Computer Peer Teacher (CPT) 24-hour Game Jam

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Every semester, the Computer Peer Teacher (CPT) program hosts the 24-hour Game Jam, a highly anticipated overnight game development competition for CSU students. Since its debut in Spring 2023, the Game Jam has become a testament to the remarkable talent within our student body, providing a platform where students from different disciplines join forces to achieve the incredible feat of creating a game from scratch in just 24 hours.

Ready to showcase your creativity and teamwork in game development? Our next 24-hour Game Jam is scheduled for March 21^st and 22^nd. Sign up here!

Competition Tiers

Starting in Spring 2025, this competition is split into two tiers: the Advanced Tier and the Novice Tier.

Advanced Tier 

The Advanced Tier is a 24 hour competition to develop a game from scratch. It begins Friday the 21st at 5pm, and ends 24 hours later at 5pm, Saturday the 22nd. 

Novice Tier

The Novice Tier is a weeklong version of the Game Jam with additional resources and support from the CPT team to help you along your game-designing journey. It begins at noon on the Saturday before the competition starts (March 15th), and goes until 5pm Saturday the 22nd. This is a great way for people who have never touched game development to get started, to help you be creative and not be bogged down by technical details and the pressure of 24 hours.

To get you started, there will be Unity and Godot templates available for you to base your game on and to play around with to see how they work. The Godot templates are available right now, and the Unity templates are on their way. Once you have an idea of what you’d like to do, we recommend signing up for a planning session with Simon or Meir to create a plan for you to follow throughout the week. Along the way, you will be able to get help in the CPT Discord server, and in FH 103 at the times posted below.

Templates for the Godot Game Engine:

• The FPS Starter Kit from Kenney.nl
• Our own Tower Defense Template
   

Template for the Unity Game Engine:

• Tower Defense Template

Judging

After 5:00 pm on Saturday the 22nd, students in both tiers will present their games in 5-6 minute presentations in front of the judges and the rest of the competitors. Following the presentations the winners will be announced.

Competition Rules

• Each team must have 2 to 4 competitors. One-person teams are not allowed.
• This competition has two tiers:
  • The Advanced Tier:
    • The standard 24-hour competition
    • Open to all students
  • The Novice Tier:
    • A weeklong competition during which CPTs will be available to assist competitors
    • Open to freshman and sophomores in CS/CE and students of all ages from other majors
    • Not open to previous Game Jam medalists
• Originality Requirements
  • Advanced Tier: Only original projects will be accepted
    • Existing assets and tutorials may be used, but your final game must represent a significant creative transformation of those materials
  • Novice Tier:
    • You may use existing assets, tutorials, and even templates.
    • Your game will still be judged based on how you creatively transform those materials, but the requirements for transformation are less strict (see the rubric).
  • Both Tiers:
    • ChatGPT and similar tools are permitted, but their outputs must be creatively transformed
    • All assets and tutorials must be legally obtained / accessed
    • All assets must be credited in your final presentation
    • All tutorials, AI conversations, and external project from which your game includes more than 100 lines of code must be credited in your final presentation
      • AI conversations can be credited simply by providing a sharing link for that conversation
    • Failure to cite external assets or code sources will result in disqualification!
• All Game Jam projects must be submitted by the deadline
  • Submissions should be placed in the provided Google Drive folder (we will share the folder sometime on Saturday)
  • Submissions must include…
    • Game code (.zip folder is preferred)
    • A game executable (for the live demo)
    • Your presentation
• To be eligible for cash prizes, teams must give a short presentation on their work
  • Presentations will have a strict time limit (determined by available time and number of presenting teams)
  • Presentations should include…
    • Your core idea (in relation to the chosen theme)
    • Implementation / stack
    • Live demo (should include sound, since that is a rubric category)
    • Development experience
  • Every team member should participate in the presentation (unless you get an exception from the coordinator)
• Because of our current setup in WH 222, judges will not have the ability to adequately experience VR games. For this reason (and because VR is generally more difficult to set up), we strongly recommend choosing another platform.
• Submissions must be "safe for work" (Rated E-M)
• Unless they have made prior arrangements with the CPT Coordinator (Simon Richard), competitors in the main competition must participate in-person for the entire event to be eligible to win
  • If you leave, PLEASE sign out.
  • If you need to walk outside at night, we would be happy to provide a safety escort; or you may request one from Campus Police by calling 216-687-2020
• If you'd like to take a break by playing a game (video or otherwise) or by doing any other potentially distracting activity, please limit it to WH 222 so that other teams can concentrate.

Things that can result in disqualification:

• Failure to cite external assets or code sources (tutorials, other projects, etc.)
• Working on your game past the 5:00 pm deadline
• No presentation
• Explicit content (anything rated other than E-M)

Rubric