Welcome to our annual Patch Magazine Game Jam!
If you’ve never joined a game jam before, don’t worry! It’s just a friendly challenge to make a game (of any shape or size). Whether it’s a text-based choose your own adventure, or a mind-bending puzzle game, or just a short and sweet cosy experience, the purpose is to have some fun and create something!
Your creation will be judged on Creativity, Enjoyment, Presentation, and Use of Theme.
At the end of the jam, one game will be selected to win the Patch of Approval award with a feature in the November 2026 issue!
This year, our theme is the colour palette below. You can use the colour palette as creatively as you wish! 🎨✨
Yes! Teams of up to 3 are allowed. We want to encourage everyone to work with new people and create lots of different games. Working solo is totally okay too! You can join our Discord to help find a team, or use the Community board on Itch.io.
Your game should not contain any offensive or NSFW content. Always follow the Itch.io Terms of Service.
Your game can be developed using any engine you like, as long as it can be played in-browser or on Windows. The game must be hosted on Itch.io, no external downloads will be considered.
If you're new to game development, beginner-friendly engines include Unity, Godot, GDevelop, GameMaker, PICO-8, Ren'Py, Bitsy, and Twine. You may also use Unreal, but be aware it may exceed the 1GB Itch.io limit.
As long as you have the rights or permission to use them, yes!
No. The use of AI is prohibited for this game jam.
Yes! Unfinished and unpolished games are welcome. Submit what you’ve made and you can continue developing it after the jam ends.
All games remain the property of their creators.
By submitting, you grant Patch Magazine permission to:
If your game wins, we may ask for screenshots or a short blurb.
This year, the game jam will be running for 3 weeks.
To submit your game:
Make sure your page includes how to play, a brief description, and any credits. We also recommend testing your game ahead of time to make sure it runs smoothly. Feel free to include anything else you'd like to include, like how the theme inspired you.
After the jam ends, submissions will be rated both by the public and Patch Magazine. Patch Magazine will select a series of nominees, who will then be featured in our Patch of Approval voting form that is sent out to the public - alongside some of 2026's best indie games!
Games will be scored based on:
If you have any questions, feel free to join our Discord!
