Open Jam is back

Returning for its second year, Open Jam is an 80-hour game jam brought to you by @Jared-Sprague, @mwcz, and opensource.com. Game jams are focused on creating games with a few constraints, like adhering to a limited time frame in creating a game, staying within a theme, or using only a specific technology. Participants are encouraged to use open source game engines, libraries, tools, and Creative Commons assets.

Last year’s Open Jam theme ‘Leave a mark’ brought about a frenzy of fun games including Stellar Wrath, a game about solar system sabotage created with Godot.

Open Jam is a perfect excuse to experiment with building a game if you haven’t before. With so many tutorials online and a growing number of game engines, it’s easy to make an addictive Java-based text adventure or JavaScript-powered platformer.

The three top-rated games of Open Jam will have their playable demos featured at the All Things Open conference in Raleigh, NC from October 21–23.

Pictured: Stellar Wrath by DualWielding was one of last year’s winners on display at All Things Open.

The 2018 events kicks off on October 5, so keep refreshing the itch.io jam page for the theme announcement, tips, tutorials, and competition details. If you can’t participate in Open Jam, don’t worry—Game Off, GitHub’s very own month-long game jam, will return next month.

Join Open Jam 2018 now

Written by

Lee Reilly

@leereilly

Senior Program Manager, GitHub Developer Relations. Open source hype man, AI whisperer, hackathon and game jam wrangler. I write && manage programs, support dev communities, and occasionally ship something.