WELCOME to the CGDC's Speedgame Challenge 2026
SPEEDGAME: HARDMODE!
The Speedgame: Hardmode is the Christian Game Developers Conference's game jam that adopts a short term format and focuses on pushing your game development and organizational skills. You have three days to create a game based off of a community voted theme. Whether it has a spiritual teaching or not is totally up to you. One thing is for sure, this format is going to help level you up!
This year, we have a sponser!
Farclip will be offering a cash prize for the Speedgame Hardmode this year, as well as access to its tool which will help those working in 3D environments.
Know what works while you build. See what's happening, what will happen, and whether it works on your scene before you commit, with real answers on flow, pacing, movement, sightlines, dead zones, navigation paths, and hidden dependencies.
/ No exports. / No proxy environments. / No waiting for playtest
Works with Unity 6 and Unreal 5.6+
Here's the link to check it out!
Discord link to the Farclip Discord is here: Farclip Discord for joining and giving feedback. There will also be a raffle for $100!
THEME :
CREATION
PRIZES
Yes, we have prizes!
1st Place - $250
2nd Place - $100
3rd Place - $50
Best Farclip Use - $100
1st to 5th place also get 1 year Pro tier subscription to Farclip (starts at the end of the Beta) as well as increased usage allowance during Beta
TIMELINE
- May 22nd - 7pm PDT / 10pm EDT, Reveal winning theme and start the challenge
- May 25th - 7pm PDT / 10pm EDT, Jam ends and voting starts.
- June 1st - Reveal Winners
VOTING CATEGORIES
- Best Overall
- Most Fun
- Best Mood
- Most Innovative
- Best Theme Implementation
- Best Use of Farclip.AI - Determined by the Farclip team
RULES
- Give yourself enough time to upload your entry. Perhaps upload early, even if it's an incomplete build, then work on iterating and improving your project. After the deadline on the final day, you have ONE additional hour to submit patches, bug fixes, or edits of any kind. NO UPDATES should be submitted after that extra hour, any abusers will be penalized! Please check your timezone to make sure you submit on time.
- Teams must not be greater than three people.
- All games must be created during the course of the challenge, not before.
- It is encouraged that games be made open source at the end of the challenge to allow other developers to see the underpinnings of your projects. This way we foster an open community that builds each other up by sharing resources. If certain licenses of libraries or tools do not permit you to make them open source, then omit these. NOTE: This only applies to the challenge game, not to any later revisions or iterations that you make to your game, in case you decide to continue work on the game, for example.
- Some criteria must be met:
- Games must not contain any extremes of the following: violence, sexual content, occult practices, or language. Use restraint.
- Games must not breach any copyright laws. No plagiarism or taking other’s work as your own!
- Any tools or libraries you can leverage for this challenge can be used.
- Farclip.AI counts as a tool! It is not a generator.
- You can reuse any libraries you may have previously created such as graphic, keyboard, or sound routines. Regarding libraries in general, if any are necessary to play your game, please add them as part of the zip or installation file so others do not have to go hunting down ways to play your game. This refers to programmed libraries, not image or audio assets.
- If using 3rd party Artwork/Music/Audio assets, please credit where you sourced from.
- Please make your games playable in any of the following environments: Windows 7/8/10, Mac/Linux, Web
- Games must include instructions on how to play your game such as controls and how the game works. A quick readme file, or in-game tutorial outlining the controls and general background information would be useful!
TABLETOP/BOARDGAME ENTRIES
In the past we have received tabletop entries and recognize that some folks are interested in submitting these kinds of games to the Speedgame Challenges. While they can be a bit more difficult to play test, we want to give the opportunity for more people to be able to submit these kinds of games. So, this is a call for more of these kinds of entries!
With the streamlining of the voting categories, these types of entries can now also fit in better with the other game submissions as well.
Keep in mind while designing that games that require multiple players and too much of a setup will be more difficult to rate. Perhaps solo-play type of games, and one-shots may be a better fit for this kind of jam.
RULES REGARDING AI USE
- AI Programming tools are ok.
- If any audio or image generation tool was used for your game (including presentation material for the itch.io page) you will need to mark the appropriate field during your game submission.
- If what you created is modified sufficiently that the original is no longer apparent, you won't need to mark the category.
- Be creative and put some effort into your work! This is Hardmode after all!
- AI tools have made certain things easier to make, but no one likes slop. So don't make soulless slop! People will tell and vote accordingly.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Itch.io will be used for all game submissions. Please put your project and all necessary files inside a zip and upload to your project page. Change the pricing to "No payments" and mark release status as released when finished making changes. All other necessary information can be filled as you see fit.
Once your project page is complete, go back to the jam page and submit your project!
