In addition to joining the game jam through itch, please fill out the registration form linked above so we can properly award prizes should you or your team win!
Watch the Kickoff and Theme Announcement Video Below:
Game Jam Art: https://www.instagram.com/caroriera.art/
The Big Byte Game Jam is an annual game jam where creators make unique interactive experiences using a theme related to cultural ideas, perspectives, issues relevant to members of various Diasporas, over a 1 month (4 week) period.
Part of the Culture Bytes jam series, this game jam is held in collaboration between the organizations listed below:
Melanated Game Kitchen is a collective of BIPOC game creators focused on the creation and curation of unique interactive experiences revolving around culture while growing in our craft. Their growing collective of artists, designers, programmers, music creators, producers, and more skilled creators can help you take your creative work to the next level.
Join our Discord community to stay up to date on all events!
Black in Gaming is a thriving community committed to fostering, empowering, and amplifying Black professionals within the video game industry. Since 2002, their mission has been to actively create avenues for education, leadership development, and skills enhancement for Black individuals in gaming.
Join their Discord community to get involved.
Share on socials with the hashtag #bigbytejam to generate hype and find team members. During the jam, we'll reshare screenshots, video uploads, and blog posts of jam games while you're working on your games.
Game Jam Art: https://www.instagram.com/caroriera.art/
Everything seems to be in place, but there is some component, some element, some object, or some idea that’s missing from the finished piece to make it complete. An ingredient is lacking, some key information is not there, a step is missing. When it comes to ways of knowing, food dishes, rituals, work trades, relationships, and many other matters of our society, there are often important steps, ingredients, or information involved that make it “complete”.
Sometimes this knowledge is passed down by generations, sometimes it has to be acquired through hard work and diligence, sometimes by looking at history, but either way, “something is missing”.
(Join our Discord events to get the most help and resources out of the game jam!)
Ingredients are additional ideas related to the Creative Theme to help focus your creativity.
BBQ Sauce: create a game that is based on history and players learn something by playing.
Honey: add accessibility features to your game.
Tomato Paste: create a narrative/story-driven experience.
Vinegar: Create a mystery or detective focused game
Brisket Beef: take a popular game genre and remove a common mechanic or trope from it.
The jam's main food dish is Barbecue (BBQ).
Barbecue is a food dish and cooking style that feels as old as time. A technique of slow cooking meat over a live fire and smoke to bring out it's natural flavor, infuse flavors, make the meat tender and juicy, and cook large pieces of meat at once. Some of the oldest techniques involve cooking the meat in a literal pit in the ground over 12+ hours.
For our Culture Bytes jams, we always feature a food dish. The food dish connects to our Creative Theme in a way that directly ties the theme to the diaspora. Food connects us together. Explore details about the dish to get inspired for your game and in you own kitchen.
+ Bonus Points to your game if you feature the food dish in your game in a fun way.
You do not need to form a team before the jam starts. During the Kickoff event on, there will be opportunities to mingle with fellow jammers in the Discord server and form teams then. However, if you do have a team in mind already and want to form ahead of time, that's totally fine!
This jam is open to both digital and analog interactive experiences – choose the medium that excites you!
This jam is for creators of all relevant skills and experience levels, regardless of whether you have made interactive experiences before or not. Writing, art, design, music/sound design, programming, playtest expertise, etc. There will be mentors in the discord that can help out when you need.
We highly recommend submitting your in-progress game even if you don't finish over the course of the jam, as you can always submit a more complete version later. And we love to learn more about what everyone worked on! We hope to share everyone's progress, regardless of full game completion, during our closing showcase stream.
We will have professional developers play the games and select their favorite games for our prizes and prize pool. Winners will be announced through our social media channels and the discord server.
Games will be ranked against the following categories:
We will also have participant voting to determine Player's Choice winners.
For one week after the jam ends, people will be able to rate your game against the three categories mentioned above.
Everyone is eligible to rate games. Games will be available to play on the itch.io page after the jam ends.
Those who submitted or contributed to a game will be able to judge whichever games they like. Others can vote, but it will be random voting.
Join our Discord server to participate in our preparation events leading up to the jam and events during the jam! The prep events and discussion are great ways to get your creative ideas going, get your tools ready, and meet other jammers who may even end up joining your team.
Your time to share research and discuss the theme with our culture experts to get your creative juices going. If you want to get hints about the theme early (before the public announcement, you’ll want to join these sessions)
Join us to prepare your tech and tools before the jam begins!
Your time to share research and discuss the theme with our culture experts to get your creative juices going. If you want to get hints about the theme e
Location: YouTube - Kick-Off Premiere
Jam Kickoff, Theme Reveal, Team Forming, and Mixer
Location: https://luma.com/2dk2ppx6
Special Live Stream where we’ll be sharing jam tips and best practices, talks with our judges, insights from previous jam winners, Q&A, and more! This will also be an opportunity to share some of your updates from the weekend. Register at the link above.
Location: Discord Server
Location: Discord Server
Meet-up with jam participants and check-in on your progress in the mid-jam hangout session.
Location: Itch.io Page
Location: Discord Server
Showcase games and live interview sessions with jam teams.
Location: TBD
We're playing every game on stream!
Books:
Articles:
Visit our Game Jam Guide to find even more tools, resources, and free assets. See a sample below as well.
Thank you so much to our sponsors below for providing funding and promotion for prizes and other jam resources!
Jams & Joysticks is music, sports, pop culture and everything video games available on Twitch, YouTube and various podcasting platforms. From gaming, game development, animation, story creation and the opportunities and inspiration behind it all, Jams & Joysticks has something for everyone.
Plus Arcade is a creative studio powered by community, culture, and bold ideas. They specialize in event production, design consultation, and hands-on workshops for the gaming and creative media world. Whether it’s throwing unforgettable gaming parties, hosting indie showcases, or helping creators level up their vision, they're here to make magic happen
Owlchemy Labs is an XR studio with a passion for polished, playful VR games and experiences. Their experiences are oozing with style, absurdly funny, and with ground-breaking accessibility to bring more joy to more people.
The Global Game Jam® (GGJ) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on a mission to empower all individuals worldwide to learn, experiment, and create together through the medium of games in a safe and welcoming environment. They hold the world's largest game creation event – The Global Game Jam – and directly serve 40,000 game creators every year in 100+ countries.
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