<indiegame.com is an official sponsoring partner for this event>
Game Gauntlet is running Game Gauntlet SIM Jam, an online game jam themed around simulation. It’s aimed mainly at students and solo or indie developers, but anyone in the world can enter for free. Total prize money is $1,500. Entry is through the jam’s itch.io page, and the organizers say more than 410 people have already registered.
The Theme: Simulate a System, Pick Any Genre
The theme is “simulation,” interpreted broadly: management, tycoon, colony, survival, vehicle, and life sims, plus immersive sims and sandbox systems. Realism isn’t the goal. According to the organizers, judging looks not at how closely a game resembles reality but at whether its systems work consistently and whether player actions lead to meaningful consequences.
The jam began September 23 at 2:00 PM US Eastern Time.
Schedule
| Stage | US Eastern / Korea Time |
|---|---|
| Submission deadline | Nov 4, 2:00 PM / Nov 5, 4:00 AM |
| Community voting | Nov 5–10 |
| Judge scoring | Nov 11–13 |
| Awards (live stream) | Nov 14, 2:00 PM / Nov 15, 4:00 AM |
Rules: Any Engine, Teams of Up to Five
Participants can use Unity, Unreal, Godot, GameMaker, or a custom engine, and can enter solo or in teams of up to five. The game’s core design, code, and content must be made during the jam; a re-skinned existing project isn’t eligible.
Asset packs, personal asset libraries, middleware, plugins, and music may be used if sources are credited. Generative-AI-made art, code, music, and text are allowed, with AI use disclosed in line with Steam’s disclosure standards.
Submissions must be a Windows executable (.exe) or a WebGL build that runs in a browser. The organizers note that international players tend to play browser builds more. Titles and descriptions must be in English, and content must be rated ESRB T (Teen) or lower. Entrants must join the organizers’ Discord server and rate a minimum number of other entries during the voting period to be eligible for prizes. Creators keep the rights to their games and IP.
The Judges
Expert judging applies to the five finalist teams. The panel:
- Jason Della Rocca: co-founder of Execution Labs, former IGDA executive director
- Jared Yeager: CAA executive and head of the indie accelerator FRAME1GAMES
- Renee Gittins: head of Stumbling Cat, chair of the IGDA alumni board
- Dave Crooks: game director at Dodge Roll, director of Enter the Gungeon
- Adam “doseone” Drucker: composer for Enter the Gungeon and Gang Beasts
Prizes
First place receives $1,000, a trophy, and a 90-minute legal services session, plus a lifetime IGDA membership if the winner is a solo entrant or two-year memberships per member if a team. Second place receives $500 and a trophy. The top three also receive a one-year CraftPix membership, a one-year Farclip playtest subscription, and a three-month Xorin Premium subscription. The five finalist teams get one-on-one feedback sessions with judges and a chance to present on the November 14 live stream.
Prizes are paid in US dollars through the Oncade payment platform. Winners outside the US must submit a W-8BEN tax form, and entrants under 18 need parental consent. Prizes can’t be paid in certain US-sanctioned countries, but Korea isn’t one of them. Judging, awards, and demos are all online.
Sponsor Note: Xorin
Xorin, the jam’s silver-tier sponsor, is an AI co-development tool that works inside the Unity editor. The following comes from the company’s own description. Xorin inspects a project to understand scripts, prefabs, components, and inspector settings before acting, and shows changes as diffs that the user must approve before they’re applied.
Jam entrants can get $100 in credits with the code SIMJAM, with no card required. Credits are usable with supported models during the jam window, September 23 through November 4. Anyone signing up for Xorin, whether or not they enter the jam, gets $40 in credits, usable with Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Kimi, and GLM models, with bring-your-own API keys also supported. The developer says it isn’t charging usage fees at present. Xorin currently supports Unity, with Unreal and Godot planned. Using it is not an entry requirement, and entrants on any engine compete equally.
How to Enter
Register by clicking “Join jam” on the Game Gauntlet SIM Jam page on itch.io. Teams need every member in the organizers’ Discord. You can join or add teammates any time before the deadline, and after submitting, you can get feedback and expert reviews through a private review channel on Discord.
Information regarding ‘Game Gauntlet SIM Jam’ and ‘Xorin’
| item | detail |
|---|---|
| Event Name | Game Gauntlet SIM Jam |
| Host | Game Gauntlet |
| subject | simulation |
| period | September 23, 2026 – November 4, 2026 (Submission deadline: November 5, 4:00 AM KST) |
| Eligibility | Anyone worldwide, free to participate, solo or teams of up to 5 |
| engine | No restrictions |
| Total prize money | $1,500 in cash (1st place $1,000, 2nd place $500) |
| Partner/Sponsor | Devolver Digital (Gold), Xorin (Silver), IGDA, Unity, Farclip, CraftPix, Odin Lo & Media, etc. |
| Submission format | Windows .exe or WebGL browser build |
| Awards ceremony | Online live broadcast on November 14 at 2:00 PM (Eastern Time) |
| Registration | itch.io |
| Xorin Jam Credits | Code SIMJAM, $100 ( xorin.ai/simjam/get-xorin ) |
| Xorin General Registration | $40 credit for everyone ( xorin.ai ) |
| Support Engine | Unity (Unreal, also planned) |
