N64brew Game Jam 2023
The fourth annual N64 homebrew game jam put together by the N64brew community on Discord. The theme, "Summer", was announced on June 25, 2023. The game jam began on June 30, 2022 and ended on August 21, 2023. This year, the number per team was increased to 5, instead of 4, from previous years.
All submissions into the N64brew Summer Game Jam earned entrants a raffle ticket for a Everdrive X7 flash cartridge giveaway, donated by LambertJamesd.
As in other years, the prize pot for the winner of this year's jam will be donated to a charity per the winner's choosing. The prize pot for the 2023 N64brew Summer Game Jam was $776.76 USD.
Five out of the six entries for the N64Brew Game Jam 2023 utilized Libdragon over Nintendo's official SDK.
In contrast to previous years of having pre-selected judges for the Jam, the 2023 Summer Game Jam opted to go with a Ranked Choice Voting approach, a first in its history, provided by the N64Brew Discord Community. Voting for each submission opened to N64Brew members on August 22, 2023, and ended on August 27, 2023, at 11:59:59 EST. This choice of voting works as follows: There was a list of all the submissions for users to vote on, and they each assign a rank from 1 (least favorite) to 6 (favorite), with one unique rank per submission (no two submissions with the same number).
Game Jam participants were also allowed to vote, but scores assigned to their own submission were ignored for obvious reasons.
The score sheet was published once voting ended, with anonymized voters, so jam participants could view and review feedback submitted.
A total of 30 votes were cast.
The winners of the Game Jam were announced in September 2023.
Prominent Nintendo 64 enthusiast and videogame reviewer, Hard4Games, reviewed the Game Jam submissions in video-format on September 6, 2023, and provided their own judgement & scores of the submissions.
Submissions
| Entry | Solo/Team | Participant(s) | Engine/Framework | Source Code | External link(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alien Sun | Solo | 9_Nova | libdragon | https://github.com/9nova/aliensun | https://9nova.itch.io/aliensun |
| Brew Volleyball | Solo | tfmoe__ | Libdragon | https://github.com/marian-m12l/n64brew-gamejam-4 | |
| Megatextures Tech Demo | Team | Team Ultra Rare (lambertjamesd, jtn191, sapphiretactics) | libultra | https://github.com/lambertjamesd/n64brew2023 | |
| Sand Castle Clamour | Solo | traill | Libdragon | https://github.com/Traillio/sand_castle_clamour | |
| Sand City | Team | Pocket Sand (Wade Typhon, cryb) | libdragon | https://github.com/Wade-Tyhon/Sand-City | |
| Summer's Story | Team | Polygon Sandwich (anacierdem, Dc.all) | Libdragon | https://github.com/anacierdem/summers_story | https://anacierdem.itch.io/summers-story |
Results
| Entry | Score | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Summer's Story | 125 | 1st Place |
| Megatextures Tech Demo | 118 | 2nd Place |
| Alien Sun | 113 | 3rd Place |
| Sand City | 104 | 4th Place |
| Sand Castle Clamour | 91 | 5th Place |
| Brew Volleyball | 54 | 6th Place |
Trivia
The N64brew Game Jam 2023 Announcement/promo video is also viewable on an actual Nintendo 64 console itself! Just pop the file into your flash cartridge of choice and you're ready to hit play! Rasky from N64brew helped with this endeavor!