The concept of a game jam is something that many developers use to get together and work nonstop to make a game that they’re passionate about. Games born from game jams normally are made from a small idea and then run with until they’re done when the time runs out. Games like Antonball and Friday Night Funkin’ spawned specifically from game jams. Companies are turning to game jams to find willing developers to pitch their games to, one of which is Rogue Games. 

Rogue Games has been publishing indie titles for a while now. Their most newsworthy title is Wipeout Rush, the comic-styled, mobile racing management game PlayStation’s Wipeout universe. The developer is looking to find the next big game to become part of the Rogue Games family and plans to host their own game jam to find the game that fits. 

The Rogue Jam opens for submissions on November 29. Anyone can enter if they have a completed game or a video showcasing that game for the judge’s panel. The winner will receive $500,000 to complete their title, while runner-ups will be given $300,000. However, Rogue knows it’s not a game jam by definition. It’s more of a contest. Players have until December 31 to send their game in. They don’t have to complete the game within the time limit to submit it. 

The panel of judges will be veterans from all around the industry. Peer Schneider, vice president of IGN, is one of the judges since IGN will be involved. Reggie Fils-Aime is also going to be present. After stepping down from Nintendo, he is spending a lot of his time on the sidelines of the gaming industry. However, the industry still runs through him. He’s always ready to see something innovative come out of the industry. 

Chris Lee, the new head of game sourcing and interactive games at Netflix, will also appear on the panel. With Netflix’s newfound interest in the gaming industry, looking for content to bring to the platform is something that he’s on the lookout for. 

Being one of the people responsible for publishing Mortal Kombat 11 and Words With Friends, Kimberly Pointer Corbett will also judge. She’s got an eye for games of all types. When it comes to picking them, having her as a judge will be a massive help when it comes to picking the cream of the crop. 

With the game jam started by Rogue Games, it wouldn’t be fair not to include the people responsible. Matt Casamassina and Chris Archer, the founder, and the CSO of Rogue Games, respectively, will be on the panel.

According to the website for the game, “Once the submission period closes, the judges will evaluate all the games for a couple of months—we expect a good amount of entrants and we want to make sure we give every last one the time they deserve—and pick several winners.” This will then culminate with a Shark Tank-like event where the five winners will elaborate on their game in front of the judges. However, there’s a small caveat at the end of the rules, “As much as we love to break the rules, we still have principles of behavior and a semblance of structure to follow. Just a wee bit. But once you enter the competition’s arena, it’s all fair and foul play.”

The phrase, “Once you enter the competition’s arena, it’s all fair and foul play,” is concerning. The hopeful thought is that this phrase is meant to hype up people who want to join the contest, but nothing of the sort will be included. The phrasing is reminiscent of the stunts pulled on the horrendous event from 2014.

The idea was that it was going to be a documentary/reality show about developing independent titles. Developers would be invited to make games in a group with one another and then show their games when they were complete. The problem is that one thing got in the way of the actual development business. With Mountain Dew sponsoring the show, developers were asked to drink nothing but it. They didn’t want to do that and dumped the sugary drink and used the cans to drink water. Also, people who weren’t developers attempted to fight with the teams by asking personal questions. 

The people working on the show treated the set like an episode of “The Bachelor” rather than an actual game development environment. This caused all the developers to walk out of the show, which shut down production for good. 

With the wording coming from the Rogue Games website, it’s natural to be worried about the intentions of the final game developers who go onto the stage to show off their games. It doesn’t appear that this will be the case, but with the massive companies involved, it could seem that they’re attempting to give a broader appeal, especially with the Shark Tank-like showcasing at the end of the game contest.