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Introduction
Welcome to the Game Jam For Civic Engagement 2024! This is a special game jam centering around making socially aware games that represent the theme of democracy or civic participation in some way.
About
Gaming for Democracy is a series of events hosted by a team at USC Games, with the goal of exploring game design as a tool for increasing democratic participation and social awareness. We want to bring together game developers, designers, educators, organizers, and community partners to collaboratively use gaming to inspire positive social change. This is a non-partisan game jam; no candidates or political parties are endorsed or affiliated with this event.
Theme
Our main theme is Democracy but you can also make a game that is more generally about civic participation or important social issues. There is no limit on how you interpret this theme, but your game should critically engage with these following topics: democracy, governments, leadership, civics, voting, social needs, social organizing, environmental issues, access to housing, or some vision of local and/or global futures. Aim to have your game present possible solutions. These games should not be dystopias!
Here are some guiding questions to help you think more about this subject:
- What does democracy mean for you?
- Who, or what, has the power to determine freedom, equality, and justice?
- How can individual voters’ choices impact our daily lives?
- How can we create a society where people’s basic needs are met?
- What civic avenues are available to us that we may not currently fully utilize?
(Paraphrased from https://www.lausd.org/cms/lib/CA01000043/Centricity/Domain/226/Grade%208%20Essential%20Questions.pdf)
Here is also a recommended list of games if you need more inspiration!
GerryMander: A Voting District Puzzle Game
Key Information
Who can enter?
Anyone! Though the jam is specifically for voting-age U.S. citizens who are in either high school or college, team participants can be based anywhere in the world and be of any age. You can work alone or in teams of up to 7.
What can I make my game in?
Anything! That said, you must upload a file that can run on a Windows PC or any Web Browser with a mouse and a keyboard and it cannot require any additional software/hardware to execute.
- We will only accept video game submissions- no board games, no tabletop games.
- If you have any questions about uploading a game to run on a Web Browser, please refer to this page: https://itch.io/docs/creators/html5
What do I submit?
You should submit a playable build. This can be a full game, a prototype, or a sample of a game. We will review all submissions so submit whatever you have by the deadline.
What assets can I use?
We ask that the majority of the assets (whether that be code, art, audio, etc.) be made during the jam period. Make sure that you have the appropriate rights to use your assets (if you decide to use any outside resources).
NO AI: Any assets (code, art, or otherwise) created using generative AI will be automatically disqualified.
When can I submit the game?
The jam officially starts September 9th, 2024, 6PM PST, and ends October 4th, 2024, 11:59PM PST. You can submit your game anytime between these two time periods. If you submit before the deadline, you can re-upload and update the game as many times as you want- so we recommend submitting early, then editing later.
How can I submit the game?
You can submit the game at the following link on itch.io after the jam officially starts: https://itch.io/jam/democracy-jam-2024
- Only one person needs to submit the game on itch.io, but please make sure to credit your teammates and others in the submission page if you worked with others.
How does judging work?
Rather than a strict judging/rating system, we will employ a Feedback Committee- a volunteer panel of academics, game industry professionals, etc. who will judge and provide feedback to the games based on 6 categories: political impact, innovation, quality, accessibility, diversity, and best newcomer.
(For more information about each category, see the judging section below.)
After feedback, we may potentially contact you and your team for additional information in order to award you during the in-person event.
Are there prizes?
YES! All category winning team members will each receive Steam Gift Cards.
NOTE: You cannot include any of these following materials in your game. Zero-tolerance policy will be observed throughout the jam period and beyond in the game, on itch.io, on our Discord server, and during the in-person event.
- No copyrighted material you have no legal right to use
- No nudity
- No excessively violent/gory material
- No forms of hate speech or discrimination
- No political violence
- No references to actual people or specific politicians
Jam Theme/What Can I make?
- The theme of the game jam is Democracy and/or civic engagement.
- Though we do not have limits on how you interpret this theme, we have a special requirement: the game must be political in nature. This is not your ordinary game jam; the game must include, in its messaging, an explicitly political message that advances the ideals of democracy and addresses issues such as voter’s rights, governments, civics, social needs, activism, etc.
- You must create a digital computer game with the following requirements:
- Must run on Windows or directly on a web browser that can run on Windows
- Must be playable only with a standard mouse (left click, right click, scroll wheel) and a QWERTY keyboard.
- Must not require any other speciality software or hardware to run:
- No consoles (No Mario Maker or Dreams games)
- No additional software (No Roblox/ROM hacks/Fortnite islands)
- No additional hardware (No webcam/mic/controller-only games)
- The majority of the assets for this game jam must be created during the jam period.
- You may use pre-existing code for generic things (menus, etc.) but please do not write any code specifically for this jam prior to the beginning date.
- You may use pre-existing art/audio/narrative assets that you have legal clearance for, but we ask that you explain your assets in the short submission form when you submit your game (that is, you must clarify which assets you made/which assets you bought, used from a public domain list, etc.) This will not impact judging.
- You CANNOT use any copyrighted material that you have no legal right to use.
- You CANNOT use any generative AI tools: this includes code (ChatGPT, Github Copilot), images/music/videos/writing (ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, etc.)
- Anything you make during the game jam is your property. Explicit rights may be decided between team members, but the jam organizers have no legal control over the game itself.
- You cannot include any of these following materials in your game. Zero-tolerance policy will be observed throughout the jam period and beyond in the game, on itch.io, on our Discord server, and during the in-person event.
- No copyrighted material you have no legal right to use
- No nudity
- No excessively violent/gory material
- No forms of hate speech or discrimination
- No political violence
- No references to actual people or specific politicians
- You may reference specific events happening right now/that happened in the past, but please refrain from mentioning currently active real-life politicians.
Jam Timeline/Schedule
- The jam officially starts September 9th, 2024, 6PM PST, and ends October 4th, 2024, 11:59PM PST.
- You can submit your game anytime between these two time periods. If you submit before the deadline, you can re-upload and update the game as many times as you want- so we recommend submitting early, then editing later.
- Though we are not setting explicit deliverables other than the final game, we will have soft deliverables to help teams manage their time and expectations as well as minimize burnout and crunch.
- Soft deliverables are merely suggestions- these are weekly deliverables designed to help newcomer teams and anyone else who might benefit from a scheduled deliverable. Your team can totally ignore these, though we recommend that you and/or your team give yourselves plenty of time and not rush things last minute.
- Week 1: Ideation & Initial Prototype: A vision slide deck, which lists the game’s core mechanics/themes, general direction for art/narrative/audio, and game’s rough production schedule, as well as a small prototype of core mechanics
- Week 2: Playtest: An open floor playtest night to gather feedback on the game
- Week 3: Final Polish: Another playtest night, this time focused more on the game’s final quality, and adding that extra 1% polish.
- All of these will culminate in weekly Playtest Nights, held virtually on our jam Discord server. These meetups will be co-working and mutual feedback meetings, casual gatherings for jam participants where they can give and receive feedback from fellow jam participants.
- Week 1: September 13th, 2024, 6-7PM PST
- Week 2: September 20th, 2024, 6-7PM PST
- Week 3: September 27th, 2024, 6-7PM PST
Submission/Judging
- After you submit your game, we will ask for the following information:
- Name(s) of any contributors to the game
- General summary of the game
- Genre/Platform
- Asset Disclosure:
- Did you make the majority of your assets during the jam period?
- Did you use any assets that are not made by you or the team? If so, please list the credits here.
- Content Warning/Trigger Warnings (if necessary)
- Are the majority of your team member(s) newcomers to game development?
- Judging will be held after the end of the submission deadline, and results will be announced within a week.
- Judges will be academics, game industry professionals, etc. They will be announced prior to the submission deadline.
- Instead of ranking each submission, judges will provide feedback to each submission based on the following criteria:
- Political Impact: How well did the game adhere to the theme? How well does it deliver the message of democracy or political action/advocacy?
- Innovation: How does the game provide a new perspective/fresh voice to the table? How does it innovate the sphere of political games, in terms of design/messaging/etc.?
- Quality: How polished are the games? Are mechanics easy to understand? Are art/audio/narrative of professional quality?
- Accessibility: How accessible are the mechanics? Are there features that can help more people play the game, such as subtitles, alternative controls, etc.?
- Diversity: How diverse is the game? Does the game faithfully and accurately represent diverse people that are inseparable from the ideals of democracy? Are minority groups, such as LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, people of color, and women highlighted?
- Best Newcomer: (ONLY for those who checked “yes” to the newcomer self-identification in the submission information) If you are a newcomer, does your game possess potential and demonstrate qualities that meets or exceeds the expectation of a newcomer?
- Judges will then compile their feedback and each vote for a winner in each category. Once the voting ends, the votes are compiled to pick a winner within each category.
- Winners will be contacted separately to provide additional information about their team, so they can be highlighted and showcased during the in-person event in October.