We at Game Dev Club Club are super super excited to announce our first ever CLUB CLUB JAM JAM.

Work with game developers from universities across the country for an awesome weekend of game development!

Current prize pool: $325

Join our Discord to meet other devs -> Discord server

JUDGING

Submissions are judged equally on the following categories:

Theme - How well the game interprets and incorporates the theme through gameplay, story, mechanics, visuals, or other creative approaches.

Fun - How enjoyable the game is to play. This includes the core gameplay loop, pacing, and overall entertainment value.

Innovation - A broad category that evaluates the game's creativity and originality, as well as the execution of those ideas.

Art - Overall visual representation of the game. This includes models, sprites, animations, UI, lighting, effects, and artistic cohesion/direction.

Sound - How well the audio enhances the game’s experience. This includes sound effects, music, and voice work.

When you submit a game to the jam, you have the opportunity to rate three random games chosen by Itch. After those initial three games, you can then rate any other game from the jam. This community judging period lasts one week, starting the moment jam submissions close.

Once the community judging period closes, the top 20 rated submissions will be shown to a selection of community figures as judges. Their ratings will be combined with the community ratings to decide the winners. This panel judging period lasts one week.

AWARDS

Awards will be distributed as:

Category Winners ($50 each) - The highest average score for each judging category. 

Best Overall ($75) - The highest average score from all categories weighted equally.

To give more people the chance to win, a single team and/or submission cannot win multiple awards. If that happens to be the case, they will be given their highest prize and their other awards are given to the respective runner-ups.

Each judge will also designate a submission as their favorite, as well as other superlatives as they see fit. These do not award prize money and are just for fun.

Note: you must have at least ~10 reviews on your game to qualify for a prize.

THEME

The theme will be announced during the kickoff live stream and in the Discord server once the jam starts. Submissions should generally adhere to the theme of the jam. You will have the opportunity to explain your interpretation of the theme when you submit your game.

HOW TO SUBMIT

You must have an account on Itch.io. To sign up for the jam, log in to your Itch account and click the “Join jam” button on the jam page. You can join the jam at any time, even after the official start time, but you cannot submit a game without joining the jam through Itch.

To submit, publish your game on Itch and submit your game to the jam on time. Your game must be playable on Windows with a keyboard and mouse at the very least. No extra equipment (external controllers, DDR mats, VR headsets, etc.) should be required to play the game. This means you can submit a web build or windows executable. Also, please feel free to submit other platforms/submission formats, just be aware that web builds and windows executables might be the most accessible for the judges.

GENERAL RULES

You must be a member of a game dev club, a university student, or recent alum/graduate to participate in the jam. This includes any team members if you choose to form a team.

Max team size: ~6
We strongly encourage you to form a team with people from other schools! That just makes it more fun!
If you want to form a team of more than ~6 people, then let us know. You can also feel free to participate with more than 6 people, but to be fair to everyone, you might not be eligible for prizes if you do so.

Don’t put sensitive content in your game, including NSFW, hate, or excessive violence.

If your submission contains content that isn’t listed above but may still make some players uncomfortable (photosensitive epilepsy, common phobias, sensitive topics, etc.), we recommend adding a content warning either on the submission’s Itch page or within the game itself.

Don't use stuff you don’t own, especially copyrighted material! You may use premade assets or asset packs that are public domain, under an appropriate Creative Commons license, or purchased. You may also use your own premade assets but it must be clear that your submission was primarily developed during the jam. If your submission contains content that was not made by you or a team member, it must be credited either on the submission’s Itch page or within the game itself. If you use premade assets, you must state which aspects are premade.

Submissions may be removed by judges or organizers at their discretion.

AI POLICY

Please don’t use generative AI. Any form of generative AI content is not allowed for this jam. Although we can only enforce this policy for user-facing content (art, audio, text, etc.), it extends to code as well. Submissions found to be using generative AI will be removed. 

Our goal with this jam is to encourage students across the country to meet, collaborate, and make cool stuff together. This rule is to encourage people to form teams instead of using AI to do tasks!

TL;DR

Submit your game on time to be part of the jam.

Your game must be playable on Windows with a keyboard and mouse at the very least.

Don’t put bad stuff in your game or use stuff you don’t own.

Don’t use AI. Form a team instead if you need it!

Our goal with this jam is to encourage students across the country to meet, collaborate, and make cool stuff together. If you feel that your skills may not be adequate for a certain part of development, reach out to others and form a team through our Discord server!