rewards of an entry, because it is either low quality or a player has clearly cheated, you are free to flag the submission post (Please don't abuse of this, it should only be used when someone is caught cheating and is currently winning).
The SteemitJam will not have any official 'winner'. Instead, I encourage people to write blog posts on their favorite games. These posts will bring attention to the author of the respective game. I will personally review each game (Oh and don't forget to support Linux systems! I also have Windows on another computer though). I will say what I liked about them and what is to improve. I will also pick my personal favorites for different categories (Fun, sound, art, innovation and overall). I encourage people to do so, but it is not mandatory.
Browse the posts on #steemitjamsubmission to see the entries.
Progress blogs and post-mortems
You are free to write blogs about your game before the end of the deadline, showing what you have done so far, GIFs, pictures, videos or more. It is also interesting to read post-mortems and I encourage people to do one.
These posts should be tagged with #steemitjam.
Potential themes
I've compiled a list of potential themes that can come out as the winning theme. If you want to add themes to this list, simply suggest them in the comments.
Floating islands
Limited space
Expanding
Tiny machines
Only three colors
Broken world
Start with nothing
One level, but constantly changing
Death is useful
One minute
Into the unknown
Everything is connected
Signal lost
Parallel worlds
Moving fortress
You are alone
Start with nothing
Machines
Running out of space
On / Off
Connections
Protect it
1 vs 100
It spreads
Different perspective
Infection
Artificial Life
Hive mind