The moment you have all been waiting for! with just over a week to go before the jam begins, we are delighted to bring you the GGJ Online (2021) Diversifiers!
We hope that they will start you thinking of ideas you could apply to your GGJ games.
We could not have come up with this awesome list without your submissions along with our diversifier committee, and we want to say a big thanks to the following people for helping to make this possible: Jo Summers, Adam Boyne, Caleb Anderson, Dylan Gedig, Foaad Khosmood, Ian Hamilton, Kate Edwards, Sarah Cole, Teppo Kauppinen, Tim Cullings, Victor Breum.
Diversifiers are a great way to add a little more fun or challenge to your jam weekend. Sometimes they can be very helpful to limit your scope or refine your ideas. They are totally optional constraints you can choose to add to your GGJ Online game alongside the main focus of the theme. It can help your game stand out from the crowd, and you can choose up to 4 when you submit!
This year's diversifiers will also be available in other languages, which will be linked to this post as soon as they are ready.
العربية, български Burmese, Català, Deutsch, Español, Filipino, Français, Ελληνικά, עברית, bahasa Indonesia, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어, Latviešu, valoda, فارسی, Polski, Português, Română, русский, српски, 简体中文, 繁體中文, Türkçe, українська мова, Urdu.
Sponsored
Core Exercise (Sponsored by Manticore Games) - Use the Core Games platform to create your game. Special Opportunity: This Diversifier will also be prized with a pool of US$10,000, awarded by a panel of judges from around the games industry!
Destination: Happy Place (Sponsored by Unity) - Make a game that includes the journey or process (a location, an activity, an idea, people, and so on) to get to a place or state of mind that makes you happy.
Creating a PlayFab-ulous Game Loop (Sponsored by Microsoft) - Identify the best strategies for your game loop using PlayFab Experiments. The PlayFab Experiments feature helps you identify the best strategies for your game by helping you run multiple concurrent experiments and ensure statistical trustworthiness.
Virtual Wallet (Sponsored by IGDA Foundation) - Use the Web Monetization API to make a web game that uses an alternative revenue model (learn how to do this here).
Unlikely Allies (Sponsored by Virtuos) - Your game must support multiplayer crossplay between Mobile and PC.
It’s You + Me, Kid (Sponsored by Carina Fund) - Create a game designed for families to play together that secretly features maths.
The Possibilities are Endless (Sponsored by Endless) - Create a fun-first educational game—a game that captures the attention of kids but also educates around a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) topic.
The Feels (Sponsored by Sony Interactive Entertainment) - We would like to encourage projects to come up with designs that take advantage of controller feel, game feel, and/or an emotional and honest personal story.
Elevate (Sponsored by NextNav) - Create a game that uses vertical location (Learn more about vertical location, watch the webinar for ideas, and get the NextNav SDK or Unity Plug-In).
Accessibility
A11yversary* - Celebrate 10 years of accessibility diversifiers at GGJ by copying the features of Team Epic Wedgie's game from 2011 - include a tutorial, no reliance on sound or color alone, and one button controls.
*In 2011 the Orlando site ran an accessibility challenge, that was the first time accessibility had been properly considered at GGJ and was the precursor to the accessibility diversifier category. The game that won it was by a team called Team Epic Wedgie, so this challenge is to implement the same feature set that they did in their GGJ game 10 years ago
Kitchen sink - Players have a choice between at least three different types of input device (e.g. keyboard, controller, mouse, eye tracking, potatoes)
Spinal Tap - The game has separate volume sliders for different types of sound effects (e.g. footsteps, gunshots, ambience, engine, tyres)
Art
Are we ASCIIng too much? - All the graphics in the game must be represented by ASCII.
Double Take - Have moments in your game that have a different meaning when seen from another angle (like an ambigram).
Photograbetry - Go for a walk, collect/photograph 3-5 found objects, incorporate them into your game.
Get to the point - Your in-game artwork should be in a Pointillist style.
Audio
Theme Song - The tutorial for your game is in the form of a song
Wilhelm - The characters in your game can only communicate by screaming (Bonus points if dialogue options give varying degrees of screaming!)
Vocalise - Every element (UI + gameplay) in your game is voiced by synthesized speech or a narrator.
Code
RNG - Randomize Something that traditionally would not be randomized (e.g. jump height, starting location, hat, zoom level, gravity)
LOLCODE - Write your game in an esoteric programming language.
Design
Moving the goalposts - The win condition of the game changes in some way each time it is played
Murphy's Law - Design a game where the goal is to fail in as many different ways as possible
Duetto - Create a game of twos: for two players, playable with two keys, using 2 sounds, 2 colours, 2 shapes, etc.
Smells like Success - Design a game you can play with your nose
How many of you are in there? - Make a game where the character is controlled by multiple players.
Narrative
Fake News - Create a game that focuses on the topic of disinformation in some way; creating it, preventing it, managing it, etc.
Games are for Everyone - Give traditionally underrepresented group(s) a voice in your game through characters, narrative or design.
Starlight - Your game world is inspired by stars and constellations.
Meta
On the safe side - Make a game alone or in a team where all members are at least 100km apart.
Tu B'Shvat has arrived! - In honor of Tu B'Shvat, which falls this year on the first day of Global Game Jam, create a game set in, on or around a tree
A-Party - Make a game that can be played during a video call
Next Slide Please - Your game is made entirely in Powerpoint (or other presentation software).
Snail's Pace - Your game is designed to be played over multiple days and cannot be sped up.