Game Off 2021 theme announcement
The theme for this yearâs Game Off is⊠âŠBUG! Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create a game between now and December 1 incorporating the themeâŠ

The theme for this yearâs Game Off isâŠ
âŠBUG!
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create a game between now and December 1 incorporating the theme somehow, and submit it to the jam page on itch.io. After a few weeks of playing and rating the games by participants, the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
As usual, you may interpret âBUGâ however you wish âŠ
BUG (/bÉÉĄ/)
noun
- an insect or creepy crawly
- an unexpected defect, fault, flaw, or imperfection in code or equipment
- a microorganism (such as a bacterium or virus) causing illness or disease
- a concealed listening device
- a sudden enthusiasm
- a river in Ukraine
verb
- to bother or annoy or pester
- to plant a listening device
- to âbug offâ or âbug outâ
Or go rogue and ignore the dictionary:
- B.U.G acronyms e.g. Being Unusually Good or Big Urban Game or something
- Dad jokes / puns like deterants / tick tock / spelling bee / flywheel
Note: Nobodyâs judging the code quality, so lots of bugs are both expected and accepted. Focus on having fun
Good luck, have fun, and sign up now if you havenât already! <3
HelpâIâve never created a game before!
With so many free, open source game engines and tutorials available online, thereâs never been an easier (or more exciting!) time to try out game development. Are youâŠ
- Into JavaScript? You might be interested in Phaser.
- Comfortable with C++ or C#? Look at Godot, Unity, and Unreal Engine.
- Proficient with Python? Check out Pygame or Godot (Godot uses GDScript, which is similar to Python).
- Dangerous with Java? Take a look at libGDX.
- In love with Lua? Check out LĂVE or Defold. And if you like retro games, check out LIKO-12!
- Like hacking with Haxe? Youâll have heaps of fun with Heaps.
Find a language you love (or want to learn), and build any kind of game you want: platformers, roguelikes, shoot âem ups, text adventuresâanything you like. Weâve even had some NES and C64 games submitted over the years
Have a question about game development? Jump into the Game Off community forum on itch.io, or ask in the Game Off Discord server.
HelpâIâve never used version control, Git, or GitHub before!
- Git Documentation: everything you need to know about version control and how to get started with Git
- GitHub Desktop App: for Windows and macOS
- GitHub Support: specific answers to specific questions
- GitHub Documentation: everything you need to know about GitHub
- GitHub Community Forum: find solutions and share ideas
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