Welcome!
The Bad Ideas Game Jam is an upcoming game jam organized by the YouTuber Jonny Razer. The jam is set to run over the course of a month with the goal of bringing people's bad game ideas to life. Individuals and teams will be given a specific theme and tasked with creating a game that fits the theme, along with a short-form video pitch.
Theme
The theme was announced on March 1st at 12:00AM EST and is "Outside the Box" please use the theme however you desire.
Submissions will be accepted until March 31st at 11:59PM EST (please pay attention to time zone)
Rules
✅ Submissions must include, reference, or be inspired directly from the theme
✅ Each submission must include a video pitch of the game in vertical 9:16 format no shorter than 5 seconds and no longer than 3 minutes in length
✅ Keep to a general Teen/PG13 rating (ie. Mild infrequent profanity like "hell", "damn", "ass", minimal gore, minimal adult themes
✅ Follow the Itch.io TOS
❌ NO GEN AI
❌ No hateful/derogatory content
❌ No slurs/hateful language
❌ No nudity
Rating and Judging
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Enjoyment – How fun and engaging the game is to play.
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Creativity – How original and unique the concept is.
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Artwork – The visual style and overall aesthetic of the game.
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Audio – The quality and implementation of audio in the game.
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Video Pitch – The effectiveness and appeal of the game's video pitch.
Games will be ranked publicly until April 7th at 11:59PM EST. A panel of judges will play the top 100 games to rank their top 50 to be considered for prizes and inclusion in the collection. If a top 50 game does not wish to be included in the collection, we will move down the list.
(Ie. If #10 does not wish to be included, #11 will be bumped up to #10 and #51 will be included in the collection as #50)
Game Jam Collection & Prizes
1st place: Publishing Consideration (must be 18 or older) and $100 USD
2nd place: $100
3rd place: $100
4th-5th place: $20 steam gift card
Top 10: Honorable Mentions and top row in game collection
Top 50: Inclusion in game collection
The Game Jam Collection will be a FREE game launcher and browser released on Steam under Bad Ideas Productions that will act as a way to showcase the top 50 games from the game jam and get more people' s work out there. Submitting to the collection is entirely voluntary and is why we ask for a public GitHub repo to make sure the software is safe.
Any age can submit a game into this game jam; HOWEVER, you must have approval from a parent or guardian to receive a prize and be a part of the collection if you are under 18.
FAQ
What's the maximum number of team members?
None! You can have as many or as few as you want, just know that more team members does not always equal a better game!
Can I be on multiple teams and/or submit multiple games?
This is fine but keep in mind that this will stretch you thin on what you are able to achieve.
Can I use copyrighted material in the video pitch?
No, because if your game ends up in the game collection then we can't use your video in it. Please try to stick to copyright free assets and audio when making both your game and video.
Can I use [Insert Game Engine]?
You can use whatever game engine you wish as long as the final submission has the ability to be launched from a separated application. Otherwise, the game will be disqualified from being entered into the game collection. Please check and read about how your engines handle game builds.