textjam spring2026
may 8th -> june 7th

[about]  updates  submissions  devlogs
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a text-based thing jam

-> join us on the cts-nl discord <-

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latest: introducing the spring 2026 textjam, may 5

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FAQ


 what's the limitation of a text-based thing jam?
  whatever you produce, must be limited to output only text
  to the users screen

  therefore a valid submission could be something that only
  reads and prints output to and from a user via the
  terminal, like a classic text-based dungeon game

  great examples are:

  - NetHack
  - Dwarf Fortress
  - Zork

  basically anything related to 'interactive fiction',
  but also anything limited to a terminal / text screen that
  draws things just using characters, even if what its
  representing behind the scenes is a lot more than just text

  it is encouraged to go 'as low as you can go' and have a
  program that works on the command line / only reads in
  standard input and output, but if you wish to reach for
  something higher level such as a website which is just text,
  or even a game engine but only writing text to screen,
  that's also acceptable

  an example of a game that stretches what it means to be 'text
  based', but can still be considered an entry to this jam,
  would be rogule


 what's a 'thing' jam?
  think game jam, but if you want to produce
  a non-game thing, go ahead!

  obviously creating something fun and entertaining
  is encouraged, but if you would rather work on
  a neat tool rather than a game, that will still
  be a valid submission


 how do i send in my submission?
  we have a dedicated page, how to submit

  checkout the submissions section to see some example
  submissions, alongside any work in progress or finished
  submissions


 i'm quite new, i'm not sure if i can do this...
  even the following python code:

    name = input("who are you:")
    print("hello, " + name)

  can be considered a valid submission to this jam!

  feel free to do as little or as much as you want


 why is the jam so long!
  for those that want a lot of time to build something
  large over a month-long timespan, they can, but if someone
  only wants to take a weekend to bang something together,
  they'll have plenty of weekends to pick from to participate


 who is this open to?
  anyone!


 i have an existing project i want to add onto, can i?
  if the work you have scoped out is fresh work,
  sure, but make sure in your submission to denote
  what you have done during the jam is in addition
  to stuff you have done before


 can i use (insert tool here)?
  sound

    yes, sound is permitted


  any programming language

    sure!


  something like Twine which might not
  require me to write any code

    go ahead :)


 can i use LLMs / AI tools?
  yes, but please be transparent about how you used them

  if you leaned on an LLM for help with something tricky,
  or used claude while writing code, that's fine, just
  consider mentioning that in your submission

  what we'd rather not see is someone prompting
  "please give me a text adventure game" and submitting
  the unmodified output, the jam is about *you* making
  something, there's enough slop in the world


 i have more questions! where do i ask them?
  there is a dedicated #textjam channel in the cts-nl discord
  or, if you are an email person, feel free to reach out
  to me@jackharrhy.com

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