Since you can win Magic Leap in the WebXR category this year, I thought the Web Monetization one is missing something as well – that's why I've decided to add Nintendo Switch as the prize for the best entry.

Remember that we're making slight changes in how the entries will be judged. Last year, we had an “overall” ranking, and then the categories were more like a filters. If you won in Desktop, and submitted to Mobile and Web Monetization, you won those as well, no matter how good your actual mobile or monetized implementation was. This year your entry will be judged in every category separately, so you will be able to end up low in Desktop but high in Mobile if you focus on delivering the best touch-enabled experience, or win Web Monetization if you make your implementation original and outstanding enough.

We've also teamed up with Jupiter Hadley, who will be playing all the games submitted to the Web Monetization category as a priority, and then if time permits the other compo games as well. If you want to score a 100% chance of having your entry covered by a YouTuber, this is the best way to go.

Don't forget about the Coil memberships for half a year each that will make you a paying Web Monetized user – we are giving that away to all participants. Those submitting to the Web Monetization category will get the coupon codes automatically via email, while others will have to request them.

If you have any questions, or want to discuss anything, then please join our Slack channel!

Is it August 13th? Time to start the js13kGames competition then! The ninth edition of the online challenge for HTML5 game developers with a 13 kilobyte twist has just begun, at 13:00 CEST, and will run for an entire month.

Interested in knowing what’s the theme this year? Well, go watch the announcement video (13 seconds long!) presented by Christer Kaitila!

https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=385944553661662308

Back? Cool. As you know, 404 is a HTTP response code, and error message meaning Not Found. As with all the themes from previous years, you are free to interpret this however you want: maybe something was lost and you have to find it, you have to hide from something, or return something else to the original owner. It’s a tough one, but you have a whole month, so make sure to spend enough time on brainstorming!

Tools and inspiration

Need to pick your tools? Check the Resources page, we have plenty. The most popular micro library, Kontra.js, just got updated to version 7 – many cool new functionalities right in time for the competition. Remember that you can view previous year’s entries, look at their source code on GitHub, read dev’s lessons learned of what went good and what were their biggest struggles. Join our Slack to team up, discuss ideas, ask questions, collaborate, and make sure you have something playable to submit.

Categories and voting

Five categories this year are the same as last time: Desktop, Mobile, Server (upgraded with WebRTC), WebXR, and Web Monetization. The difference compared to previous year is the fact that finally, your entry will be judged separately for every category you submit it to. Instead of “overall” ranking and then all the categories being a filter, a game can for example score totally different on Desktop, Mobile, and on Web Monetization. Finally, good Desktop games submitted to Mobile where they barely work won’t be higher than the games optimized for Mobile entirely.

Prizes

The list of prizes is quite long: 20+ types or various licenses, plans, accounts, memberships, and much more. Another year in a row we’ll be giving away t-shirts (with free shipping) worldwide to top100 entries overall, and top15 WebXR (since they are judged separately). And don’t forget about the main prize in the WebXR category which is a Magic Leap 1 device.

Partners

I’m extremely thankful for the help from the companies and initiatives that support the competition. Those are, in no particular order: Grant for the Web, Mozilla, GitHub, Coil, eBay Tech, GameSnacks, Spartez, Quantum Game, Facebook Gaming, Game Distribution, Poki, and Crazy Games.

Community

Remember to share your progress using #js13k hashtag on Twitter, and discuss ideas or ask for help on Slack, since our community is really happy to help. Good luck and have fun!

You might remember we had cool events with eBay Tech Berlin in the past years – Launch Party in their office in 2018, and Hackday at GameOn Berlin in 2019. Now given the global situation, we are moving everything online – the workshop is going to be held tomorrow, and the meetup next week.

Sascha Depold is hosting Workshop: Creating a game with less than 13KB of JavaScript, and you're free to join wherever you are, since it's going to be held entirely online. You'll have the chance to create an Asteroids game using the popular Kontra.js micro-library (by Steven Lambert), which is perfect for the 13 kilobytes size limit required by the competition.

The workshop is going to be held via Zoom, in the evening Europe time (6-9 PM CEST), so US folks will be able to join in their morning as well. If you ever wondered about participating in the js13kGames competition, but had no idea where to start, this is the perfect event for you!

As part of the partnership with Coil, we will be giving away membership codes to those who will be participating in the js13kGames 2020 competition.

We did exactly that last year, when the brand new Web Monetization category was first introduced – every participant could request a six month long Coil membership activation, no matter if they submitted to the category or not. Good news are, this year we will be sending out the coupons directly, so you will be able to start using them immediately.

We ended up with 48 games in the Web Monetization category in 2019, many developers that played monetized games had made their authors earn micro amounts of money out of that. I really hope we will have even more entries this year!

Yesterday’s announcement of Enclave Games getting the grant from the Grant for the Web program means the Web Monetization category in js13kGames 2020 competition was officially confirmed!

Last year we’ve partnered with Coil to create a brand new Web Monetization category, while this time the support will come from the Grant for the Web program. As part of the grant, we will also work on creating new HTML5 games and writing documentation about the whole process, create and send Gamedev.js Survey (and then present the results), and I will write and publish an ebook about building games with Phaser.

I’m really happy about the fact that the competition is being recognized and supported by such companies and initiatives. This also means you will again be able to not only participate and win cool prizes, but also earn some money!

Later than usual, but the time to announce partners, experts, and prizes of the upcoming js13kGames 2020 competition has come.

Without the global pandemic it would probably start about three months before August 13th, or two the latest, but we should be fine – in the worst case scenario I will have to publish twice per day. It's not THAT bad, right?

Anyway, watch out for updates on our Twitter and Facebook social accounts as I have a whole bunch of stuff to add in the coming days!