The submission window has closed for the 2023 Fediverse Summer Jam, and the voting process has begun. With that in mind, we’re going to showcase the entries and play through each one. The voting phase ends on Saturday, July 29th.

You can also watch a short montage of all of the digital games below!

Flower Eater

Flower Eater by Russ Mattney is an interesting little puzzler with a simple premise: eat the flowers in order, with the red flower always being the last one. The game quickly becomes challenging, because you cannot move backwards, but you can skip over already eaten flowers. The gameplay really forces the player to think outside of the box.

How Was I Supposed to Know that My Roommate Was a Time-Hopping Witch?!

How Was I Supposed to Know that My Roommate Was a Time-Hopping Witch?! by Emma is a cute little JRPG-like with sassy self-awareness and some pretty cute jokes. There isn’t a whole lot to the game, aside from some combat segments and funny dialog, but the game sports multiple endings and cute graphics. What more could you want?!

Planar Labyrinth

Planar Labyrinth by Dueling Ocarinas stands out on this list, as it is a tabletop game that you’re supposed to print out, with its own distinct rulebook. The game describes itself this way:

Team up with interdimensional allies to work your way through this multiworld dungeon. Hand each other items through portals to solve puzzles, or use your unique powers to bring an ally into your world, attack an enemy in a different world, and more! See if you can all reach the end of the dungeon, or if it will get the best of all of you.

Planar Labyrinth introduction

According to the rulebook, the game hosts 3 to 6 players, and can last anywhere between 10 to 30 minutes. The core game mechanic appears to be that players can trade items across boards to solve puzzles and disarm traps. The project credits KasanMoor, Brevius Nominus, and DrPinkKiwi as the people who made it.

Seasons

Seasons by nibblebit is a short adventure game featuring a mystery surrounding an abandoned, burned-down church. The player is given the chance to see the same world between different seasons, and gather tools and clues to figure out exactly what happened.

This game is built in Godot, and the art style gives off the impression that it’s the developer’s first solo attempt. While I found the pacing to be a little bit on the slow side, I think it’s a great effort for only about 9 hours of work.

Twinned

Twinned by Borealis Games surprised me, in that it’s a game built using Adventure Game Studio! It’s always awesome to come across another AGS game developer out in the wild. There are literally tens of us!

The game’s plot is described as such:

Both women are trying to invent technology that will allow them to travel to another dimension. Not only are the women both working towards the same goal, they are actually different versions of the same person.

It’s a short and sweet game, but I definitely think it has narrative potential.

w0rmhole sfj2023 demo

w0rmhole sfj2023 demo by nebunez and nikluz is short-but-sweet prototype demonstrating a maze game where you flip between two visual perspectives. If the player touches anything in-game, they die, and the game restarts. It only takes a few minutes to beat, but I could definitely see this becoming a big deal with more complex maps.

This was a great little game jam! I recommend trying out these different titles. Go see which one is your favorite!