libGDX Jam

General Discussions
#1

Hello,

i decided to do a month long libGDX jam! We got sponsors (RoboVM, Robotality, itch.io) who’ll provide prizes (mac mini, ipad, ipod, steam keys) and support the jam (jam system by itch.io). We are currently generating theme ideas, hop over to this spreadsheet and let your creative juices flow.

Here’s how it will work.

Theme Voting
One week before the jam begins (12th of December), the community can vote on one of 5 themes, selected from the spreadsheet above.

Jam
On the 19th of December, the jam begins. Teams and solo folks sign up at itch.io for the jam and begin jamming. Games need to fit the theme and need to be written using libGDX. 3rd party libraries and tools are allowed and encouraged. 3rd party assets are allowed and encouraged. Reskinning an existing game is not allowed, though we obviously can’t prove that.

We actively encourage participants to document their journey in form of dev log entries in a libGDX forum thread and on Twitter. Some prices will be handed out to submissions with the best dev log and twitter participation.

Final voting & prizes
After the jam ends (18th of January), the community can vote the winner on itch.io. Voting will be open to the general public, all you need is an itch.io account.

The winner of the community voting will receive the grand prize, a Mac Mini.

The two participants with the most active dev logs and twitter updates will win the second (iPad) and third (iPod touch) prices. Since we want to be nice to our sponsors, we ask tweets to contain our sponsors twitter handles. Such a tweet could look like this: “New dev log entry for my #libGDXJam game! @robotality @robovm”.

Finally, we’ll randomly select 20 submissions which will get an awesome steam key for Robotality’s Halfway.

Here’s why handing out prizes works like that:

  • Make people aim for quality to win the grand prize
  • Give everyone a chance to win something, either by documenting their journey, or being chosen at random
  • Give back to the sponsors by promoting them on Twitter

All of this is not cast in stone just yet, so i’m happy to hear your thoughts.

#2

I don’t have an itch.io account- is there a way for me to participate without creating one? Can I host my game elsewhere?

I assume that all of the code should be written during the jam- is there any way to enforce that?

When you say 3rd party assets, does that include art and music created before the jam?

Anyway, this sounds fun! I’m in!