2023 Minetest GAME JAM (December 1st-21st) [Theme: "UNEXPECTED"] [$300] jam.minetest.net

[GreenXenith]

2023 Minetest GAME JAM Results

1st place: Citadel by _Irevol_ ($150)
2nd place: The Velvet Crystal by regulus ($100)
3rd place: The Unexpected Gambit by NO11 ($50)

Congratulations to the winners and to everyone that made an awesome game! Be sure to continue developing and perfecting your games! (Winners should contact GreenXenith when possible)

What did you think? No survey this year, but please post on this thread or our social platforms (Discord, IRC) with questions and ideas!

A very detailed breakdown (including distributions, weight differences, etc) can be found on this Google spreadsheet (details will be available in the data repository soon).

Keep an eye on https://jam.minetest.net/ for 2024!





HERE WE GO AGAIN! MINETEST GAME JAM 2023!

Please check out jam.minetest.net for information about this years jam!
This will be the central location for schedule, rules, and submission rating!


Theme: "UNEXPECTED"

What are we doing?

Between December 1st and December 21st, make a Minetest game from scratch following a theme (reveal on start day). The community will rate submissions at the end, and 3 winners will walk away with cash prizes!

Check out submissions from the 2021 jam and 2022 jam for some examples!

How do we do this?

Simple! Make a Minetest game using the announced theme and submit it to the Minetest ContentDB before the deadline using the Jam / Game 2023 tag. You can participate on your own, with a team, or both!

After the deadline, the community will score each package on jam.minetest.net by sorting a list of all packages. 3 winners will emerge to win a total of $300* and a spotlight on the Minetest ContentDB!

The jam website has more details about how rating will work. An interface for submission rating will be available after the submission deadline (will include CDB integration).

If you have any questions which aren't answered by this post or the website, please ask here!

Information

The Minetest GAME JAM is managed by GreenXenith with the assistance of some Minetest Discord staff and Minetest community members (Warr1024, rubenwardy, MisterE, ExeVirus, and others).

*Disclaimer:
By participating and/or contributing, you understand and accept that all involved funds will be aggregated and distributed by a private third-party (GreenXenith) through a proprietary third-party service (PayPal) to you (the contestant) or the recipient of your choice where applicable, at the complete discretion of the private handler (GreenXenith).

Please review the planning document for even more details. Jam information, documents, and media are located in the data repository.

[MCL]

Hi, I have a question - am I allowed to use the word "TESTical" or "TESTous" in the name of my game? I'm probably going to make an adaptation of an already existing (non-MT) game whose name consists of two words, the first one being an adjective and I was thinking of simply replacing that adjective in the name with "Testical" or "Testous" (as in MineTEST, signifying that it's a MineTest "port" of that game) but those two words kind of sound like "testicle" and "testes" respectively and I want to be sure my submission won't be rejected.

[freshreplicant]

Nice one! That piece of art is really great, love all the references to Minetest games. Let the hype begin!

[Zughy]

Let's go!

[ZenonSeth]

This looks interesting, question about the rules, specifically these 2:

- All gameplay and code must be original work completed within the development timeframe
- Third-party or AI assets and libraries may be used if thoroughly documented and properly licensed

Does this mean all code has to be original, or does the 2nd rule here mean by "Third-party libraries", that other people's code from a library may be used? For example, the mobs API or signs?

I would have thought third party code should strictly not be used, but the rule makes it a bit confusing.

[GreenXenith]

question about the rules, specifically these 2:

- All gameplay and code must be original work completed within the development timeframe
- Third-party or AI assets and libraries may be used if thoroughly documented and properly licensed

Does this mean all code has to be original, or does the 2nd rule here mean by "Third-party libraries", that other people's code from a library may be used? For example, the mobs API or signs?

I would have thought third party code should strictly not be used, but the rule makes it a bit confusing.

Including third-party libraries in your game as a dependency or module is acceptable (I certainly don't expect people to remake mobs_redo from scratch just for this). The majority of your game code should be your own work, created during the jam. We aren't really going to pick your code apart though, the focus of the jam is coming up with interesting and innovative experiences.

I've tweaked the rules to be clearer, I hope!

[MCL]

question about the rules, specifically these 2:

- All gameplay and code must be original work completed within the development timeframe
- Third-party or AI assets and libraries may be used if thoroughly documented and properly licensed

Does this mean all code has to be original, or does the 2nd rule here mean by "Third-party libraries", that other people's code from a library may be used? For example, the mobs API or signs?

I would have thought third party code should strictly not be used, but the rule makes it a bit confusing.

Including third-party libraries in your game as a dependency or module is acceptable (I certainly don't expect people to remake mobs_redo from scratch just for this). The majority of your game code should be your own work, created during the jam. We aren't really going to pick your code apart though, the focus of the jam is coming up with interesting and innovative experiences.

I've tweaked the rules to be clearer, I hope!

Are you going to answer my question or are you ignoring me on purpose?

[rubenwardy]

Hi, I have a question - am I allowed to use the word "TESTical" or "TESTous" in the name of my game? I'm probably going to make an adaptation of an already existing (non-MT) game whose name consists of two words, the first one being an adjective and I was thinking of simply replacing that adjective in the name with "Testical" or "Testous" (as in MineTEST, signifying that it's a MineTest "port" of that game) but those two words kind of sound like "testicle" and "testes" respectively and I want to be sure my submission won't be rejected.

This being the first reply makes me despair for the community. The fact you have to ask means this is not a good name. Why not just choose a better name?

[mrkubax10]

I agree with rubenwardy. If you question if a name is appropriate then most likely it won't be for everyone. Choosing better name would be a good solution.

[rob123]

This should be added to the featured moving thing

[rubenwardy]

This should be added to the featured moving thing

If you mean the ContentDB homepage carousel - I was thinking of doing this a week before it starts

[LMD]

Turned the topic into an announcement.

[L-Dog]

i cant code that fast.....

but if i could, you all be goosed bros.

[hex]

Freely-licensed media from third-parties or AI is allowed if documented properly

Freely-licensed media from [...] AI

That is a very bold claim and also entirely incorrect, and will be incorrect even if corrupt or clueless judges end up botching the currently ongoing court cases.

I'm quite disgusted that something like this has snuck into a rather official and promoted event. Nasty precedent.

[LMD]

Freely-licensed media from third-parties or AI is allowed if documented properly

Freely-licensed media from [...] AI

That is a very bold claim and also entirely incorrect, and will be incorrect even if corrupt or clueless judges end up botching the currently ongoing court cases.

I'm quite disgusted that something like this has snuck into a rather official and promoted event. Nasty precedent.

In defense of the organisators: Freely-licensed AI-generated media is not unthinkable. For example someone could use only freely licensed data for training, making the resulting AI-generated works freely licensed even if they were to be considered derivative works.

I believe media generated by AI which was trained on nonfree works wouldn't meet the criterion of being "freely licensed" - rather, it would have a disputed legal status, excluding a certain "freely licensed" status in particular.
"Maybe freely licensed" is not "certainly freely licensed".

[ROllerozxa]

AI generated art is an extremely grey area at the moment, so it should not be recommended to use AI generated media in your game but it would be difficult to check if it was actually generated with AI or made yourself through any sort of means. If it ends up regurgitating copyrighted media, either intentionally or unintentionally then we will catch that during package review. See what we've written in the ContentDB copyright guide about it:

I used an AI
Errrr. This is a legally untested area, we highly recommend that you don't use AI art/code in packages for that reason.

For now, we haven't banned AI art/code from ContentDB. Make sure to clearly include it in your package's credit list (include the name of the AI tool used).

Check the tools terms and conditions to see if there are any constraints on use. It looks like AI-generated art and code isn't copyrightable by itself, but the tool's T&Cs may still impose conditions.

AI art/code may regurgitate copyrighted things. Make sure that you don't include the names of any copyrighted materials in your AI prompts, such as names of games or artists.

[GreenXenith]

Freely-licensed media from third-parties or AI is allowed if documented properly

Freely-licensed media from [...] AI

That is a very bold claim and also entirely incorrect, and will be incorrect even if corrupt or clueless judges end up botching the currently ongoing court cases.

I'm quite disgusted that something like this has snuck into a rather official and promoted event. Nasty precedent.

You're disgusted that we are allowing people to use the tools available to them if the licensing clearly allows them to do so? Ludum Dare allows AI assets for the jam portion as well. I'm sorry you feel this way.

[GreenXenith]

The jam has begun!

Theme: "UNEXPECTED"

You have 3 weeks to complete your games and submit them to ContentDB with the Jam / Game 2023 tag. The target version is 5.8.0 (unless the freeze extends more than 5 days).

The scoring page will be live on the jam website before the working time ends. Remember to check the rules. There have also been some prize updates (and there may be more soon?)

https://jam.minetest.net/

[hex]

You're disgusted that we are allowing people to use the tools available to them if the licensing clearly allows them to do so? Ludum Dare allows AI assets for the jam portion as well. I'm sorry you feel this way.

There are currently no models available with weights derived entirely from public domain material, so that point is moot. All the "open source" models are as free as slapping a GPL license on leaked Windows code would be. I'll clarify, the disgusting part is how the free software community is quick to embrace these tools because the shiny "free stuff" factor outweighs any moral concerns. Perhaps it was always about free beer, and everything else was just a cover?

Furthermore, allowing these tools in a competition makes their use basically mandatory if you want to keep up, as no workflow can beat a regurgitator living in the cloud that can be asked to produce a hundred assets in parallel. Following that logic, I should be allowed to hire a team to outsource all the work to. (Not that I plan on participating in a kids' compo for less than a day's wages in prizes.)

Ludum Dare being trashy is no surprise for me, they have always been trashy.

[ThePython]

a kids' compo for less than a day's wages in prizes

Wow. Have you ever thought about... being considerate? At all? The prize money isn't all that much, but it all comes from donations from people who just like Minetest. It's not like they can force people to donate more. And "kids' compo?" Really?

[hex]

Wow. Have you ever thought about... being considerate? At all? The prize money isn't all that much, but it all comes from donations from people who just like Minetest. It's not like they can force people to donate more. And "kids' compo?" Really?

What did I say there that's so insulting? I'm only making an observation that this isn't really a good use of one's time unless you're a student. I'd be inconsiderate if I made an entry despite not really needing to.

[v-rob]

(Not that I plan on participating in a kids' compo for less than a day's wages in prizes.)

Huh. I was always under the impression that one would participate in a game jam simply for the fun of it. Many game jams don't even have prize money, and even the ones that do just provide it as an incentive to spark a bit more competition between people so they produce better games.

All of this notwithstanding the fact that most people make games and mods in Minetest without any goals for profit, only fun (for themselves or other players).

[thunder1035]

The jam has begun!

Theme: "UNEXPECTED"

Well, that was pretty unexpected

[hex]

Huh. I was always under the impression that one would participate in a game jam simply for the fun of it. Many game jams don't even have prize money, and even the ones that do just provide it as an incentive to spark a bit more competition between people so they produce better games.

Not having any prizes would actually be better; in any case permitting regurgitators ensures that this won't be very fun for the people who don't use them.

[MisterE]

Two points:
1) Minetest is not a good use of anyone's time, in the same way that model railroads or kite flying is not a good use of anyone's time. The prize money does not affect that truth.

2) Currently, the regurgitated stuff AI produces is on the level of programmer art, because it has not been specialized for this genre of media. It will either need a lot of work to make look reasonable, or it will just look trashy. A good artist like zughy would be better off making real, coherent art for their game. If you don't have artistic skill then its arguable either way whether you spend time with AI or learning basic art.