Hello, friends! Thanks for joining the fourth-ever Imaginary Game Mini Jam! 

The Imaginary Game Mini Jam is a once-a-month, weekend game jam with provided assets to help you make the games of your dreams. It's the lovable sidekick to the Imaginary Game Jam, an annual summer game jam with cash prizes!

Theme: Watch the video below!

The theme will be announced at the start of the jam. To gain access to the asset pack, and to make sure you're the first to know the theme when it's announced - make sure to join the Imaginary Game Studios Discord server!

Games will be played on stream the following week after submissions close. See you there!

The game with the highest overall score will be forever enshrined in the Imaginary Game Studios Discord server, in the Hall of Game!

We love seeing the ways our community interprets our characters in their game jam games. Who are these characters, you ask...?

Gobbo

A mischievous forest gremlin with a one-track mind and a heart full of schemes. Gobbo is obsessed with brown mushrooms he lovingly calls “truffies,” and spends his days hatching deeply flawed plans to steal, grow, or otherwise acquire them. Failure never fazes him - he simply dusts himself off and starts the next heist. Gobbos come in many shapes, sizes, and colors (though most are little green pills). 

In Rogue Climber, Gobbo is more obstacle than threat - you can bounce off his head to defeat him and launch yourself skyward.

Furny

Gobbo’s silent, unwilling, yet inseparable sidekick. Furny never speaks and exists somewhere between Gobbo’s best friend and his dog. He’s endlessly hungry, easily distracted by anything vaguely edible, and not very smart - but loyal to a fault. Furny knows when Gobbo’s plans are bad ideas. He helps anyway. 

In Rogue Climber, feeding Furny causes him to overheat and explode, rocketing the player upward.

Redlight

In the Gobbo & Furny Cinematic Universe, Redlights are the police. Redlight enforces the law with absolute rigidity - and a startling lack of urgency. He never bends the rules, but he often slacks off while following them. Friendly, calm, and catastrophically unconcerned with collateral damage, Redlight will cause three accidents to help one old lady cross the street and see no issue with it. 

In Rogue Climber, Redlight plays a deadly game of red light, green light—scanning the area with a blue laser as his eyes shift from green to yellow to red. Move at the wrong time, and he’ll chase you down… and explode.

Metic

Your robotic health companion from Meticulous. Metic is upbeat, literal, and endlessly supportive—an adventurous guide as you travel the universe in search of better nutrition, exercise, and self-improvement. He approaches everything logically and scientifically, always eager to learn and always trying to do the right thing. Metic is curious, encouraging, and genuinely wants you to succeed.

All this being said, you’re welcome to interpret these characters however you like! Your game doesn't have to be a roguelike or about climbing or health at all- anything is fair game! You're free to give your versions of these characters your own personalities too - these bios are just here to help inspire you.

If you'd like to see how other game developers have used Metic, Gobbo, and Furny in their games, check out the submissions to the Imaginary Game Jam 2024 (Metic) and the Imaginary Game Jam 2025 (Gobbo & Furny)!

Imaginary Game Mini Jam Rules

Judging:

During the week after the Submission Period, Imaginary Game Studios will evaluate and score your submissions. Our judges will be stack ranking games according to each category, and determining overall scoring by the sum of each category. All categories will be weighted equally. We will be evaluating the following criteria:

• Theme: How well does the game honor the theme? Does the game interpret the theme in a fun and interesting way?
• Cameo: How well is a character from an Imaginary Game Studios game incorporated into your game?
• Imaginative: How unique is this game? Does this game surprise and inspire?
• Community Scoring: What does the community choose as their favorites? Community Scoring will be done by on the submission page of each entry on itch.io. Only participants who have submitted an entry will be eligible to provide a score. Please do your best to play and score as many games as you have time for!

With the exception of Community Scoring, the judges will make their selections in their subjective, good faith determination (or judgment). Winners will be announced one week after the end of the jam.

Requirements:

• The game must be developed during the submission period.
• The game must incorporate a cameo from an Imaginary Game Studios title: Metic, Gobbo, Furny, or Redlight in some way.
• The game must feature this month's Imaginary Game Mini Jam logo on the main menu / credits / wherever best applicable for your game.
• The game must be approximately E or T rated (e.g., no explicit sex scenes, no extreme violence, no mature language, etc.).
• The game must be single player.
• The game must be playable on PC / in browser.
• The game must credit assets not created by you.

*You're welcome to submit any game project, but only those that follow the requirements are eligible to be entered into the Hall of Game on the Imaginary Game Studios Discord server.

FAQ:

• You may participate solo, or with a team.
• You may use any engine you choose.
• You may develop a text-based, 2D, or 3D game.
• You may create your own representations of Metic, Gobbo, or Furny, using any art style you choose - you are not required to use any provided assets. Please do your best to ensure the characters are recognizable without explicitly telling the player. Quality of art is not a judging category.
• You may use AI tools in your development process, but any AI tools must be properly credited, like you would any other asset.

Provided Assets:

• Up to 100 words of recorded dialogue in Gobbo's, Metic's, or Redlight's voice. Must be requested in the Imaginary Game Studios Discord server before the end of the first day, and will be fulfilled in the order the requests are made. No explicit language will be recorded.  Other voices may be request; quality of other voices not guaranteed.
• Metic, Gobbo & Furny models / animations
• Assorted textured models (coins, platforms, doors, etc.)
• BGM
• Assorted SFX

*You are not required to use any provided assets. You are welcome and encouraged to create your own representation of Gobbo and Furny using any art style you choose. You can access the provided assets via the Imaginary Game Studios Discord server.

**You're free to use any provided assets for the purposes of developing a game for this particular game jam, but not for any other purpose. You own the rights to any unique IP you develop in the course of the game jam, but you are not being granted ownership over any IP belonging to Imaginary Game Studios.

We reserve the right to revise these Rules in our sole and absolute discretion.