A new year means new material entering the public domain! Starting January 1st 2026, works from 1930 are free to use and remix (except for sound recordings, which are only free from 1925 and earlier).
This is the eighth annual jam in the 'Gaming Like it's 19XX' series. You can see submissions from the 1929, 1928, 1927, 1926, 1925, 1924, 1923 jams. This year, we're continuing the tradition and celebrating works from 1930. Let's make games that are about or inspired by these works.
The Works
There are plenty of interesting works to draw on, including:
- Written works by Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Langston Hughes, Olaf Stapledon, Sigmund Freud, William Faulkner
- Art by Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Grant Wood, M. C. Escher, Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian
- Films All Quiet on the Western Front, Animal Crackers, Hell's Angels, and the first Looney Toons
- Music by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, and Son House
- Other characters including Nancy Drew and The Little Engine That Could
Check out this Duke roundup for more!
The Games
This jam is open to both digital and analog games – choose the medium that excites you!
For digital games, we’ll only be judging games that are playable in the browser. This includes interactive fiction using frameworks like Twine. and storytelling game platforms like Story Synth. You can submit desktop or mobile games but we won’t consider them for prizes.
For purely analog games, we’re looking for tabletop RPGs, larps, board games, and everything in between. We encourage you to design something short and quickly playable. Our judges are only committed to reading the first four pages of your submission. Golden Cobra and Game Chef contain great examples of brief, compelling games.
Don’t worry about making a highly polished game! We’re more interested in your ideas and how you use the public domain. For analog games, a simple PDF or even Google Doc is totally acceptable – past winners have included clever games with simple designs.
The Prizes
We’ll be awarding prizes in the following categories:
- Best Analog Games
- Best Digital Game
- Best adaptation of a 1930 work
- Best remixing of multiple sources (at least one has to be from 1930)
- Best “Deep Cut” (use of a work not listed on any of the round up articles)
- Best Visuals
You have until the end of January to submit your games. We're currently judging the games and will announce the winners soon.
This jam is organized by Randy Lubin of Diegetic Games and Mike Masnick and Leigh Beadon of Techdirt and we’re contributing prizes. Every winner will get to pick one of:
- The Working Futures anthology of speculative fiction
- A deck of Working Futures Cards which you can use in scenario planning
- A physical copy of our game One Billion Users
- A Techdirt t-shirt (e.g. Takedown)
- Digital copies of Behind the Magic and Premise
- A physical copy of Behind the Magic
Physical prizes will only be shipped to USA addresses.
Code of Conduct
We will not tolerate sexism, racism, or discrimination of any kind. Some works from this era may contain offensive stereotypes. Either avoid these works or address the problematic material in a responsible manner.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use public domain material from another year?
Yes, but at least one work from 1930 must be included in your game in some form.
Can I submit multiple games?
Yes!
Can I submit as a team?
Yes!
Can I submit my game to other jams?
Yes!
Do I need to license the game in any way?
No, and by default you’ll retain all rights to your game. However, we’d love for you to publish under a Creative Commons license. CC0 would add your game into the public domain!
Can I set a price on my game?
You can, though we will ask for a free version to share with our judges.