Game Off 2018 theme announcement

Game Off is our annual month-long game jam (hackathon for building games). This year’s theme is HYBRID.

You’re welcome to interpret the theme however you wish, but if you need some ideas to kickstart your creativity, think about how your game could:

• Feature an imaginary mashup of animals plants, or other objects with associated strengths and weaknesses. Giraffeopotamuses anyone?
• Crossover different game genres, such as a turn-based platformer, real-time roguelike, or tower defense rythm game.
• Combine multiple visual styles, perhaps pixel art characters exploring photo-realistic worlds.
• Include a composition of music styles and sound effects like bagpipes and breakbeats.
• Mix genres like Comedy Horror and Weird West.
• Be powered by alternative/multiple controls, button mashing meets mousing or mobile device interaction.

How to participate

• Create a game based on the theme over the next month. You have from November 1, 13:37 to December 1 13:37 PT.
• Sign up for a free GitHub account if you don’t already have one.
• Join the Game Off on itch.io. If you don’t already have an itch.io account, log in with your GitHub account.
• Create a new public GitHub repository to store the source code and any assets you’re able to share for your entry. Then push your changes before December 1, 13:37 PT.
• Submit your game through the Game Off page on itch.io (form viewable once the jam starts and you’ve joined it).

Participate by yourself or as a team. Multiple submissions are welcome, and of course, the use of open source software is encouraged.

Voting

Shortly after the jam ends, voting will be open to everyone who has submitted a game. Don’t worry—there will be plenty of time to play and vote on the entries. As always, we’ll highlight some of our favorites on the GitHub Blog, and the world will get to enjoy (and maybe even contribute to or learn from) your creations.

It’s dangerous to go alone

If you’re new to Git, GitHub, or version control

Don’t worry, we have several resources for you, from how to use Git to all things GitHub. You’ll “Git” it in no time.

• Git Documentation: everything you need to know about version control and how to get started with Git
• GitHub Help: everything you need to know about GitHub

More questions about GitHub? Contact our Support Team. They’d be happy to help.

Did you know? You don’t have to use Git on the command line. You can use GitHub Desktop (our client for macOS and Windows), or bring Git and GitHub to your favorite editors:

• GitHub Extension for Visual Studio
• GitHub for Unity
• GitHub for Atom

If you’re new to itch.io or game development

The itch.io community feature is enabled for this jam—it’s a great place to ask Game Off-specific questions, share tips, and more.

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 Python, C++ or C#? Godot might be a good match for you.
• Proficient with Python? Check out Pygame.
• Dangerous with Java? Take a look at libGDX.
• In love with Lua? Check out LÖVE or Defold. Like retro games too? Drop everything and check out LIKO-12!

Do you really like retro games? Maybe you can…

• Hack on a Roguelike dungeon cralwer in JavaScript or Haskell.
• Crank out a text adventure in or some interactive fiction with Clojure or Ink (similar to Markdown).
  • Craft that 8-bit console game you always fantasized about with PICO-8, Pixel Vision 8, TIC-80 (Lua), BASIC8 (BASIC), or Pyxel (Python).

The official Twitter hashtag for the Game Off is #GitHubGameOff. We can’t wait to see what you build.

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 weird just for the vibes.