The Clock Is Ticking On Our Public Domain Game Jam!
from the weekend-project dept
Sign up for the Public Domain Game Jam on itch.io »
What are your plans this weekend? If you’re like most of us living under pandemic lockdown, the answer is probably “not much” — but it could be “making a game using newly-public domain material!” All you have to do is sign up for Gaming Like It’s 1925 and start exploring the wealth of works published in 1925 that have now run out of copyright protection and can serve as the basis for a great new analog or digital game. But don’t delay — entries are due Sunday night at midnight!
If you’ve never made a game before, that might sound like it’s not enough time — but a two-day game jam is actually a great way to try your hand at game design. Entries can be as simple as a few rules for a roleplaying game typed into a text document, or you could make use of a tool like Twine or Story Synth that’s easy to learn and provides everything you need to create a simple browser-playable game. The important thing isn’t complexity or fancy assets — it’s a clever idea and a vision for building something new based on old material, to show why a growing public domain benefits us all.
Check out the game jam page for the full rules and some links to public domain works you could draw on, then join the jam and start working on your entry before midnight on Sunday, January 31st. Our judges will be playing the entries to select winners in six categories to receive some great Techdirt prizes (the winners of the 2020 jam are linked below, and you can read our judges’ thoughts on them here):
- Best Analog Game (Previous Winner: The 24th Kandinsky)
- Best Digital Game (Previous Winner: You Are The Rats In The Walls)
- Best adaptation of a 1925 work (Previous Winner: The Hounds Follow All Things Down)
- Best remixing of multiple sources (Previous Winner: 192X)
- Best ?Deep Cut? from a work not listed on any of the round up articles (Previous Winner: Legends of Charlemagne)
- Best Visuals (Previous Winner: Hot Water)
You can also check out the handful of submissions we’ve already received, but as in previous years most people are likely holding off until the last minute so they can tweak and perfect their entries — so hurry up and help show how a rich public domain fuels creativity!
Sign up for the Public Domain Game Jam on itch.io »
Filed Under: 1925, culture, game jam, public domain
