The js13kGames online competition runs yearly since 2021, for a month between August 13th and September 13th. JavaScript programmers are tasked with creating an HTML5 game within the 13 kilobytes zip package - everything you can squeeze into the package is allowed, but you can’t use any external resources.
There are three main categories: Desktop (run on a PC), Mobile (touch-enabled), and Server (multiplayer). Over the years we’ve introduced two new categories: WebXR (Vitual Reality) and Web Monetization (Web Monetization API). This year we’d like to offer a new one: Decentralized.
Given the size limitation, there’s an idea to have the Decentralized entries be ranked separately similar to how WebXR entries are, where some libraries (Three.js, Babylon.js, A-Frame) are available “for free” (outside the size limit). Connecting to a network would obviously be allowed in the case of the Decentralized category.
Beside having the new category itself, and offering coins as prizes (which we already did during Gamedev.js Jam 2021 in April with good results), this time we’ll create a tutorial material targeting 13 kb games specifically, where an open source game demo will have NEAR features implemented to show HTML5 game developers the basics.