2022 Epic MegaJam Theme Announcement!

General Announcements
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The Theme for the 2022 Epic MegaJam has been announced!

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The time has finally arrived--registration for the 2022 Epic MegaJam is open!

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For those that may not be aware, the MegaJam is an annual celebration of the Unreal community and game development in a seven-day game jam where you can collaborate with others, hone existing skills, learn new ones, complete a project and have the chance to get your work in front of industry professionals. Oh, and there are pretty cool prizes, courtesy of our generous partners and sponsors!

Last year, we saw a record-breaking number of participants and entrants for the 2021 Epic MegaJam, and a plethora of brilliant, fun, and even fantastically bizarre games from the community. We cannot wait to see what you create this year.

Join the jam in advance to make sure you don’t miss any announcements for the kickoff livestream with special guests, the all-important theme reveal, and more!

Once submissions close all entries will be played by our qualified judges and scored according to the following criteria:

  • Unique Use of Contest Theme (revealed during the kickoff livestream)
  • Fun Factor
  • Visuals
  • Audio

Head on over to the 2022 Epic MegaJam Itch.io page to read the Official Rules, take a peak at the prizes, and the special modifier categories—and of course, don’t forget to register!

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Drop any and all questions you may have about the Epic MegaJam below. Our goal is to make the Epic MegaJam rewarding for everyone, and continue to make it Unreal. If you have any feedback, please let us know.

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Looking forward to it greatly! I do have questions about this rule :

NOTE: Sourced (non-original) assets are allowed but will not be reviewed and scored.

  • Example 1: A scene with environment art from the marketplace could get points for lighting and composition, but the pre-made assets wouldn’t.
  • Example 2: A scene with sourced audio could get points for implementation (spatialization, real-time modulation, etc), but the sourced audio wouldn’t.

Seeing the links to the sound FX, animations, etc. listed on the rules page made me wonder :

Are ALL assets that are not created during the week of the game jam considered “sourced”?

As a solo dev, is it going to be worth my time to create all of my assets, and how much will having sourced assets in my project hurt its score?

Thanks in advance for any clarification!
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Hi @TelesphorosGames! :slight_smile:

Thank you for your question; I imagine others may have similar concerns around this when participating as a solo developer.

Are ALL assets that are not created during the week of the game jam considered “sourced”?

The spirit of the MegaJam is to create something new that relates to the theme (revealed upon kickoff); both of those things typically mean that completely original works will have a broader opportunity to create something unique based on the theme. In short, yes anything made before the event would be considered sourced and must be noted upon submission, but that doesn’t mean you cannot or should not use sourced assets; there is something to be said about implementation and other areas that directly impact the rest of the judging criteria.

There are also special modifier categories with specific criteria that might appeal to you.

I want to stress, make sure you have fun, and don’t be too hard on yourself in the lead-up to and during the event.

I hope this helps!

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Thank you so much! This definitely helps!

Cheers!

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Hi there!

The Official Rules state that “Without limitation of the foregoing, the Contest is not open to individuals in the province of Quebec, Brazil, or Italy.”

Could someone elaborate on this? As in:

  • Why?
  • If the main issue is related with the prizes, would it be possible for someone from those places (Quebec, Brazil or Italy) to participate (either alone or in a group) by forfeiting the prizes?
  • Alternatively, could someone from those places register with another address from a valid region (e.g., using the address of a friend or relative in the USA)?

I’m sure that Epic doesn’t want anyone feeling left out, and there are good reasons for “excluding” people living in those areas, but not telling us what are those reasons can make us feel at least a bit disappointed…

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"Without limitation of the foregoing, the Contest is not open to individuals in the province of Quebec, Brazil, or Italy. "

Why? : (

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Complications with local laws and certain types of competition mean they can’t do it. For example in Italy any kind of prize drawing has to be done in the presence of a public official.

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That’s what I thought - but laws evolve, and what was an issue in a previous MegaJam might be… an even bigger issue today! :sweat_smile: Or not! Perhaps other people could provide legal help / guidance in some instances - but only if the issues are publicly known.

Anyway, someone might want to participate in the MegaJam not for the money, but for the glory! And learning, getting experience, or just having fun.

Of course, there always are plenty of other game jams (including indie game jams) for those feeling left out, but I wonder if the Epic MegaJam could change the eligibility terms / conditions to be a little more inclusive (even if not for this edition, maybe in the next one)…

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Hello AltoRetrato, hi lucoiso I think it’s because of disagreements between countries and not a personal initiative of Epic Games. Epics are registered in America and when they will transfer cash prizes for participation in contests or competitions to “unfriendly countries” then the American government may have questions.

I am sure that you can circumvent this restriction by taking a person from another country to the team. Make this person a leader, let him draw up all the documents for himself and fill out questionnaires for the team. If you win then the prize will come to his homeland and he will then share them with you.

I hope you will find an acceptable outlet for you and participate in Epic MegaJam 2022.

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I am sure that you can circumvent this restriction by taking a person from another country to the team. Make this person a leader, let him draw up all the documents for himself and fill out questionnaires for the team. If you win then the prize will come to his homeland and he will then share them with you.

Do not do this. The rules are as written for specific reasons, and whilst it sucks that some people cannot compete due to their geographical location, deliberately circumventing the competition rules can put both yourself and Epic in a dubious legal position.

There’s nothing stopping anyone from jamming and not submitting anything however, you are of course always free to just make a game within the same timeframe, with the same theme etc. There are also hundreds of other jams throughout the year.

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Will it work if it’s a mixed team?

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No. If you are located in one of the named countries you cannot enter the contest.

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Hi @aVisDidenko ! I believe there are several reasons for limiting the participation of citizens in different countries, but not all of them due to government sanctions. Here’s a longer quote:

Without limitation of the foregoing, the Contest is not open to individuals in the province of Quebec, Brazil, or Italy. In addition, the Contest is not open to individuals in Belarus, the Central African Republic, the Crimea region, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Myanmar (Burma), North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria.

Notice how there is first a lists of 3 regions, then a list of 18 regions. The second list includes embargoed and sanctioned countries. Care was taken to not mix them all in one list, since the regions in the first list are not under embargos or sanctions (AFAIK).

I understand that you suggested an alternative in good faith, but I’d rather not participate if I have to circumvent the rules. That’s why I brought up the subject: I believe Epic could change the rules to something like this:

Individuals in the province of Quebec, Brazil, or Italy can participate either individually or in a team by forfeiting their rights to any of the listed prizes, without any other form of compensation.

This would be good for those in Quebec, Brazil and Italy, since it would allow them to participate, and it should not cause any issues or problems for Epic (I think, and I hope).

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Hi, That will be my first GameJam, so sorry if my question is bad, but I want to stream all the event as a solo gamedev, that will prove all I do. Where can I add this informations with replay ?

Thanks a lot !

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I saw a lot of videos about this, but I can’t confirm this with you, but it’s very nice you make a stream to show how your journey into a game jam.

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Hey @One4All,

If you wish to share WIP, you can do so on social platforms or even include a link to the VODs/replays in the description of your game when you upload/submit it on itch.io. You can even spin up a thread in the Showcase category for folks to see! :slight_smile:

Please remember the WIP streams will not count during judging, but it would be awesome to see how people create their fantastic games! :slight_smile:

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Ho yes, I don’t want to make this for the judging but I think it’s will be nice to show my process ^^ Thanks a lot !

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Can you clarify how each category and sub-category is weighted? Are they all equal? Is original asset vs sourced equally weighted against the other sub-points like implementation?

For instance, if I try to go solo and need to use sponsor assets as part of the project, how badly am I crippling my chances to win? For instance, going for the photoreal modifier without Megascans or some other third party’s assets seems like it would be burdensome to try and pick up photogrammetry AND everything else within that week.

I know winning isn’t everything, but it’d be nice to know whether I’d still have a chance.

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Love the Theme! Does the game have to be packaged in development mode, not shipping. I also see it can be distributed via the play store, but I think it would then have to be packaged under shipping, I could be wrong, just wanted to make sure. Thanks!