js13kGames - behind the compo

Now when the competition started let’s sit and look back at what just happened and why I didn’t mention about it earlier.

How all this started?

I was thinking about it for a couple of months, but lately it was like “now or never”, so I thought it will be better to do it now. I’ve managed to convince Efka to do a quick design for a one-page site. From an idea to a fully working website it was like 24 hours. After that I started to organize prizes, judges, fixing up rules and so on.

I didn’t have much time to focus on anything else, so the new blog posts here have to wait for a better time. I wanted to focus on the compo and make it good without revealing who I am and what I do. I even used “we did this or that” in the rules to make it look like there are many people involved. Only the couple of days ago I’ve posted my bio at the end of the Judges list, because there were a lot of questions about the authors.

js13k…what?

The js13kGames compo was made for fun. You have a month (from August 13th to September 13th) to submit your game. The only restriction is the total file size that have to be smaller or equal to the 13 kilobytes. The main theme of the compo is the number 13, although all games with different themes will be accepted.

Judges

Only the best: Michał Budzyński and Rob Hawkes both from Mozilla and Darius Kazemi from Bocoup. You can check their bio if you want to know more about them.

Prizes

Whole lot of prizes if you ask me, they’re worth around $5600. There’s game engine licenses, gamedev books, trainings, online services and more. Check this list for details - there are 14 different types of prizes!

Special deal with onGameStart

The js13kGames compo is a sponsor of the onGameStart conference, there is a special promo code for every participant - enter ‘js13kgames’ in the registration form to buy your tickets for half the normal price and save 50%!

Positive feedback

It was amazing that when I started the preparations for the compo, put the website online (great design by Ewa Mazur) and was sending the emails to different people I got an awesome feedback from everybody. Huge companies were happy to give their products as the prizes. Judges wanted to be a part of this experience. I’ve got an incredible help from Michał Budzyński - half of the prizes are organized thanks to him.

Karolina Szczur also did a great job making some noise at Nodejitsu. An existing gamedev community, #bbg channel on Freenode IRC was happy to be a part of the compo - they’re talking about it, helping each other, discussing ideas and solutions. The Twitter account have over 500 followers and I see mentions and discussions everyday. I just can’t wait to see the first submissions!