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What is VIC Jam?

The Virginia Inter-Collegiate Game Jam is a video game-making marathon hosted by university level game design clubs. College students all around Virginia are tasked with making a video game from scratch with a given theme in just 72 hours!

The theme for the jam will be revealed at the start date!

When is VIC Jam 2026?

The jam starts on Thursday, March 26th at 6pm and runs until Sunday, March 29th at 6pm! We will have a short opening and closing ceremony with our respective executive members and all jam submissions will be open for voting for the following week.

Who can participate?

Current and past VA college students are welcome to participate!

If you're a student participating outside of VA, you should be in a team of at least half VA students!

Examples:

• 1 VA, 1 non VA
• 2 VA, 1 non VA
• 2 VA, 2 non VA

If you're unsure if you can participate, feel free to reach out!

Are teams allowed?

Yes! There is no restriction to team size. Remember to add team members as contributors before submitting.

Will there be judging or categories?

As a bonus, there are five categories a game can be evaluated in: Enjoyment, Creativity, Visuals, Audio, and Overall.

What can be submitted?

Your game should, at minimum, run on Windows as an executable or in a browser on itch.io. You should not need an external program to run your game.

Please no hateful, discriminatory, or overly graphic content! Your game may be disqualified from the jam.

Assets & Code

We encourage making a majority of your game during the jam period, but free to use small code snippets for simple things like a platformer character, camera, etc.

Premade graphics and audio are allowed if you have permission. Don’t forget to credit creators if they ask!

If you are unsure if you can use something, feel free to ask in the Discord!

AI Policy

Generative AI is not allowed for any creative asset use such as art, music, writing, sound, etc.

Generative AI is allowed for assisting development such as ideas or coding assist, but should not be used as a significant portion of your game:

• Code snippets
• Creative processes (brainstorming and ideation)
• Planning

Generative AI is NOT ok for:

• Art/Assets
• Music
• Writing
• Coding your entire game

If we find that you have used generative AI for the above restricted uses in your game, the game will be subject to disqualification. 

How to submit:

1. Upload your game to itch.io like a regular game
2. Make the game free and publish it (you can edit the game's page after submitting!)
3. Come back to this page, click "Submit Your Project" and choose your game from the dropdown box
4. Fill out the submission fields and click submit!
5. To confirm your game was submitted, navigate to the game's page and check if a new badge was added
6. If problems persist, ping an exec in the VIC Discord!

How do I join?

Sign up here on the itch.io page!

Are there Prizes this year?

Our lovely sponsor Spine is rewarding Licenses for the Overall category winners! (these prizes are for each team member)

Overall First Place: 1-year license for Spine Professional

Overall Second Place: 1-year license for Spine Essential

Overall Third Place: 1-year license for Spine Essential

Spine Website: https://en.esotericsoftware.com/

Any game made during this jam is the property of their respective creator(s)

• Feel free to sell/redistribute your game or expand upon it after the jam!

Sponsored by...