Gaming Like It’s 1927: Get Ready For Our Next Public Domain Game Jam
Sign up for the Public Domain Game Jam on itch.io
It's that time of year! Ever since works in the US finally started entering the public domain again, we've been hosting an annual game jam for designers to create games based on the year's newly copyright-free works. This year, it's Gaming Like It's 1927!
There are lots of interesting works becoming available this year, including:
- Novels, short stories, and poems by Agatha Christie, Baroness Orczy, Hermann Hesse, Marcel Proust, Upton Sinclair, and Virginia Woolf plus the first three The Hardy Boys books
- Art by Ansel Adams, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, and Tamara de Lempicka
- Films including The Jazz Singer, Metropolis, Napoleon, and Trolley Troubles
- Music by Bela Bartok, Ira and George Gershwin, Igor Stravinsky, Irving Berlin, Louis Armstrong, Ruth Etting, and Sophie Tucker
Check out Duke's Public Domain Day article or Copyright Lately's round-up for more works entering the public domain.
As usual, the contest is open to both digital and analog games of all types, as long as they are based on or incorporate materials from one or more works that enter the public domain in 2023. We have some great prizes for the winners in six different categories. The jam will be open for submissions for the entire month of January, and you can join and view the full rules, categories, and prizes on the jam page over on Itch.io - so go sign up and start thinking up ideas!
For inspiration, you can check out the winners of the jams for 1923, 1924, 1925 and 1926. We've always been absolutely floored by the creativity and variety of submissions from both experienced and new game designers, which have beautifully illustrated the immense value of a robust and expanding public domain. We can't wait to see what you come up with this year!