Pyweek Game Jam, Episode 25

Pyweek 25 has been announced for the 15th-21st April this year!

Pyweek is a week-long game jam, in which you must write a game from scratch, in Python, in just one week.

It's online, so you can participate from the comfort of your own home (or bed, if you're extra lazy). Games are rated by other entrants, which means you're guaranteed to get useful feedback on your game, even if you don't win.

Wow, 25 Pyweeks, over 13 years! So far, 972 complete Python games have been submitted. It's something of a tradition in the Python community. It's a very social event. Other entrants are encouraged to write "diaries" about their progress so you can see their games evolve and see how they solve the problems they encounter.

Pygame, Pyglet, Cocos2D - even Godot: there are many libraries in Python for creating games. If you're a beginner, I would recommend Pygame Zero, my easy game framework for beginners. You can also use your own library, but it needs to be published and well-documented 30 days before the contest starts, so roughly in a week from now. Get documenting and uploading!

Why participate in Pyweek? There are many reasons:

• Practice your Python programming
• Try programming something different
• Unleash your creativity
• Finish a real project
• Maybe, just maybe, you could win and get all the kudos

So, why not give it a go? Here's what happens next:

1. Register an account on https://pyweek.org/
2. Submit an entry using the drop-down at the top right under your username.
3. At 00:00 UTC on 2018-04-08, visit the website to find the 5 potential themes. You have a week to think about the themes and decide which you like best.
4. Submit your votes for the themes in order of preference.
5. At 00:00 UTC on 2018-04-15, we find out which theme has won, and coding begins! You now have exactly 168 hours to write a game on the theme that was selected!
6. At 00:00 UTC on 2018-04-22, everyone must stop coding. You now have 24 hours to upload your game.
7. Then you can relax, and start playing the other games. You can rate the other games on three criteria: fun, production, and innovation.
8. At 00:00 UTC on 2018-05-06, the winners are announced. If you don't win first time, don't worry! Hopefully you'll learn loads of things and come back with better ideas next time.

Good luck! Hope to see you there!