The game jam will take place Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm each day. Judging takes place on Friday, followed by an awards ceremony [timing to be announced later].

Gamejam's organised by University of Portsmouth have taken place in Portsmouth and around the world.

The Portsmouth event in normally [but not in 2020] based in Eldon Building, part of the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, at the University of Portsmouth. Use P01 2DJ to find us.

Other events take place (so far in China, France and the US) and a site specific website will be linked from here to tell you specifics relating to these when available.

This year the event is open to anyone 18 or over (unless specific arrangements have been made with us before hand). You can take part as part of a team, or just work on your own. You don't need experience or specific skills, just enthusiasm.

Closer to the event date/s, an application form or other kind of registration will be available from here, or via facebook/twitter/discord.

*2020 as this will be an online event we will not provide any equipment or software. Normally each centre has slightly different resources, but will normally try to make everything on site available should you need it. At Portsmouth you would have access to standard university software, including 3D Studio MAX, Maya, ZBrush, Mudbox, Adobe CC and Visual Studio. We also have 20 PS4 Dev kits, although special arraignments need to be in place to use these. There is limited access to Unreal Engine 4, Unity and Gamemaker.

Anything you like. You should be aware however that your game will need to be demonstrated to an audience, will need to be downloadable and playable on a Windows PC.

If you have software with a valid license and want to install this, then this is at the discretion of the host institute.

There is no limit, but given the time-scale, large teams (say above 5) could be unwieldy

*Not in 2020 due to the online nature of the event. In the past the Portsmouth event has included a free lunch, normally at a local public house/restaurant. limits).

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Gamejam events in other locations/countries may not offer this.

We normally have a panel of judges from industry to look at the entries. Failing this, the entries will be judged by the competition organiser. Some categories will be judged by Participants.

• Best overall game
• Best adaptation of a theme
• Most original design
• Best looking game
• Most technically advanced game
• Best sound
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• Most helpful team [or individual] - (Judged by the Participants)
• Best animation - (Judged by the Participants)
• Best dressed team - (Judged by the Participants)
• People's choice award - (Judged by the Participants)
• Pathologic award for the most hopelessly ambitious game -(Judged by the Participants)

Note, prizes are not always awarded for all of these categories, additional categories will be added at judges discretion and categories get reviewed before each event. These are provided therefore, as examples. There is no financial reward for any of our prizes.

No. The theme for your game will be decided on the day. This will be agreed upon, based on three random Wikipedia articles (excluding stubs). You must then base the theme of your game around one (or more) of those three articles.

Yes.. And no. Game jams are meant to be more fun than competition, and we would not want to see almost complete games being brought in with a view to trying to win. We would rather you made your game from scratch. The event is more about meeting new people, learning new techniques and passing on your own profound wisdom to others.

We hope to continue to have visiting industry professionals who are normally  more than happy to offer advice to teams. We actively encourage teams to help each other.

We normally try to have places for around 150 people, which will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, although this number varies depending on the host.

Entrance cost for the University Gamejam 2020 is £2. If you want to enter and have the t-shirt, then it will be at least £15 [this will be announced closer to the time and will depend on the cost of supply] Online registration will be linked form this site when it is live.

Initially, we ran this event to trial innovative new ways of learning and teaching at the Portsmouth location. Nowadays, we run the event for fun, learning and networking /recruitment. Judges, often from industry are invited to join us for the  awards and post awards drinks and this forms the recruitment part of the event - we plan to expand upon this in the near future.

You do.

Your team owns the IP of the game, however as all of the work will be created using educational licenses of software which means that it cannot be used for commercial purposes unless you acquire the professional version of the software.

We would, however, seek your approval for us to take photos and/or videos of you and your work in order to promote the event in the future. If you're really, really nice it would be great to have a copy of your game and permission to use it for promotional purposes too. If we asked really nicely, could you include the Game Jam logo in your titles?

The staff (and I'm sure, visiting professionals) will be more than happy to help you in your endeavours.