This Spring Break season, join the Learning Labs for our third annual all-ages Game Jam!

Game jams are events where participants make a video game, card game, board game, tabletop game, or hybrid game, often based on a theme or concept during a specified timeframe. This Game Jam lasts from March 1st to April 19th at 12:00 pm. The theme of this year’s Game Jam is “Tales from the Abyss,” which is open to interpretation.

Join us on May 4th, between 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, at the downtown Lawrenceville Arts Center’s Free Comic Book Day event, where we will be hosting a panel on “Getting Started With Game Development,” playtesting games submitted for this year’s Game Jam, and giving out awards.

All events are free and open to the public.

Theme:

Any game engine, coding tool, or website is welcome for entry. This year, we have expanded to accept board, card, tabletop, and hybrid games. For video game submission, the work must be a game that is playable via web browser and made public for wide viewing. The form for submitting your game only allows a URL to be entered. Most games will need to be uploaded to itch.io after creating a free account. If your game is not free, we will not be able to play it, and it will not be selected for our Showcase. Please note that games cannot contain nudity, drug use, profanity, slurs, or extreme violence. Any games uploaded with this content will be removed from our itch.io page.

Rules:

  • This Game Jam is free to enter and open to anyone creating a game based on the theme.
  • Submissions open on March 1st and close on April 19th at 12:00 pm. 
  • Upload your game to our game jam page on itch.io so other people can find and play it: https://itch.io/jam/gcpl-game-jam-2024. For physical or hybrid games, you will have to submit our Google Form so that we can set up a time to demo your game before the Showcase.
  • To create an account on itch.io, you must be at least 18 years old or have a parent/guardian create and manage the account. Here are the itch.io Terms of Service for reference as needed.
  • Your video game must be playable via web browser. Download-only games will not be played by our staff and will not be eligible for the Showcase or highlight reel.
  • Submissions are collected through Google Forms.
  • Selected creators will be notified by Monday, April 29th, 2024.
  • To win awards, creators must be present at our GameDev Showcase at the downtown Lawrenceville Arts Center’s Free Comic Book Day event at our Awards Ceremony.

Important Dates:

  • April 19, 2024: Game Jam ends at 12:00 pm
  • May 4, 2024: GameDev Showcase from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Submit Your Entry

Library Resources at GCPL for Game Developers and Designers

The Gwinnett County Public Library’s Learning Labs have many free resources to help game developers and designers, including access to Adobe Creative Cloud, Blender, drawing tablers, and audio and video recording studios. We also offer coding classes to help you get started in Scratch, Python, C#, or the Unity game engine. Access to our Learning Labs is free with a library card. Out-of-county patrons can purchase a full-access library card for $40 a year.

For more information on getting started with game design and development, visit our LibGuide: https://lib.gwinnettpl.org/learninglab/gamedev

Learning Labs Specialists are also on staff to help! Book-a-Librarian or make a reservation to use the labs at www.gwinnettpl.org/learninglabs/

Have a question? Send us an email at learninglabs@gwinnettpl.org