The European Permacomputing Gamejam (aka. euro.permajam) is an european decentralized game jam celebrating spontaneous playfulness within planetary boundaries (social, ecological and otherwise). 

From Oct 11th to Oct 13th, local hubs across the continent host new media students and artists to create computationally minimal video games and artworks that will feature in the european competition.

Europermajam principles

The EuroPermajam is rooted in the principles set by researchers, hackers, artists and designers of the Permacomputing decentralized community, accessible on the Permacomputing Wiki. 

We strongly encourage the use of Free, Libre, and OpenSource softwares as an empowering method to reclaim and master technology. 
The permajam remains open to submissions built on proprietary game engines as the most important here is to dance together, right?

Think everything small, as your work has to run on a web browser (+zip file), optimize your assets by design, think of a game that requires a minimum of energy to work and remains relevant and powerful, a game that could be run on a Raspberry Pi, the beige desktop machine at the high school computerlab or on your first laptop. 
Games should be accessible to all and by all times, screw NVIDIA. ;)

Why we do that ?

In a technical and cultural context favorizing artificial energy consuming maximalist techno-aesthetics in real-time media and video games production, we see the rise of a new paradigm in digital arts, comparable to the birth of impressionism 150 years ago :

After decades of searching for photo-realism and performance, the soon to be over myth of perpetual growth is leaving the stage to more computationally minimal aesthetics and dispositives to refocus on the power of concept, interaction, stories and subjectivity in a scarce real-world.

From this urgency to reconsider our real-time media production models, the euro.permajam proposes a time and resource limited game jam, to foster play with a considered ruleset, a desire for more imaginative, technologically accessible and artistic video game productions.

Creative theme : 

To be announced on October 11th 5pm !

How to find an IRL Hub ? 

What's a gamejam without teaming up with a bunch of creative and talented crafty people in a sweaty room for 48h ? 

Join our Discord for the team match making. 

If there is no hub around for you to participate IRL : 

- Join a hub and ask to participate the gamejam online
- Ask your local institutions, schools, hackerspaces to host one ! 

Awards and Prizes

• LOCAL LAUREATES:
  Each hub is self-organized and is responsible for rewarding their local winning entries if possible
• EUROPEAN LAUREATE:
  An international jury will decide on a European laureate who will receive a grant to optimize and polish the game and so it can be showcased at a major parisian digital arts institution in April 2025. (Grant & Institution TBC)
• PUBLIC FAVORITE:
  Each hub winning entry will be showcased at Octobre Numérique Faire Monde festival in Arles (FR) from Oct.14th to Nov 6th so the public of the festival can play the works and select their favorite. (Prize TBC)
• FRENCH INSTITUTE NL. PRIZE: (french art school students only)
  One french art school student will be traveled with an official delegation through a series of institutions in the Netherlands to showcase their work, as part of the "Novembre Numérique" program.

Project requirements 

To participate in this Game Jam, your submission must be playable directly in the browser via the itch.io platform. This ensures that everyone can easily access and play your game without downloading additional files.

1. Game Engine Compatibility:
   Ensure that your game is built using a game engine that supports web exports, such as:
   • Bitsy (HTML5 Export)
   • Ren'Py (HTML5 Export)
   • Godot (HTML5 Export)
   • Construct (HTML5 Export)
   • ...
     
     
2. Exporting Your Game for the Web:
   • If using Unity, go to File > Build Settings, choose WebGL as the platform, and build your game.
   • In Godot, select HTML5 as the export target.
   • For Construct, follow the specific steps in their documentation for HTML5/Web exports.

Important notes

• The maximum file size for browser-playable games on itch.io is 1 GB for standard accounts. This limit applies to the total size of the zipped folder that contains your game files, including assets and the index.html file for HTML5 games.
• Make sure your game runs smoothly in common browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.).
• Avoid relying on features that may not be supported in all browsers or mobile platforms.

About

The EuroPermajam is organized by arts & technology curator and real-time media artist Vincent Moulinet. 

It is part of Fabbula's Permacomputing Playgrounds research and creation program aiming at gathering collectives, researchers, hackers, institutions and cultural actors around sustainable computation practices through collective game making and realtime media arts as a research output. 

Fabbula is a cultural practice dedicated to the idea of worlding with real-time media. We curate exhibitions, represent artists, produce virtual worlds and immersive fabulations. We also advise public and private organizations on their technological futures. 

Legal

WE DO NOT CLAIM RIGHTS OR OWNERSHIP

Anything you make during and submit to the ONFM23_GameJam is your property. The jam organisers claim no rights or ownership to your game and we hope that some games may continue into larger projects in the future.  

GENERATIVE AI & COPYRIGHT

It is critical for anyone using generative AI techniques to be aware, that unless you have built and developed your own tools and datasets, or can prove you have legal rights to the tools and datasets you are using, you're legally liable for the datasets you are using.  In the event, it is found that your work infringes upon the copyright of an existing creator if requested we will remove your submission from the jam. In addition, by using a generative AI system, you do not have any rights to claim the copyright of your work.  There is currently no legal basis for assets created using generative AI systems to claim copyright.  As such, it's important you are aware of this issue, given anyone can take assets from your game created using generative AI without any legal repercussions.  

USE OF JAM FOOTAGE FOR VIDEO PURPOSE

Any game submitted may appear in communications of the partners of the Jam (always mentioning the authors) without the author's express permission.