IGN and Rogue Games are partnering to produce Rogue Jam, a brand-new game jam that's offering exclusive development deals along with $800,000 in total prizes to competing indie game developers.
Submissions will be accepted between November 29 and December 31 at Rogue Jam's homepage, with finalists being showcased in a show produced by IGN in early 2022. The grand prize winner will win $500,000 to develop their game as well as an exclusive Rogue Games publishing deal.
In addition to the grand prize, the competition will feature several other categories, including a "WTF" prize for Rogue Jam's weirdest and wildest game, and an "Eye-Poppingly Beautiful" award for the most attractive game of the competition. Both categories will offer prizes of $100,000 along with a publishing deal with Rogue. Smaller prizes of $50,000 plus a Rogue right of first refusal deal will be offered for "Huge Potential" and "Audience Choice" winners.
Judges for the event will include several well-known figures from across the games industry, including IGN Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer Peer Schneider and former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé. Here is the complete list.
- Kimberly Pointer Corbett, Warner Bros. Games Senior Vice President of Digital Publishing
- Reggie Fils-Aimé, former Nintendo of America President, Board Advisor at Rogue Games
- Peer Schneider, IGN Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer
- Chris Lee, Netflix Head of Game Sourcing and Interactive Games
- Matt Casamassina, Rogue Games CEO
- Chris Archer, Rogue Games Chief Strategy Officer
Rogue Games was founded by Casamassina, who served at IGN until his departure in 2010. Earlier this year, Rogue Games raised $2.5 million in funding to publish "batsh*t insane" indie games for PC, consoles, and mobile games.
The list of games Rogue currently has in development includes Super Impossible Road, a spiritual sequel to Impossible Road due to release on Nintendo Switch on December 9, followed by a first quarter launch on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Rogue is also publishing Arcanium, an "open-world single-player strategy card adventures," and Sprawl, a retro FPS. In addition, Rogue Games recently announced that it is partnering with Bloober Team on an unannounced project.
The Rogue Jam submission portal will open beginning November 29, and submissions will be accepted until December 31. Submissions must be playable in order to be considered.