Mirrored W❄️rld

Come Jam With Me!

If you've read this blog before, it's no secret that I love game jams (and writing challenges). I've been doing these since around 2010, and the community is just becoming more and more vibrant. Today I shall list the cool jams I missed this year, why I missed them, and some cool jams you can still join.

Okay, sure, what the heck is a jam anyway?

Basically, it's an event where people would make something within a certain amount of time. Many jams are predicated on certain restrictions, like having only a single choice or using specific theme prompts (e.g "Cozy Winter") or made using a specific engine (e.g Godot Jam). Jams can be competitive or casual, strict or lax, serious or silly... many are simply excuses to make something. Jasper Juul's Handmade Pixels has a nice section about the origin of game jams and its early years.

Why Jam?

A short and non-exhaustive list:

Many jams come with a forum or a Discord server, where jammers usually cheer up and help each other. Most jams also encourage trying each other's games, so you'll end up expanding your horizons just by seeing how people interpret a theme. I've gotten a lot of mileage by joining Spooktober and Devtalk (the community that runs Spooktober and many other VN jams throughout the year. If you're into VNs and adjacent games, come hang out!)

If you struggle with setting your own, joining a jam is a way to instantly get the fences installed. It's particularly nice for people who's just started. When I was younger I was prone of killing myself by overscoping, and doing jams helped me cure that.

If you want to learn a technique, an engine, or anything at all but needs a semblance of structure, a jam is a good place to do so. It's also a good place to try your hands at making something outside your comfort zones, a them you'll not come up with on your own. Have you seen the list of open jams? There really are jams. For. Everything. Something serious. Something silly. Something relaxing. Something strict. Something niche. Something vague. Or just open one if there's something you want to explore.

I like joining two jams at once and mix the restrictions to get the creative juice flowing. If you're prone to freezing because you don't know where to start, jam prompts can help you.

Cool Jams I missed

There are so many interesting jam all throughout the year, I wish I could join them all.

Fuck Capitalism Jam

You got to love the energy of this jam. Gather some friends and go play the submissions, or read the zines and manifestos out loud. Maybe share the jam to other people. I think I was doing Mystery Jam with friends at this point, and I wasn't doing very well physically, but I have an idea I wish to pursue in the future.

Games for a Better Future

I initially wanted to do joint submission for this jam along with Fuck Capitalism, then I got another idea that might work... but I was also doing Mystery Jam and that one took precedence since it was a team effort. Is anyone into "let's make games" management game? I still think the idea is fun. Shelved for now.

Neo-Twiny Jam 2025

One of my favorite jam! Make an interactive fiction game in 500 words or less! I submitted to Neo-Twiny in 2023 and 2024, so it saddened me I couldn't do it this year (it coincided with Battle Action Fantasy Jam). Marvel at cool entries like this retelling of Lord of the Rings in 476 words!

Decker VN Jam

Decker is a multimedia sketchbook inspired by Hypercard. I've had my eye on the tool for a long time now but I keep missing the jams. One of these days I would take it for a spin, jams or not.

Videotome Jam 2

Videotome is a series of small VN engines developed by Freya of The Domino Club. It has a grungy aesthetics with minimal featureset, and for some people it might seem weird to want to use a smaller engine when I'm versed in the bigger ones... but I can't help it. I simply find myself drawn to engines made with certain philosophy.

Light.vn Festival

Alright, this one is technically not completely missed yet. I really want to join this one. I am fond of the engine which I previously used for my Spooktober entry and I have a lot of respect to BerserkD, the creator. However, I'm a bit tired after doing O2A2 and I don't think squeezing yet another jam in the last 7 days of July a good idea at all. We'll see. Maybe I'll come up with something and rig up a real simple game in three days.

Cool Jams You can still enter

A curated list that I hope showcase the diverse range of things you can make!

Perzine Jam

Make a personal zine! If the end of July is cutting it too close to you, you may want to check out Electric Zine Maker Jam which runs until August 15th.

Decker Fantasy Camp 2025

Make anything with Decker! If you have any fondness for retro presentation and cool stuff, Decker will enchant you the way it does me.

Poetry Inspired Game Jam

and its sister jam, Poetry Inspired TTRPG Jam ask you to take a poem (or many poems, why not) and make a game out of it. How cool is that? It can be a bitsy musing, it can be a platformer where the lines are the platforms. Go wild.

Spooktober Visual Novel Jam 2025

The VN Jam of the year! Make a VN that has Halloween and Halloween-adjacent theme/vibe! I'll admit the theme isn't my favorite, but the community and festivities are truly not to be missed. Spooktober comes in two flavor: casual or competitive, and your submission will be community-ranked. Even if you disregard the competitive side, it's worth it to enter just to get feedbacks from people. There's no guarantee you will get any comment, yes, but historically there is a strong culture to visit each other's games and leave something.

OpenGameArt Summer Jam

Do you feel like you can't make a game because you can't draw or compose? OpenGameArt provides tons of resources you can use, royalty-free, in just about any way you want. This jam stipulates that you make a game using at least six OGA assets.

One Page RPG

Make a TTRPG fit in one page! Prone to overscope? This is the jam for you. One-page RPG is an elegant genre that's sure to get your creative juice flowing.

The Tome of Tropes

If you like writing vague no-context flavor text like me, you may like this jam. This jam sought to collect generic events/descriptions into a zine, for use in TTRPG sections (or anything else you can think of).

RPG Mania XIII

Making an RPG is not for the fainthearted, and has been the death knell for many aspiring developers. I won't recommend this if not for RPG Mania series' unique feature: this is a recurring jam and it encourages you to build something across time. You can actually do something small and develop it further for every successive installment of the jam, laying the groundwork for consistency. Maybe you'll actually get far enough to not the project this time.

Set forth and create

VNDev Wiki has a good resouce for a first-time jammer here. I recommend small engines like Bitsy, Downpour, Ink, Twine, Pocket Platformer, and Decker if you've just started. If you want something more general-purpose, maybe microStudio or GDevelop instead of behemoth like Unity or UnrealEngine. I wrote a long list of engine reviews for my local community a while back and I may rewrite it here in the blog, but as an engine-and-tool enthusiast I really don't think it's worth it to spend time on tools when you're starting out. If you haven't started, you're likely prone to analysis paralysis, so presenting a long list of options might not be helpful. Just choose whichever and try to make a thing or two before reconsidering your options!

This has run a bit long. I may spin this off into a more permanent resource page in the future... but for now set forth and create! I'll be happy if I get even one person to start. Show me what you make!

#creation #devlog