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Agent skill

Game Jam

by gamedev-skills in gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills

Plan and ship a game under a jam deadline: lock scope to the clock, schedule the hours, cut features, and submit on time.

Apache-2.0Auto-check passedGame Development

Install Game Jam

skills CLI
$ npx skills add gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills --skill game-jam -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills game-jam --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/workflows/game-jam .claude/skills/game-jam && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
game-jam
GitHub stars
1.4k
Token cost
~1.6k tokens
SKILL.md length
636 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
53
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Plan and ship a game under a jam deadline: lock scope to the clock, schedule the hours, cut features, and submit on time.

  • Works in 4 steps: Scope budget by jam length (plan… → The 48-hour timeline (concrete blocks) → Feature triage — decide fast, decide out… → …
  • A game jam (Ludum Dare
  • SKILL.md covers When to use, Core workflow, Patterns and Pitfalls, plus 2 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Game Jam is an agent skill from gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills. Plan and ship a game under a jam deadline: lock scope to the clock, schedule the hours, cut features, and submit on time. Use for a game jam (Ludum Dare, GMTK Jam, Global Game Jam), a 48-hour or weekend build, or scoping and submitting a jam entry.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.6k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Game Development. The repository describes itself as: 74 game-dev skills for AI coding agents — Godot, Unity, Unreal, Phaser, PixiJS, three.js, Bevy, pygame, LÖVE, Roblox. Portable SKILL.md Agent Skills (the format Anthropic… The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • A game jam (Ludum Dare
  • Global Game Jam)
  • Scoping and submitting a jam entry

Example prompts

  • “/game-jam”

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Scope budget by jam length (plan backwards from the deadline)
  2. The 48-hour timeline (concrete blocks)
  3. Feature triage — decide fast, decide out loud
  4. Pre-submission build check (run on a clean copy, not your dev folder)

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 0a70cfc. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Game Jam loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 64 tokens; SKILL.md has 636 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~64
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.6k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills at commit 0a70cfc, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© gamedev-skills). 636 words, ~1,621 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/game-jam/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
game-jam
description
Plan and ship a game under a jam deadline: lock scope to the clock, schedule the hours, cut features, and submit on time. Use for a game jam (Ludum Dare, GMTK Jam, Global Game Jam), a 48-hour or weekend build, or scoping and submitting a jam entry.

Game Jam

Turn a theme and a fixed deadline into a finished, submitted game. This is a planning and scope-control playbook, not engine code: the win condition is something submitted and playable, not the game you imagined.

When to use

  • Use when entering a timed jam (Ludum Dare, GMTK Jam, Global Game Jam, a weekend jam), scoping a 48-hour build, or deciding what to cut to hit a deadline.
  • Use when the user asks "what can I actually build in a weekend" or "how do I submit to this jam".

When not to use: building the core loop in engine code (use the engine skill — godot-2d-movement, phaser-core, etc. — or a genre skill like platformer); throwaway experiments with no deadline (use prototype-fast); shipping a commercial release (use steam-publish / itch-publish).

Core workflow

  1. Read the rules before the theme drops. Confirm the jam's length, theme reveal time, submission deadline (with timezone), whether teams/pre-made assets/engines are allowed, and whether ratings require you to rate other entries. Missing one of these disqualifies an otherwise-finished game.
  2. Prep the boring parts in advance (allowed by most jams): empty project that builds and exports, input + a title/end screen stub, an export pipeline you've run once, and a font/SFX source you're licensed to use. Day-one time is too precious to spend here.
  3. Theme → one sentence. Brainstorm 10 ideas in 15 minutes, then commit to one expressible as: "You [verb] to [goal] while [constraint]." If you can't say it in one sentence, it's too big.
  4. Scope to the clock, not the idea. Use the budget table below. Pick one core mechanic and one "hook". Everything else is a stretch goal.
  5. Build the vertical slice first. Get a 30-second playable loop (start → play → lose/win → restart) running early. A complete tiny loop beats a half-built big one.
  6. Reserve the last ~20% of the clock for shipping, not features. Export, test the build on a clean path, capture screenshots, write the page. Builds always break at hour 47.
  7. Submit early, update if time remains. Upload a working build well before the deadline; most jam pages let you swap the file until it closes. A submitted mediocre game scores; an unsubmitted great one does not.

Patterns

1. Scope budget by jam length (plan backwards from the deadline)
text
              | 48-hour jam            | 72-hour jam           | 1-week jam
--------------|------------------------|-----------------------|------------------------
Core mechanic | 1, proven by hour 6    | 1-2                   | 2-3 interacting
Levels/content| 1 hand-made or gen'd   | 3-5                   | 8-12 + progression
Art           | placeholder/1 palette  | cohesive 1-artist set | themed set + UI
Audio         | 3-5 SFX + 1 loop       | SFX + 1-2 tracks      | adaptive music
SHIP BUFFER   | last 8-10 h            | last 12-16 h          | last full day
Show full SKILL.md (256 more words)Show less
2. The 48-hour timeline (concrete blocks)
text
H0-2    Ideate -> lock ONE-sentence concept -> name the core mechanic + win/lose.
H2-8    Core loop in code with primitives (boxes/circles). Make it playable, no art.
H8-12   Sleep. (Tired code is tomorrow's bug list.)
H12-24  Content: 1 level/encounter, tune difficulty, add the "hook" feature.
H24-30  Sleep + playtest with one other person; cut anything not landing.
H30-38  Art + audio pass. Juice: screenshake, hit-stop, tween, particles, SFX.
H38-44  Bug-fix freeze: no new features. Fix only crashes + soft-locks.
H44-48  EXPORT, test the build clean, screenshots, write page, SUBMIT (by ~H46).
3. Feature triage — decide fast, decide out loud
text
For every feature ask, in order:
  1. Does the core loop work WITHOUT it?   -> if yes, it's a stretch goal, not MVP.
  2. Can a player tell it's missing?       -> if no, cut it.
  3. Is it < 30 min of work?               -> if no, defer past the ship buffer.
Default answer under deadline pressure is CUT. You can always add in a post-jam version.
4. Pre-submission build check (run on a clean copy, not your dev folder)
text
[ ] Build runs from an extracted zip on a path with NO engine/IDE installed.
[ ] Controls are shown on-screen or on the page (jurors won't read your mind).
[ ] No dev console errors; no soft-lock; restart works.
[ ] Web build (if any) is set to the platform's playable-in-browser mode.
[ ] Page has: 1-line pitch, controls, screenshots, credits + asset licenses.
[ ] File uploaded and the submission is actually attached to the JAM, not just the page.

Pitfalls

  • Scope creep is the #1 jam killer. If the core loop isn't playable by the first third of the clock, cut features now, not later.
  • No ship buffer. Exporting, zipping, and writing the page reliably takes 1-3 hours and always surfaces a build bug. Treat the deadline as ~2 hours earlier than it is.
  • Submitting to the page but not the jam. On itch.io a jam entry is a separate submission linked from the jam page — uploading the game alone does not enter it.
  • Untested export. "Works in the editor" is not "works in the build." Test the exported artifact on a clean path; missing assets and wrong working directories are classic.
  • Unlicensed assets. Music/fonts/sprites pulled from the web can violate jam rules and break later distribution. Use assets you're licensed for and list them in the credits.
  • Polishing before the loop is fun. Juice multiplies fun; it can't create it. Get the loop right with placeholders first.

References

  • For the throwaway-vs-keep prototyping mindset and greyboxing technique, read the prototype-fast skill.
  • For the actual upload mechanics (project page, channels, butler push), read itch-publish.
  • prototype-fast — validate a mechanic quickly before committing jam hours to it.
  • itch-publish — create the page and upload the build (most jams are hosted on itch.io).
  • Engine cores (phaser-core, love2d-core, godot-gdscript, …) and genre skills (platformer, roguelike, …) — build the actual loop the jam scopes around.

© gamedev-skills, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/workflows/game-jam of gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 0a70cfc

Compare with similar skills

Game Jam next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Game Jam compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Game Jam this skillgamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills1.4k—~1.6kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Image to Three.js Modelimg2threejs/img2threejs18k1 repos~8.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Web CloneJane-xiaoer/claude-skill-web-clone1k1 repos~2.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Threejs Game Directormajidmanzarpour/threejs-game-skills2.5k—~2.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Game Asset Generatorhtdt/godogen7.1k—~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Threejs Gameplay Systemsvalkor-ai/loom1.2k1 repos~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Categories

Questions about Game Jam

What does Game Jam do?

Plan and ship a game under a jam deadline: lock scope to the clock, schedule the hours, cut features, and submit on time. Game Jam is an agent skill from gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills. Plan and ship a game under a jam deadline: lock scope to the clock, schedule the hours, cut features, and submit on time.

When should I use Game Jam?

Game Jam fits situations like: A game jam (Ludum Dare; global Game Jam); scoping and submitting a jam entry.

How do I install Game Jam in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills --skill game-jam -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/workflows/game-jam in gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills) into .claude/skills/game-jam in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Game Jam in Codex?

Run `npx skills add gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills --skill game-jam -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/workflows/game-jam in gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills) into .agents/skills/game-jam in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Game Jam in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills --skill game-jam -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/game-jam, .gemini/skills/game-jam, .github/skills/game-jam and .opencode/skills/game-jam in your project.

What does Game Jam need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Game Jam is instructions for the agent only.

Does Game Jam access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Game Jam safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Game Jam use?

Game Jam is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Game Jam use?

About 1.6k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Game Jam?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Game Jam: Image to Three.js Model (img2threejs/img2threejs, 18k stars), Web Clone (Jane-xiaoer/claude-skill-web-clone, 1k stars), Threejs Game Director (majidmanzarpour/threejs-game-skills, 2.5k stars) and Game Asset Generator (htdt/godogen, 7.1k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Game Jam?

gamedev-skills (a GitHub organization) maintains it in gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills, which has 1,389 GitHub stars. The repository holds 53 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.