The theme for this year’s Game Off is…

…BUG!

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 ‘BUG’ however you wish …

BUG (/bəɡ/)

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 “bug off” or “bug out”

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: Nobody’s 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 haven’t already! <3

Help—I’ve never created a game before!

With so many free, open source game engines and tutorials available online, there’s never been an easier (or more exciting!) time to try out game development. Are you…

  • 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 LÖVE or Defold. And if you like retro games, check out LIKO-12!
  • Like hacking with Haxe? You’ll 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 ‘em ups, text adventures—anything you like. We’ve 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.

Help—I’ve never used version control, Git, or GitHub before!

Tags: