Open Source challenge results from Gamedev.js Jam 2023

This is a guest post by GitHub Star, @end3r. Andrzej Mazur is a web game developer and technical evangelist, founder of the Enclave Games indie studio, creator of the js13kGames competition, and builder of the Gamedev.js community.

The Gamedev.js community started around the year 2012, but mostly revolved around local meetups at the beginning. First international attempts were made with the global Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter in 2014, yet we had to wait until 2020 for the first Gamedev.js Jam to happen. The third edition held in 2022 was the first to ask the developers to (optionally) provide the sources of their games. That turned out as a great success—out of 95 submitted games, 27 provided their source code on GitHub.

Fast forward twelve months to April this year and the participants of Gamedev.js Jam 2023 submitted 201 games, out of which 91 joined the official Open Source challenge and provided their sources on GitHub. Below is the best 13 selected by the dedicated experts, Michelle Mannering, Ewa Mazur, and Ania Kubów:

1. Ratatime

“This game was very well thought out in all aspects. From everything to game play, to game design and music. The game play was also easy and enjoyable. As an overall package I would give it high scores.” – Ania Kubów

2. Time Rush

“Really cool, complete and very polished platform game. Music makes it dynamic, controls work fantastic. I love all the little details like moving background, character particles, time shaking, when it’s almost run out. Everything is just perfect. Graphics complete the game mood – fantastic job.” – Ewa Mazur

3. Latency

“This game had cute graphics and a simple game play which allowed me to start playing instantly. But do not be deceived, passing to the next level is harder than it looks!” – Ania Kubów

4. On Time

“The graphic are fantastic. You definitely build the mood of the city in rush hours very well. The game is complete, fun to play, nothing to add.” – Ewa Mazur

5. Chrono Blaster

“Really enjoyed the graphics and color scheme in this game. In addition to this the movements were super smooth which matched the overall ambience and provided an enjoyable game experience.” – Ania Kubów

6. Timeshifter

“I enjoy a logic game and this one was delightful! The timer added an extra layer of pressure which I thought was a good touch.” – Ania Kubów

7. Chrono Robot

Play Source

JavaScript

“Having to time your movements in order to be able to work with them in the ‘future’ is always a fun spin in games. The dev leaderboard is also a nice touch.”  – Ania Kubów

7. Time Saver

“It was very hard for me to play the game, but still I love the idea and the look of it. Game mood is very well done – all game elements are building it – music fits to graphics, graphics fits to task, animations making it all complete. And I love the idea of literally saving time. Great job” – Ewa Mazur

9. Chrono Guards

“Easy to play, really nice game, yet the idea of it is very well fitting to the game jam theme. I like how the graphics make it a little bit magical. Maybe I would think of some more delicate details, like some particles, lightning or something like this, so the mood of the game would be even more magical. but it’s just details – the game is very cool right now.” – Ewa Mazur

9. Toki

“The movements to this game were very smooth and pleasant to play. There were also unique game tools at the user’s disposal on top of the normal ‘jump’ and ‘shoot’.” – Ania Kubów

11. The Bow Fighters

“What touched my heart was that the game looked really nice. It was a little bit hard for me to discover how to play (I’m not reading the instructions), but then the game was really good.” – Ewa Mazur

12. Time Warp

“In this game the added complexity of traveling in time added many layers to this game. I enjoy when a game looks simple and minimalistic, but in reality is a lot more complex, whilst also remaining easy to play. This game did just that.” –Ania Kubów

13. Birds!

“Fun, great and creative implementation of the theme. Consistent graphics. Clever, addictive. A convincing story.” – Ewa Mazur

Congratulations to the best entries and thank you all who participated—you can see the list of 91 entries submitted to the Open Source Challenge on Itch this year.

Don’t forget to join Gamedev.js Jam 2024 on itch already to not miss anything, jump into our Discord if you’d like to talk with fellow devs, follow @Gamedevjs on Twitter, subscribe to the Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter to be uptodate with all the latest news, and buy some cool swag from Gamedev.js Shop if you’d like to proudly represent the community and support it at the same time!

Last, but not least—there’s the upcoming js13kGames 2023 where sharing the sources on GitHub is mandatory to participate since the very beginning in 2012. Remember that by sharing sources of your entries you’re helping other devs build better games and push the whole community forward!

Written by

Andrzej Mazur

@end3r