Welcome to the GBA Winter Jam '23!

This is a casual game jam running throughout February, with a focus on making a kickass title screen.

No time to finish the rest of the game? That's fine! Want to add a title screen to an old project and submit that? Go for it!

The stakes are low, there's no prizes. After the submission period ends there will be a few weeks of public voting, just for fun and to encourage players to leave feedback.

More info at itch: https://itch.io/jam/gba-winter-jam-23

Oh yeah, and this is the first time we're using our own forum for jam news & discussion! Please feel free to share your progress and ask for help here!

Aw, it's a shame you ran out of time. Sounds like it was good experience and a good chance to test your engine though.

I think there's lots of potential in the mechanics that you can pick up a snowball at any time but can only hold 1 thing at a time. Loved the music too!

Currently not, but it shouldn't be too tricky for us to add.

There's an issue here that mentions it: https://github.com/flaskbb/flaskbb/issues/335

And an old plugin which can supposedly do it, though the plugin API has since changed so I doubt it works anymore. I've had a bit of hands on experience with writing plugins already so it should be doable.

It's really coming together! Entities all seem to start & stop very suddenly in the video, so maybe some horizontal acceleration/deceleration would be good? Picking up the goblins is pretty funny and unique lol, will be fun to see how that fits into the gameplay. Good luck on the last day!

I like where this is going! Something like original Mario Bros or Super Crate Box? Also curious to know what items were on the wishlist, but maybe that's private info x)

Wow what a cool idea! And very well thought out too what with the whole reassignment system in case someone drops out.

Excited to see what you come up with!

Apotris is an absolutely stellar block stacking game for the GBA by @akouzoukos, which supports guideline rules, several game modes, heavy customisability, a banging soundtrack, and link cable multiplayer. Last month it had a physical release by insideGadgets, which sold out pretty quick, but is now back in stock.

You can order a cart (with optional rumble!) from shop.insidegadgets.com/product/apotris

or read more and grab the ROM from akouzoukos.itch.io/apotris/devlog/452358/apotris-v34-physical-release

I'm so excited for this! I saw some of the screenshots & videos that you've shared over the months, but I didn't know the initial idea went back so far, nor that it had gone through so many iterations!

It's also remarkable just how much of it is done from scratch. There's the classic trap of spending so much time on your engine / tooling that you never get around to finishing the game you intended to make... yet here you are defying it with style. In fact I don't think I've ever seen a game developed from the bottom-up to this degree, it's like the complete opposite to what I did (cobbling together existing tools and swapping out / redoing parts as I grew more comfortable with them).

Good luck with the last hurdles! And if you need playtesters you know where to find them :D

The GBA Jam 2022 has come to an end!

You can find the final results and download links for all 26 entries at gbadev.net/gbajam22.

Many thanks and congrats to everyone who took part. Hope to see you all next year! (whether it'll be a big jam or something more relaxed like last year's winter jam is undecided, but we'll keep you posted!)

Also, @avivace recently added a web build of mGBA to the Homebrew Hub, which means you can play all the entries in your browser too. So go and try them out if you haven't already!

Thanks for the heads up! I'll get @avivace to take a look as he's the one with access to the mail server.