Published-ready event policy

Jam Rules

Who may participate

• Participants must be at least 16.
• Participants aged 16–17 affirm guardian permission to participate and, where needed, publish through itch.io.
• Solo creators and teams are welcome. Public event communication is initially in English.

Prompt and scope

Primary theme: Went where no path can reach. Secondary theme: Change in motion. Aim for a complete experience playable in roughly five minutes. Include a delivery, recipient, transformation, route, or meaningful wrong turn.

Creation window

Work begins at 18:00 CEST / 16:00 UTC on 14 August 2026 and standard submissions close exactly 72 hours later. Pre-existing code, tools, fonts, and properly licensed assets are allowed when disclosed. The submitted experience must be created primarily during the jam.

Generative AI

Generative-AI-created text, code, images, audio, video, or other submission content is not allowed. Conventional assistive tools that do not generate submission content remain allowed.

Content and safety

• No pornography or sexually explicit content.
• No hate, harassment, doxxing, malicious files, illegal content, or exploitation of the fundraiser beneficiary.
• Other sensitive or mature themes require clear content warnings and may be excluded from the mixed-age livestream.
• Downloadable builds are allowed but must include platform information and safe instructions.

Ownership and showcase permission

Creators retain ownership. By submitting, entrants grant only the limited permission needed to link, screenshot, stream, record, and promote the entry for this event, subject to their submission permissions. Game files remain hosted by their creators through itch.io.

Technical grace

There are no ordinary late submissions. A host may issue an itch.io late-submit link until 18 August at 18:00 CEST / 16:00 UTC only for a documented upload or platform problem—not for another day of development.

Judging

Judges-only itch.io scoring uses Interpretation 30%, Completeness 25%, Experience 25%, and Craft 20%. At least two judges must be confirmed by kickoff; otherwise the event becomes unranked organizer-selected honours. Referral outcomes never affect game scores.

Moderation

Hosts may clarify, remove content, restrict access, warn, or remove a participant. Severe safety issues may skip directly to removal. Support involving minors occurs in public or staff-visible channels.