📢Due to multiple requests, we have shifted the deadline to 7th November 11:59 PM IST.  Hope you make good use of this time! 

Get ready to test your game development skills alongside some of the best game developers out there. Amalthea, the Annual Technical Summit of IIT Gandhinagar, in collaboration with DigiS, the game development club of IIT Gandhinagar, gives you the platform.

Bring a team, pick an engine, and turn one idea into a playable game. Cash prizes worth ₹5000 are up for grabs.

Offline showcase: After the submission deadline, at Amalthea, IIT Gandhinagar

All you need is an itch.io account. If you don't have one, you can create one here: /dashboard

Click Join Jam on this page to register. You'll be able to submit your game once the jam begins.

- Teams can have up to 3 members. A team of 2 is recommended for the best experience, and solo entries are welcome.

- The game must be clean: no NSFW content is allowed.

- Premade assets (art, audio, code libraries) can be used as long as you have the right to use them. Credit all third-party assets on your submission page.

- Generative AI assets are allowed, but must be disclosed on your submission page, stating what was AI-generated and which tools were used.

- Work on the game must begin after the jam starts. Engines, templates, and libraries are fine to use.

- Your game must be submitted within the time limit. Minor bug-fix updates are allowed after submission, but no new features.

- The organizers hold the right to make changes to the event format or structure without prior notice to participants.

Imperfect Symmetry

Symmetry is harmony, predictability, and perfection. It is the architecture of crystals, the rhythm of a heartbeat, the safety of a balanced equation. It is the mirrored face, the even split, the system where every force has an equal and opposite partner. Symmetry is comforting because it's understandable: once you see one half, you know the other.

Asymmetry is tension, movement, and life. A single defect in a crystal lattice creates stress that spreads through the whole structure. An offset weight makes a pendulum swing instead of hanging still. An unequal matchup forces strategy over brute force, because the weaker side has to think its way to victory. Without asymmetry, nothing moves, nothing changes, and nothing surprises.

But neither one means much on its own. A flaw is only visible against a pattern, and balance only matters when something threatens to tip it. Perfection becomes interesting the moment it breaks, and chaos becomes meaningful the moment it reveals a shape.

Your challenge for this jam is to explore the intersection between perfect balance and the forces that disturb it. Create an experience where symmetry and asymmetry rely on each other to exist.

You can bring the theme into your game through any part of it:

Gameplay systems: mechanics built on mirroring, balancing, or deliberately breaking a pattern. A puzzle solved by finding the one tile that doesn't fit. A character whose left and right actions are opposites. A system that rewards you for staying balanced, or for tipping it at exactly the right moment.

Multiplayer or matchups: two sides with unequal powers, information, or goals that still create a fair and interesting contest.

Level and world design: a mirrored world where one side is secretly different, or a space that looks perfectly balanced until the player starts to move through it.

Narrative and perspective: two characters who reflect each other but differ in one crucial way, a story told twice from opposing sides, or a perfect world with a single crack in it.

-Visual presentation and sound design: patterns, rhythms, and compositions that set up an expectation of order and then subvert it.

These are only starting points. The most memorable entries will find their own interpretation.

Where will you break the symmetry?

Submission guidelines

Each team must submit:

1. A playable build: either a Windows build or a Web build of the game. Web builds are recommended, since judges can play them directly in the browser.

2. A Game Design Document (GDD): add a link to it on your itch page. You can use this template: https://artsybarrels.itch.io/simple-gdd-template

3. A short description on your submission page explaining how your game interprets the theme.

Before submitting, make sure:

- the build runs without any extra installs (or in the browser, for Web builds),

- controls are explained in-game or on the submission page,

- all third-party assets are credited,

- any AI-generated assets are disclosed.

- There will be 3 overall winners.

- Judges will review all entries.

- The final showcase for all games will be held offline during Amalthea at IIT Gandhinagar, after the submission deadline.

Entries will be scored on the following criteria:

1st prize:₹2500

2nd prize:₹1500

3rd prize:₹1000

Contact: Arham Khan - (+91 6378633496)