DEV Community: Andrzej Mazur

js13kGames 2026 submit form is now open

Andrzej Mazur — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 19:30:48 +0000

The submit form for js13kGames 2026 is live. Register a draft now to lock in the name for your game - everything else can be filled in later, up until the deadline on September 13th.

No surprises this year: you’ll be going through the very same multistep flow that replaced the old one-page form in 2024. Register a draft, claim a unique name for your game, upload a build and try it out live on the website, fill in the rest of the details, bring your teammates on board, and hit submit whenever you feel ready.

Yes, it means a couple of extra clicks compared to the single form we had used from 2012 all the way to 2023. It has been worth it though - ever since the switch, the number of “please fix this one thing for me” messages arriving after the deadline has dropped dramatically.

As long as the draft is still open you can keep tweaking anything about the entry: the description (Markdown works, and so does a bit of HTML), screenshots, author details, or a video of the gameplay. Our Hello World example shows you what the end result looks like.

Submission flow improvements

Each time you submit a zip, your game will now undergo a basic in-browser test routine which won’t let you through to the next step if, for example, there are any console errors (e.g. due to missing assets).

We will also automatically generate some cover / thumbnail images for you based on a simple screenshot of your game running (immediately after it loads) - at least until you complete the Presentation step.

We use Chromium for the tests, but they run in an environment with shared and constrained resources, so heavily compressed games (e.g. Roadroller) can take a few good seconds to actually process. If you have a very heavy, CPU-intensive algorithm running before page load (e.g. procedural generation of assets), it’s entirely possible that you might get cut off due to resource constraints. This is an experimental feature for now, so if you have issues, get in touch.

There are a few additional minor UX improvements as well: for example, we prefill the “team” step with contributors to the repository you provided in the registration step.

Strict deadline and fixes

Since you can play your entry on the competition website (which doubles as the voting app) at any point before September 13th, 13:00 CEST , there’s really no reason left for a broken build. That said, as proposed in the Deadlines and Fixes blog post, there will be a 24 hour window for minor fixes , though please keep in mind every single one will have to be manually validated and accepted. This approach is in a trial run this year and if it’s going to be abused, then it won’t stay for the next time.

If the form itself is what’s giving you trouble, then please drop us a line and we’ll try to sort it out. Good luck and have fun!

Gamedev.js Survey 2026 is open!

Andrzej Mazur — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:23:42 +0000

The Gamedev.js Survey 2026 is now open! This marks the sixth year of collecting feedback from web game developers around the world, helping shape the annual Current State of Web Game Development report.

The survey runs from August 18th to September 18th 2026 , and should take no more than 20 minutes to complete. All questions are optional, so feel free to skip anything you’re not comfortable answering as every bit of feedback still helps.

This year’s survey includes 40 questions covering topics like:

Your background and experience in game development
Tools, browsers, editors, and build systems you use
Programming languages, frameworks, and engines
Where you get your art and audio assets from
How you test, publish, and promote your games
Income sources and monetization strategies
Your thoughts on AI in game development, and which AI coding assistants you use (if any)
Your overall happiness as a game developer, and the challenges you’re facing

As always, the survey is completely anonymous. If you’d like a chance to win one of the prizes, you can optionally leave your email address at the end: 10 lucky participants will win $50 each , for a total prize pool of $500. Winners will be notified via email, and email addresses are never shared.

Take the Gamedev.js Survey 2026 now!

The results will be published shortly after the survey closes, so make sure to check back the 2026 landing page for the full report once it’s out.

If you know other web game developers, coworkers, or anyone active in the game dev space, please share the survey with them too – the more responses we get, the more accurate and useful the results will be for the whole community.

Thank you for your time and for helping us better understand the state of web game development in 2026!

The js13kGames 2026 competition has started!

Andrzej Mazur — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:45:57 +0000

The fifteenth annual online js13kGames competition starts… NOW! Build a web game following the given theme within the next month and fit it into a 13KB zip package to win lots of cool prizes and respect from fellow developers!

This year’s theme is apocaly... nope, not this time. This time the theme is Unicorns and Rainbows!

Not the usual death, destruction, bad luck , doom and gloom, right? I mean, you can still shape this into anything you want, but the starting point is a little bit different this time.

It all started last year when Xem mentioned fun as a factor when judging entries.

I immediately knew it’s going to be a theme for 2026. Of course, you can interpret this however you like, have unicorns as main characters, rainbows in the background, make the game kid friendly, or create the evil unicorns wreaking havoc and bringing the apocalypse to the world. All up to you - as usual, unleash your creativity!

The Submit form will open in a few days, so for now focus on brainstorming the ideas and the first working prototype. After all, you have a whole month to build the game.

Partners

The support from the companies listed below is key to being able to run this compo.

Those are:

Platinum: Wavedash
Gold: GitHub, Poki
Silver: OP Guild, Berrry
Bronze: Enclave Games, Gamedev.js

Prizes

We have more than 20 different types of prizes in 2026 - plenty of cool things to win.

The exact design of our traditional t-shirt for top 100 participants and this year’s gadget will be revealed in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Experts

Our awesome experts will be providing valuable feedback to your entries. They will carefully play through the games assigned to them and write their advice.

We try to have at least one expert feedback per entry, given how many entries we receive each year and how limited the time of our experts is. That said, you do get dozens of comments from fellow devs, who know how difficult it might be to create a good game within the size limitation, so we hope that will be more than enough.

Support

Collaborate, document, share, promote. We’re all in this together and other participants can help you if you help them as well. Collaborate with fellow developers, suggest theme ideas, help fix bugs, or playtest their entries and you will get the same in return. Join our Slack or Gamedev.js’ Discord server with the #js13kGames channel where you can find other participants.

Document as you go, share your progress using #js13k hashtag on X (Twitter), Mastodon, or Bluesky, so it will be easier for you to recap what you did and write the Post Mortem of what went good and what could’ve been done better.

And most importantly: help promote the competition , share the info with your local communities, friends from work, and invite them all to participate! The bigger we are the better for everyone, thank you so much for all your efforts!

That’s it - good luck and have fun!

Help improve Gamedev.js Survey 2026!

Andrzej Mazur — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 15:07:23 +0000

This year’s Gamedev.js Survey will be open for a month between August 18th and September 18th, but before that happens we’d like to ask for your help keeping it relevant. The questions and their answers are on GitHub for you to look through and adjust if needed for the next two weeks, between August 4th and 18th , so everything is up-to-date.

If you spot any answer in a question that needs updating, please send a Pull Request via GitHub with the fix, thank you! After the two-week period of getting the feedback we will open the Survey to collect your answers this year.

Enclave Games Monthly Report: June 2026

Andrzej Mazur — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

June is the month when I usually switch from sending out the last Gamedev.js Jam prizes and begin the js13kGames preparations - this one is no different, with the Countdown to js13kGames 2026 blog post published exactly on June 13th.

Games

Nope.

Writing

Nothing significant beside the js13kGames countdown.

Events

The last Gamedev.js Jam 2026 prizes were emailed to the winners at the beginning of June.

The js13kGames 2025 selfies gallery was filled with photos sent from folks who got their swag packages delivered.

Most of June was spent on talking with potential partners for this year’s edition. The official Countdown to js13kGames 2026 started already, and partners, experts, and prizes are already being published on the website and shared on social media.

Other

The Gamedev.js Weekly issue #651 got the biggest lag so far and was sent three days later, on Monday instead of Friday.

Plans for the next month

Focus on the upcoming js13kGames 2026.

Countdown to js13kGames 2026

Andrzej Mazur — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Today is June 13th, so we’re kicking off the usual countdown and begin the announcements leading to the start of the fifteenth yearly edition of the js13kGames competition two months from now. Expect partners, experts, and prizes being published on the website and announced via our social media in the coming days.

The same call to action is up again: please help promote our competition to as many folks as possible, so we can grow as a community. Do reach out if you know your company has a sponsorship budget, or would like to offer a prize - all the support we can get will be highly appreciated!

All the updates will be announced on our X, Facebook, shared on Slack, and Discord, so do follow or join those if you don't want to miss anything.

Ps. The js13kGames 2025 selfies gallery on Facebook is still open - you can share your pictures to appear in the collection and be part of this lovely tradition if you received your swag from participating last year.

Enclave Games Monthly Report: May 2026

Andrzej Mazur — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Wrapping the voting, announcing the winners, then challenge results, publishing all the feedback, revealing the t-shirt design, and then sending all the prizes - the focus last month was solely on Gamedev.js Jam 2026.

Games

Nothing new.

Writing

Only the Gamedev.js blog posts.

Events

All the things about Gamedev.js Jam 2026 already mentioned in the intro: the month started with the final days of voting, then I focused on collecting feedback from the judges and experts, announcing the winners, then the challenges results, publishing the new Machines themed t-shirt available in the shop, and spending second half of the month managing and emailing all the ~30 different types of prizes worth more than $30k total.

Other

Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter was sent more or less regularly each week.

Plans for the next month

Beginning the js13kGames 2026 preparations and first announcements.

New Gamedev.js Jam 2026 t-shirt: Machines!

Andrzej Mazur — Fri, 15 May 2026 18:03:27 +0000

Our tradition for a couple of years now is releasing a theme branded t-shirt design in our shop, and 2026 is no different – the Machines t-shirt is now available to be purchased by anyone worldwide. If you’d like to support our jam and wear cool swag at the same time now is the perfect opportunity – grab your own Machines t-shirt right now!

Here are the other t-shirts from previous years:

Every single sale supports organizing next editions of the jam, and is very much appreciated! In need of a discount? Use the code gamedevjs between May 15th and 19th to get 20% off your order.

Prizes

All the prizes will be emailed to you early next week (make sure to check your spam folder and/or whitelist contact at gamedevjs dot com) – overall, criteria, and challenges as well, to the address you provided when submitting your entry.

js13kGames 2026

We will begin preparations to js13kGames 2026 soon, so if you’re curious about building web games in 13 kilobytes you should definitely check it out. The competition will run as usual between August 13th and September 13th.

Gamedev.js Jam 2027

Even though Gamedev.js Jam 2026 just ended, we’re already thinking about next year – join Gamedev.js Jam 2027 on Itch if you enjoyed your time this year and don’t want to miss any announcements about the upcoming edition!

Best entries from the Challenges in Gamedev.js Jam 2026

Andrzej Mazur — Mon, 11 May 2026 19:06:24 +0000

The next day after overall winners of Gamedev.js Jam 2026 were announced is the usual time to present the best entries submitted to our optional challenges offering extra prizes to participants.

The winners were selected by dedicated experts assigned to given challenges.

Open Source Challenge by GitHub

In partnership with GitHub. Prize pool: GitHub Copilot Pro licenses for individuals for 12 months. Expert: Stacey Haffner.

Build it with Phaser Challenge by Phaser Studio

In partnership with Phaser Studio. Prize pool: Phaser Editor Pro annual subscriptions and Vampire Survivors bundles. Experts: Ana and Richard Davey from Phaser Studio.

YouTube Playables Challenge

Honorable mentions: Cube’s Gravity Maze, Junkbot Repair, SparkLink, Block Yard, Just a little longer.

In partnership with YouTube Playables. Prize pool: fast track to Playables, Gemini AI Pro licenses for 12 months, featured marketing in Discord, swag. Experts: Lu Liu, Paul Bliudzius, and Meg Campbell.

Deploy to Wavedash Challenge

Honorable mentions: Rage Against The Sapiens, Heck Tech, Draft Punks, Robo Dance, In the Hall of the Gear Machines, No…Wrong!, GOODJOB, Weeds & Wires, Deus Ex Machina, BUG IN THE MACHINE.

In partnership with Wavedash. Prize pool: $1000, $750, and $500 for top3 and then $250 each for every honorable mention. Experts: Matt Portner, George Kennedy, and Kyler Blue.

Ethereum Challenge by OP Guild

In partnership with OP Guild. Prize pool: $130 for top1. Expert: Paul Gadi.

Top5 picks

We also had three experts: Paweł Jarosz, Iris Kroonstuiver, and Stein Damen, who picked their favourite top5 entries from all the submitted games. Those were:

Paweł Jarosz (Defold): Robo Dance, Rage Against The Sapiens, Parcel Master, Orbitron Core, Crate Expectations.
Iris Kroonstuiver (Poki): Not a Trolley Problem, Machines Vs Mustache, Cube’s Gravity Maze, Bauhaus Builder, Parcel Master.
Stein Damen (Poki): Bauhaus Builder, Block Alive, Not a Trolley Problem, Kobots, Parcel Master.

Summary

Check out the feedback page for all the written comments from the experts if you’re curious what they wrote about your game.

Thank you for joining the optional challenges, I do hope you enjoyed participating in them! All the prizes will be emailed in the coming days, so make sure to check the inbox of the email address you provided in the form when submitting your entry. See you next year!

Gamedev.js Jam 2026 winners announced!

Andrzej Mazur — Sun, 10 May 2026 14:59:05 +0000

This is it: the winners of the seventh yearly edition of our web game development competition, Gamedev.js Jam 2026, are announced! We had a record breaking 495 entries submitted this year, 2782 developers joined on Itch, and 10 642 ratings cast.

Here’s the top13 overall results voted by participants themselves:

Bauhaus Builder by madmarcel, Unaim
BUILDOBAN by isu
Robo Dance by Insality
Rage Against The Sapiens by BasuritaGames
Heck Tech by Josep Valls, Tai, Viktor Valentine
Codepath() by W4hhaab, Ouuvy
Kobots by Golen
Weeds & Wires by happybats, Velvetlobster, luaris-here
MACHINE DISCO by Stiggstogg
In the Hall of the Gear Machines by nikabi-games, const346, Margenek, FrutHitrock
Draft Punks by Fatal Exit
Orb Knight by EugeneDraitsev
Just a Little Longer by Cat’s Paw, kotrodenx, M I U T E D, d-beezee

Check out the full results to see the entire ranking, and top entries in all the given criteria: Gameplay, Theme, Innovation, Graphics, and Audio as those also win cool prizes.

Keep in mind the results of the optional challenges (Open Source by GitHub, Build it with Phaser, YouTube Playables, Deploy to Wavedash, and Ethereum by OP Guild) judged by dedicated experts will be announced tomorrow at the same time.

We’d like to use this opportunity to thank our awesome Partners for their constant support:

Platinum : YouTube Playables, Wavedash
Gold : GitHub, Poki, Defold, Phaser Studio
Silver : OP Guild, Berrry, Playgama.com
Bronze : Enclave Games, js13kGames

Congratulations once again to the winners, all participants, and everyone involved! I really hope you enjoyed your time, had fun making the games and judging others, and will return next year! Our Discord is always open if you’d ever need any more feedback, and don’t forget about the Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter delivering all the news about web game development directly to your inbox.

Enclave Games Monthly Report: April 2026

Andrzej Mazur — Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Gamedev.js Jam 2026 started April 13th, with the submission deadline on April 26th, and the voting currently still ongoing, so understandably it was the main focus throughout the whole past month.

Games

We’ve added a new Unicorn level to our Flood Escape game.

Writing

The usual blog posts needed for the Gamedev.js Jam 2026 theme announcement and then the start of voting.

Events

Managing Gamedev.js Jam 2026, the seventh yearly edition already - adding and announcing prizes, partners, challenges, and experts. Then starting the jam with the theme announcement, and closing the submission period to start the voting, which is currently ongoing.

Other

Continue to send Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter issues regularly each Friday.

Plans for the next month

Wrap the jam, announce the winners, send the prizes, and start the js13kGames 2026 preparations already.

All the entries from Gamedev.js Jam 2026

Andrzej Mazur — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 13:19:15 +0000

Gamedev.js Jam 2026, the seventh yearly edition of the online web game development competition, ended up with 495 entries – that’s more than in the previous year, another year in a row!

In the 2025 edition we had 4614 developers participating on Itch who submitted 420 games, which is a solid 9% rate. This year, with 2782 developers and 495 games that doubled and jumped to almost 18%! Looking at the past years where that rate was around 5% you could imagine building games and releasing them is as easy as ever.

Check out all the entries following the Machines theme directly on Itch: itch.io/jam/gamedevjs-2026/entries

Thank you all for participating! Make sure to play and rate as many games as you can, and provide constructive feedback to your fellow devs, as Karma on Itch (a reputation system where your game’s visibility increases when you rate and comment on other participants’ entries) is still in place. After all the overall winners will be based on YOUR votes!

As always, the voting will end on May 9th, with the overall winners being announced the next day on May 10th, and results of the extra challenges (picked by dedicated experts) will be published on May 11th.

It seems the challenges this year were incredibly popular, as more participants joined them than ever before in the past:

Open Source by GitHub (216 games, up from 122)
Build it with Phaser (95, up from 68)
YouTube Playables (109)
Deploy to Wavedash (181)
Ethereum by OP Guild (15)

There might still be a few false positives as the data is based on developers marking the checkboxes themselves, but those numbers are still quite impressive nonetheless.

YouTube Playables interest form

Thanks everyone who participated in the YouTube Playables challenge. If you are interested in developing a game for YouTube Playables, head to this link to submit your interest. This is available for developers globally regardless if you participated in the YouTube Playables challenge or not.

Wavedash challenge extended

That said, those numbers can still be improved. We’ve heard some of you had issues uploading your entry to Wavedash (with the $2500 prize pool), and so if you submitted to the Wavedash challenge on Itch, but don’t have the game published on the Wavedash platform yet, you can still do it – the extended deadline is end of this week, Sunday May 3rd 2026, end of day your time.

DEV Community: Andrzej Mazur

js13kGames 2026 submit form is now open

Submission flow improvements

Strict deadline and fixes

Gamedev.js Survey 2026 is open!

The js13kGames 2026 competition has started!

Categories

Partners

Prizes

Experts

Support

Help improve Gamedev.js Survey 2026!

Enclave Games Monthly Report: June 2026

Games

Writing

Events

Other

Plans for the next month

Countdown to js13kGames 2026

Enclave Games Monthly Report: May 2026

Games

Writing

Events

Other

Plans for the next month

New Gamedev.js Jam 2026 t-shirt: Machines!

Prizes

js13kGames 2026

Gamedev.js Jam 2027

Best entries from the Challenges in Gamedev.js Jam 2026

Open Source Challenge by GitHub

Build it with Phaser Challenge by Phaser Studio

YouTube Playables Challenge

Deploy to Wavedash Challenge

Ethereum Challenge by OP Guild

Top5 picks

Summary

Gamedev.js Jam 2026 winners announced!

Enclave Games Monthly Report: April 2026

Games

Writing

Events

Other

Plans for the next month

All the entries from Gamedev.js Jam 2026

YouTube Playables interest form

Wavedash challenge extended