And That’s A Wrap! Check Out The Entries In The Public Domain Game Jam
As you likely know, at the beginning of January we launched the latest edition of our public domain game jam, Gaming Like It's 1928! We invited designers of all stripes to make analog and digital games using the material that entered the public domain this year (including the big one, Mickey Mouse). Now, the jam has come to a close, and we're thrilled to have received a whole bunch of exciting entries.
We're now working on checking them all out in detail so we can choose the winners of the six categories, but you shouldn't wait for us - go check out the entries for yourself! I can already tell that there's some great stuff in there. As expected, we got more than one entry making creative use of Steamboat Willie, like the video games Steamboat Willie Live! and The Steamboat of Madness, and (also as expected) many designers cast a wider net and found lots of other newly public domain material to make use of. One entry gives Rene Magritte's The Empty Mask the puzzle game treatment it screams out for, another draws on the designs of Buckminster Fuller; there's a walking simulator that combines early Mickey Mouse with a variety of other 1928 cartoons, and a tabletop game about Amelia Earhart's memoir. And those are just a few of the many that caught my eye - I can't wait to dig in, and you shouldn't either.
Once again, a huge thank you to all the designers who submitted games - we had no idea how this jam would go when we started it in 2019, but thanks to you we've been able to run it six times with no shortage of exciting entries. We'll be hard at work on the judging process for at least a couple of weeks, so stay tuned for the results.
And for those of you out there who didn't submit an entry but are now thinking you should have, and those who have followed these jams but never quite pulled the trigger on getting involved, remember: it's never too early to start looking at what will be entering the public domain in 2025, when we'll run Gaming Like It's 1929!