game-jam
Plan and ship a game under a jam deadline: lock scope to the clock, schedule the hours, cut features, and submit on time. Use for a game jam (Ludum Dare, GMTK Jam, Global Game Jam), a 48-hour or weekend build, or scoping and submitting a jam entry.
npx skills add gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills --skill game-jam --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Game Jam Turn a theme and a fixed deadline into a finished, submitted game. This is a planning and scope-control playbook, not engine code: the win condition is *something submitted and playable*, not *the game you imagined*. ## When to use - Use when entering a timed jam (Ludum Dare, GMTK Jam, Global Game Jam, a weekend jam), scoping a 48-hour build, or deciding what to cut to hit a deadline. - Use when the user asks "what can I actually build in a weekend" or "how do I submit to this jam". **When *not* to use:** building the *core loop* in engine code (use the engine skill — `godot-2d-movement`, `phaser-core`, etc. — or a genre skill like `platformer`); throwaway experiments with no deadline (use `prototype-fast`); shipping a commercial release (use `steam-publish` / `itch-publish`). ## Core workflow 1. **Read the rules before the theme drops.** Confirm the jam's *length*, *theme reveal time*, *submission deadline (with timezone)*, whether teams/pre-made assets/engines are allowed, and whether ratings require you to rate other entries. Missing one of these disqualifies an otherwise-finished game. 2. **Prep the boring parts in advance** (allowed by most jams): empty project that
- When to use
- Core workflow
- Patterns
- 1. Scope budget by jam length (plan backwards from the deadline)
- 2. The 48-hour timeline (concrete blocks)
- 3. Feature triage — decide fast, decide out loud
- 4. Pre-submission build check (run on a clean copy, not your dev folder)
- Pitfalls
- References
- Related skills
What does the game-jam skill do?
Plan and ship a game under a jam deadline: lock scope to the clock, schedule the hours, cut features, and submit on time. Use for a game jam (Ludum Dare, GMTK Jam, Global Game Jam), a 48-hour or weekend build, or scoping and submitting a jam entry.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills --skill game-jam --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills, a repository with 406 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.