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Game Off 2024 theme announcement

GitHub’s annual month-long game jam, where creativity knows no limits! Throughout November, dive into your favorite game engines, libraries, and programming languages to bring your wildest game ideas to life. Whether you’re a seasoned dev or just getting started, it’s all about having fun and making something awesome!

·@leereilly
| 5 minutes

Get ready for our annual game jam, Game Off! Whether you’ve been a participant for years or you’re hearing about it for the first time, this is your chance to create something extraordinary throughout November. The theme for this year? SECRETS. Intriguing, right? What kind of hidden stories, covert missions, or untold mysteries will you reveal? That’s entirely up to you.

You have until December 1 at 13:37 PST to build a game loosely based on the theme—how you interpret it is entirely up to you.

secret /ˈsiː.krət/

Noun

Adjective

  • Intended to be mysterious or cryptic (for example, secret code or hidden messages).
  • Hidden from ordinary sight or awareness (for example, secret passageways).
  • Reserved or exclusive, known only to a select group for example, a secret society).
  • Designed to elude observation or detection (for example, a covert operation to █████).

Acronyms (OK, we made these up 🤣)

  • Shady Elves Conspiring to Rob Every Toy Store
  • Slippery Eels Competing in Ridiculous Extreme Triathlon Sports
  • Super Evil Cats Running Elaborate Trapping Schemes
  • Sneaky Entrepreneurs Craving Really Exotic Treasure Stashes
  • Silly Elders Conducting Ridiculous Espionage Training Simulators
  • Stealthy Enemies Creating Really Elaborate Trap Systems
  • Some Evil Computers Running Everything Too Smartly
  • [ YOUR ACRONYMS HERE ]

Need inspiration? Here are a few concept ideas:

  • Top-down adventure: explore a mysterious temple filled with hidden chambers and secret passages, revealing lost treasures and forgotten lore.
  • Stealth platformer: infiltrate a secret society’s headquarters, using gadgets and shadows to remain undetected
  • AR treasure hunt: use real-world surroundings to find hidden clues that lead to a secret treasure.
  • Hacking simulator: circumvent security systems and use social engineering to gather passwords and access tokens before time runs out. Maybe even hack time itself!
  • CLI text adventure: help hero Marty troubleshoot his life now that he has no more secrets to hide.
  • A game about the Secret Life of NPCs. Ever wonder what the shopkeeper does when you’re not around? Now’s your chance to find out.

🔥 New this year: wildcards (for extra nerd cred)

We’re introducing wildcards—optional challenges to give your games some extra flair, inspired by Global Game Jam’s “diversifiers” and Godot Wild Jam’s “wildcards”.

Playing card showing an artist's palette with 4 colors Playing card showing the Konami Code Playing card showing an fast-moving stick figure
  • Small palette: limit your colors to 4—perfect for retro CGA vibes or Fantasy Consoles experiments.
  • Cheat mode: let players break the rules with things like infinite lives or invincibility via codes, key combos, or hex edits.
  • Speed run: make time the enemy! Add high scores or leaderboards, and rewards for clever, time-saving moves.

Incorporate any, all, or none into your game!

We look forward to seeing your wonderful, weird, and wacky creative interpretations.😆

How to participate

Work alone or on a team. Use whatever programming languages, game engines, or libraries you like.

  1. Sign up. Create a free GitHub account if you don’t have one.
  2. Join the jam. Hop onto the itch.io Game Off page. If you don’t already have an itch.io account, you can sign in with your GitHub account.
  3. Create a public repository. Store your source code on GitHub—open-source magic at its finest. Push your game before December 1 at 13:37 PST.
  4. Submit your game on itch.io. Once submitted, you’ll be able to play other entries and cast your votes!

Voting

After the submission period ends, participants will vote on each other’s games. Entries will be evaluated in the following categories:

  • Overall
  • Gameplay
  • Graphics
  • Audio
  • Innovation
  • Theme Interpretation

Voting will end on January 8, 2025, at 13:37 PST. Winners will be announced on GitHub 𝕏 and the GitHub Blog on January 10, 2025, at 13:37 PST.

New to game development?

Game jams are a great excuse to build your first game, play with a new game engine, or learn a new language. There are plenty of free, open source and “source available” engines to explore. Here are a few suggestions for some popular languages:

The Game Off 2024 Community is a great place to ask questions or look for teammates. There’s also a fantastic and friendly community-run Discord server

New to Git or GitHub?

Game Off is the perfect opportunity to check it out (version control pun intended)!

Good luck and have fun! Can’t wait to play, err, test all your games! <3

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Written by

Lee Reilly

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.

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