Climate Jam 2025 has different guidelines in place for different aspects of the jam, so for clarity we've broken them down here. This page will be updated and expanded on as needed.
Table of Contents
- How to participate in Climate Jam 2025
- Sprint Submission Deadlines
- Final Climate Jam Voting
- Qualifying for Top Ranking Categories
- Judges Rubric
- Climate Solutions Compilation
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How to participate in Climate Jam 2025
By the end of the jam you should have a releasable (even if small) Climate Solutions project, including marketing materials and a tentative release plan. Jam participants are expected to:
- Make a game during the duration of the jam that utilizes the jam themes (climate change and disaster actions, strategies, and solutions).
- Follow the four sprints (Ideation, Prototyping, Production, Release and Marketing) during their designated times.
- Turn in the required materials for each sprint by each sprint's deadline.
- (strongly encouraged) Attend the Zoom sessions, provide feedback to your fellow jammers on Discord, vote on the other team's submissions after each sprint deadline.
Note: your project is not required to be built in Unity or even be a digital game!
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Sprint Submission Deadlines
Schedule times and dates are listed in Pacific Daylight Time. Convert to your local time zone here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
- Sprint 1 (Ideation): Due Thursday, June 19th at 10am PDT
- Sprint 2 (Prototyping): Due Thursday, June 26th at 10am PDT
- Sprint 3 (Production): Due Thursday, July 10th at 10am PDT
- Sprint 4 (Release and Marketing) / Final project submission: Due Friday, July 18th at 10am PDT
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Final Climate Jam Voting
Your submission for Sprint 4 (Release and Marketing) is ALSO your final project submission for Climate Jam 2025. You and your fellow submitters and contributors will have just over a week to review and rank the final projects. A group of judges made up of jam organizers, speakers, and mentors will also review and vote on the final projects.
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Qualifying for Top Ranking Categories:
Projects that do not meet these requirements may still be submitted and voted on, but are disqualified from the top ranking categories. Note: your project is not required to be built in Unity or even be a digital game!
- Make your game during the duration of the jam.
- Submit to at least 3 of the 4 sprints by the sprint deadlines.
- Game must utilize / relate to the jam themes
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Judges Rubric
The final projects will be ranked on a number of criteria for overall game quality and releasability. The judges will also rank the games using the following metrics:
- What real scientific evidence is it based on?
- What positive climate action strategies are included?
- How engaging, experiential, and immersive is it? How does it use the capabilities of games media technology and design to its advantage?
- Does it have a realistic and accessible target audience?
- What is the solution-based call to action? And is this clear?
- How does the game inspire social connections and collaboration? In what ways does it listen to and involve the community?
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(optional) Climate Solutions Compilation
This is an entirely optional extension to Climate Jam 2025. Our judges will invite some of the top games for inclusion in a Climate Solutions Compilation. This is a project where multiple games will be imported into a single project, provided with a title screen and directory, and ultimately release on Steam. Additional details and paperwork will be provided for the invited teams.
Although any kind of game can be submitted for Climate Jam 2025, only games that fit these specific parameters will be considered eligible for inclusion:
- Project must be created in Unity, Version 6.1
- Project must use unique file names. Designate a short identifier that you can add to each of your project files.
- Use the default render settings.
- Use no or minimal plugins.
- Must be in English
- Must own rights to all materials used
- Cannot contain inappropriate content
Ask questions and discuss plugin use, etc., in the #compilation channel on Discord.