Decentralized category in Gamedev.js Jam 2021

After announcing the Web Monetization category in the upcoming Gamedev.js Jam 2021, now it’s time to reveal the second, Decentralized one, organized in partnership with Protocol Labs and NEAR Protocol!

The Decentralized category will offer various prizes for doing challenges - building games using the technologies provided by either of our partners: NEAR or Protocol Labs (or both). Entries will be judged by a panel of experts - they will be announced in the next few days.

NEAR Protocol

Top 10 entries using the NEAR platform will receive NEAR coins:

• 1st place: 225 NEAR (~$1500)
• 2nd place: 175 NEAR
• 3rd place: 125 NEAR
• 4th place: 75 NEAR
• 5th place: 25 NEAR
• 6th-10th places: 15 NEAR (~$100)

That’s a total of 700 NEAR currently worth roughly $5000 to be given away as prizes. You can learn more about the development on NEAR by checking out the Getting Started guide, looking at the source code of the Examples, or doing the free NEAR Academy course.

Protocol Labs

Top 10 entries using IPFS or any other Protocol Labs technology will receive Filecoins :

• 1st place: 8 FIL (~$1500)
• 2nd place: 6 FIL
• 3rd place: 4 FIL
• 4th place: 2 FIL
• 5th place: 1 FIL
• 6th-10th places: 0,6 FIL (~$100)

That’s a total of 24 FIL currently worth roughly $5000 to be given away as prizes. Make sure to check the Protocol Labs’ Work page for their projects, the IPFS docs and Filecoin docs specifically to see what you can use to build your game.

Paras challenge

On top of all that, the Paras marketplace for Digital Art Cards is putting a challenge as well: build a card game that uses their cards, and win $500 cash. Winning entry will be selected by the Paras team.

Hardware prizes

To make things more physical, we will be also offering hardware wallets to the best entries participating in the Decentralized category - it would be cool to store the coins you just won on a secure device, right?

Top 10 entries using any of the decentralized technologies: IPFS , Filecoin , NEAR , on anything else entirely, will win one Ledger Nano S each, so a total of 10 devices.

Mix and match

You are free to participate in any and all the challenges. Building a card game using IPFS for decentralized storage and NEAR for smart contracts? Go for it! Tossing in Web Monetization as well? If it’s possible, build it!

Value of coins

The sum of both challenges from Near and Protocol Labs is currenly worth around $10k, but this is their value today. The prizes are given as they are, in their respective coins. The price of either NEAR or FIL may change as the crypto is very volatile at the moment - it may double in the coming weeks, or drop in half.

Keep in mind your prize may increase or decrease in value between now when it is being announced, and the time you will receive it - you will get the coins, not their current worth in USD. You can, however, decide to get the prize in USD - coins will have to be converted to USD based on given exchange rate, and you’ll have to pay any conversion fees.

OP Games support

Last, but definitely not least, I’d like to thank Paul Gadi from OP Games for his help organizing and running the Decentralized category in the competition.

Next steps

Remember: Gamedev.js Jam 2021 starts in a week, on Tuesday April 13th, and will run for two weeks up until April 26th, hosted on Itch.io. The voting and judging period will happen in the following week, with winners announced on Monday May 3rd.