Game Off 2026, GitHub’s annual community game jam, opens its submission window on November 1st at 21:37:27 UTC and closes December 1st at 21:37:00 UTC — a full month to design, build, and ship a game from scratch. The theme is announced the moment the window opens, so nobody gets a head start on concept.
The rules are deliberately loose. Any programming language, game engine, or library is allowed — this is not a jam built around one tool’s ecosystem. The only hard requirements: a free GitHub account, a public GitHub repository holding your source code, and a submission on itch.io after joining the jam page. Individuals and teams can both enter, and the game has to be built during the jam’s own month rather than polished-up prior work.
There’s no entry fee and, notably, no cash prize — the jam is judged entirely by community vote, across six categories: Overall, Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, Innovation, and Theme Interpretation. Voting runs from the December 1st submission deadline through January 1st, 2027 at 13:37 PST. The event is hosted by GitHub, alongside itch.io creator Lee Reilly — a pairing that puts the jam’s infrastructure (repo hosting, Actions, Pages for a quick deploy) and its community distribution (itch.io’s jam tooling and discovery) under one roof.
For a project covering creative coding and generative work as a beat, Game Off is one of the lowest-friction entry points there is: no portfolio required, no engine tax, source code public by rule rather than by request. The theme announcement on November 1st is the actual starting gun — worth watching if you’re going to enter.