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«The small town was getting ready for its bright Christmas celebration. Streets were already lined with garlands, houses glowed with warm lights, and Christmas trees stood proudly in living rooms with angels perched on top. People sipped hot chocolate as they finished their decorations, while children excitedly sent their letters to Santa. But just as the festive mood reached its peak, a strange darkness began to seep into the town—quietly, almost thoughtfully, as if choosing its own path. It crept through the streets and settled in the air with a troubling smell of ash, though nothing like the comforting scent of a home fireplace. No one ever truly understood what had happened, but ever since, the locals have referred to those events only as the “X-mas Things” and avoid speaking of them unless absolutely necessary.»

It’s up to you to create this urban legend. Use your game design skills and imagination to conjure a terrifying evil that threatens to steal Christmas from the city’s residents. Think of it as a metaphorical Grinch only far more terrifying, dangerous, and bloodthirsty. It could be an unknown force bleeding in from a parallel reality, monstrous shapes flickering in the shadows between streetlights, ghosts that don’t follow the rules of the living world, or other strange things that feel like they’re seeping through the cracks of something much bigger and much darker than anyone wants to admit.

The player must find a tool with which he or she can fight evil, save the city and its inhabitants, and prevent Christmas from being turned upside down!

Theme

You must use the strangest things to forge a threat to Christmas and choose a unique power for the main character — a power the player can wield to push back against the darkness. Here are some examples of abilities that could collide in the battle for the bright holiday:

Darkness:
1. Parallel world
2. Monsters
3. Collective mind
4. Aliens
5. Mind control
6. Supernatural forces
7. Mysterious virus
8. Experiments on humans
9. DND demons
10. Curse

Brightness:
1. Telekinesis (or other superpowers)
2. Fire
3. Music
4. Warm memories
5. Lighting 
6. Friendship 
7. Traps
8. Fireworks 
9. Bikes
10. Science 

You can use items from this list, combine them, or come up with even stranger ones! Be inspired by something very strange, but don't use other people's strange things directly. Create your own legend to protect the Holiday and keep running up that hill!

Prizes

1. All jam entries are automatically eligible for a publishing deal with Playgama.com.
2. The prize will be available for withdrawal once the winners will be selected during the voting period. 
3. There are two award categories: Submitters' Choice and Jury's Choice, with three winners in each. The top games in both categories will receive cash prizes:

1st place – $250
2nd place – $150
3rd place – $100

If you win and decide to polish and publish your game on Playgama.com, you'll get access to a special offer: 0% commission on partner platforms for 12 months.

Rules

1. All game engines that support exporting projects to HTML5/WEB format are allowed.
2. All games must be web-based (HTML5), optimized for performance, and responsive to browser scaling.
3. The game build size must not exceed 100 MB.
4. Create everything from scratch during the event, especially the game logic. Pre-made or purchased assets are allowed for art and sound. 
5. Your game must not violate anyone's copyright and IPs. If you use assets, you must own the suitable license to use them.
6. Working in teams or on multiple projects is allowed.
7.  Games must be family-friendly. NSFW content, excessive violence, or hate content is strictly prohibited.
8. Ensure the game is intuitive, engaging, and aligned with the jam's theme by providing clear objectives, dynamic gameplay, and effective player feedback.
9. All games must include Playgama Bridge SDK. We consider each winner a partner and strive to efficiently publish their game across multiple web platforms to maximize monetization. To facilitate this, integrating our SDK is required. 
10. Reasonable use of AI is permitted during game development; however, we discourage the use of AI to generate core game elements, as it can create an uneven playing field among participants.

Rating 

There will be two award categories: Submitters' Choice and Jury's Choice, with three winners in each. In both categories, the top three games will receive prizes:

1st place – $250
2nd place – $150
3rd place – $100

Both participants and the jury will evaluate each game based on the following criteria:

Gameplay – overall mechanics, controls, and player experience;
Theme – how well the game fits the given theme;
Polish – smoothness, bug-free experience, and overall refinement;
Visuals and Audio – quality of graphics, animations, and sound design.

After which the games will be ranked according to the average score from these criteria. The post-jam voting period will be open until December 25 at 18:00 CET.

What is Playgama 

Playgama.com is a platform for web game developers that offers a comprehensive suite of tools for distributing, monetizing, and growing browser-based games. It provides an open-source Playgama Bridge SDK compatible with all major game engines, enabling developers to easily distribute their games across gaming and non-gaming portals worldwide. To help maximize revenue, Playgama.com features built-in monetization tools, including ad formats and in-game purchase mechanics.  Additionally, the platform offers SaaS services designed to boost player engagement, such as cloud saves, leaderboards, social features, and other tools that enhance user retention and involvement.