April Fools Jam

Theme: “Fool me once… play me twice.”

Welcome to the April Fool's Jam – a celebration of pranks, puns, unexpected twists, and harmless digital trickery! This is your chance to make players laugh, gasp, or scratch their heads in confusion. Just remember: the only rule is don't be mean. Clever, silly, and surprising are all fair game.

What kind of game should you make?

Anything that plays with expectations! For example:

- A platformer where the jump button does nothing… until you press "down??".

- An RPG where the final boss is a rubber chicken with a health bar that says “???”.

- A “scary” game that turns into a dance party.

- A fake “update” screen that’s actually the whole game.

- A puzzle that solves itself – or never does.

Parodies, fake mechanics, misleading UI, fourth-wall breaks, fake endings, and “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature” energy are all strongly encouraged.

Optional “Fool’s Choice” constraints

If you want an extra challenge, try one, two or all of these:

- The Switch: The game must have two completely different genres (one of them hidden).

- The Rickroll and/or Any Other Very Popular Meme (eg, Element of Surprise, Stickbug Game Cube, etc.): The game must include a completely unexpected moment.

- The Trust Fall: The player must rely on a broken UI element that secretly works.

Rules

1. Made during the jam – You can use pre-made assets, but the game idea and build must be fresh.

2. No harassment, hate, or real harm – Prank the player, not harm the people.

3. Web build strongly encouraged – So anyone can start to play quickly.

4. Include a short “truth” note in the description explaining what the trick actually is (so nobody gets genuinely frustrated).

5. Include warnings, if there needs to be, for any sudden flashes, strobbing lights, etc.

6. No NSFW games - The games must be safe for under-18s.

5. Be creative, be silly, be kind.

Judging

If you plan to rate entries or not, consider:

- Presentation

- Creativity

- Originality

- Biggest Gasp (most surprising twist)

- Best Deadpan (most convincing fake)

- Punniest Punchline

- “I Can’t Believe You Did That” Award

Submitting

Upload your game to itch.io, then add the tag 'april-fools-jam-2026' and include a screenshot that looks like a normal game – even if it isn't.

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Let’s fool around (but in a nice way). Happy jamming!

Cover from: https://spmetrowire.com/what-is-april-fools-day-and-why-do-we-recognize-it/